From Daily Maverick · Bafana Khumalo · · 3m
South Africa's immigration crisis starts at the Union Buildings
Bafana Khumalo argues that scapegoating migrants masks a deliberately broken Home Affairs system and political failure to manage immigration with dignity.
In brief
Bafana Khumalo argues that scapegoating migrants masks a deliberately broken Home Affairs system and political failure to manage immigration with dignity. South Africa's immigration problem stems from deliberate political failure to fix Home Affairs and manage migration, not from migrants themselves or border control…
The ritual of blame
When clinics overflow or businesses are looted, South Africa immediately blames foreigners. Politicians arrive with loudhailers promising to close borders, issue documents or deport twelve million people in twelve months. Nothing changes.
A progressive constitution, broken system
South Africa's constitution promises rights to everyone, not just citizens. It signed the UN Refugee Convention and is an African Union member. Yet Home Affairs is deliberately dysfunctional, making asylum seekers undocumented by design.
The asylum trap
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Asylum seekers queue from three am at the Desmond Tutu Refugee Reception Office in Marabastad.They receive Section twenty-two permits expiring after six months.Employers and banks reject them.Police tear them up at roadblocks and demand bribes.
Manufactured illegality
The state makes it impossible to stay documented, then calls migrants illegal and raids them.This creates cheap, exploitable labour that can be blamed when things go wrong.
“This is not border control. This is manufactured illegality.”
Migrants built South Africa
South Africa's mines were built on Mozambican, Basotho and Malawian labour.Farms in Limpopo and De Doorns run on Zimbabwean labour.Rural Eastern Cape hospitals are staffed by Cuban and Nigerian doctors.
Migrants contribute, not take
Studies by the World Bank and UCT show migrants are net contributors to GDP, not job takers.They create jobs, pay VAT and do not qualify for R three hundred fifty SRD grants.
A porous border, no system
South Africa has a three thousand kilometre border with Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Eswatini, fenced so poorly some holes are wide enough to drive a taxi through.
Scapegoating instead of solutions
When the state fails to provide housing, jobs and healthcare, communities turn on each other instead of the state.In two thousand eight, sixty-two foreign nationals were killed in xenophobic attacks.
What real leadership requires
Fix Home Affairs by digitising asylum, issuing five-year permits and clearing three hundred thousand accumulated appeals since two thousand twelve.Introduce a real SADC work visa.Enforce labour law for everyone.
Thirty years without management
Rwanda has integrated refugees despite its genocide history.Kenya hosts seven hundred thousand refugees in Kakuma.
The problem is not the border
In thirty years of democracy, South Africa has not built a state capable of managing movement with dignity, legality and common sense.The border is not the problem.The Union Buildings are.
“The border is not the problem. The Union Buildings are.”
Here's the gist
South Africa's immigration problem stems from deliberate political failure to fix Home Affairs and manage migration, not from migrants themselves or border control.
