GOOD Press Statement by Brett Herron – Member of Parliament and GOOD Party Secretary-General
The murderers of Elvis Nyathi in Diepsloot last week must be brought to justice, but so must unethical political and vigilante leaders who have been allowed to demonise migrants be held to account.
For Nyathi’s blood is on their hands, too.
It is these bad-faith agitators who have popularised the rhetoric that migrants are criminals.
There is an obligation on the South African government to crack down on vigilantism.
The police must do their work, and there must be legal consequences for political and vigilante leaders who sow and nurture hatred; and incite hate crimes.
Failure to shut them down directly implicates the State in anti-foreigner violence.
There is also an obligation on the State to engage our regional partners and formulate a new migrant labour regime that takes into account that the labour market has changed substantially since bi-lateral agreements were signed decades ago.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric, driven by nationalistic, racist, populist politicians and vigilantes, is a fast-growing global phenomenon.
Former US President Trump was masterful in his manipulation of pro-Aryan sentiment for domestic political gain.
Now, this abhorrent politics is being emulated and amplified by South African political leaders and anti-immigrant organizations like Operation Dudula.
In South Africa, where we are meant to know a thing or two about inter-dependence, the hospitality of neighbours and Ubuntu, a combination of an inadequate policy framework and inadequate land border controls to manage immigration – in an economy that is failing to address biting poverty and widespread unemployment – has created a cruel and incendiary environment.
The environment is compounded by employers with no particular interest in developing the country or its people. As they employ more and more immigrants, so more and more local citizens fall into destitution.
You see the product of this process in the burgeoning informal settlements that adorn rural towns across the nation.
In the old days, many farmers treated their labour abysmally.
The democratic dispensation sought to improve conditions for farmworkers living on farms.
Instead, much of the work they used to do is now done by seasonal migrant workers controlled by labour brokers.
The agricultural sector is, in a sense, repeating history: The apartheid industrial model aimed to keep as many Black South Africans in relative destitution in the Bantustans while greasing the means of production with relatively cheap and malleable migrant labour.
The environment is further compounded by the fact that immigrants, who were motivated enough to improve their circumstances to immigrate in the first place, often live alongside struggling locals in the same diabolically under-serviced communities.
This complex set of factors creates a ticking time bomb irresistible to populists, and in recent months we’ve seen them cranking it up.
Xenophobic vigilante groups must be shut down and those who incite hate-crimes must be prosecuted.
The state, through the agency of the police, must not become part of the demonization of immigrants. They have no right to stop anyone and demand identification. This practice is abhorrent and must stop.