My wife, who is a teacher, could not get a teaching post in Botswana when we landed in that country as refugees in 1981. This was because the department of education in Botswana could not prove to their sister department of labour that there was no Motswana who could teach what she was offering.
At the same time, Zimbabwe, which got its independence the previous year and was prioritising education, recruiting teachers from Mauritius, the Caribbean, and elsewhere, gave her a teaching post. She ended up teaching in that country for 13 years until she returned home in 1994. The foreign legion of teachers in Zimbabwe was required to leave the country after the agreed fixed period.
Though these two countries treated us well, they diligently and consistently applied their laws and regulations regarding immigration and labour.
Apart from us not being allowed to work in unskilled jobs, we could also not erect shacks or sell sweets and fruit in the streets. As a result, there was no friction between us and their citizens.
Due to the fact those in office in South Africa refuse to govern, it is free for all. Locals and foreigners alike do as they please. The result is unnecessary friction between foreign nationals and citizens.
Behold the dangerous spectacle of citizens forming vigilante groups to “dudula” foreign nationals from their street stalls and workplaces. That is illegal. It should be the labour inspectors and municipal officials who manage that space.
We have even seen lawmakers going from one site to the other searching for illegal goods or checking on the ratio of foreigners to South Africans employed. We have not seen municipalities or parliament-disciplining these legislators.
How can lawmakers break the law willy-nilly? Are citizens supposed to abide by the law when lawmakers do not?
Labour inspectors are supposed to ensure that proper employment practices reign in our country. Health inspectors are supposed to ensure that expired or dangerous goods are not sold in the shops, and it is the job of the immigration officials to ensure that we do not have undocumented foreign nationals in the country.
But because all of them are missing in action, we have a situation where ordinary citizens are pitted against foreign nationals. This is unheard of in all our neighbouring countries.
They must be rightly amazed at our ineptitude.
For many years now, there have been sporadic eruptions of strife in the trucking industry, but the powers that be have not done anything meaningful to resolve the issues. Their reluctance to govern is portraying this country as Afrophobic.
South Africans had never been anti-foreigners. We have always coexisted with our brothers and sisters from the neighbouring countries who have contributed to building this county through their labour in the mines, farms, and elsewhere. We have inter-married and some have stayed permanently in the country.
There are thousands of foreign nationals studying in our universities and others working as academics. There are many others working in the mines, engineering companies, the banking and insurance sectors, and in the health arena. There has never been any trouble.
This is as it should be. We should embrace migrants and help integrate them into our society so that they can contribute to the growth and development of our country. We should accept refugees and ensure that they get all the appropriate assistance. Their processing should be as efficient and fast as possible, taking no more than 14 days to complete.
If only the government governed, we would not have all this mayhem.
- Mosibudi Mangena is a former cabinet minister and ex-leader of Azapo
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