The South African government has announced plans to intensify enforcement against illegal migration while also warning against citizens resorting to vigilantism, following escalating protests targeting undocumented foreign nationals on Monday.
To address weeks of statewide protests against undocumented foreign people, whom anti-immigrant groups accuse of committing crimes and stealing jobs from natives, a number of ministers convened an urgent conference.
Following earlier episodes of anti-migrant riots that resulted in scores of deaths, a citizen-led group’s demand that illegal migrants be evicted by June 30 has sparked fears of bloodshed.
Njabulo Nzuza, the deputy minister of home affairs, told reporters following the meeting, “We do have an illegal immigration problem.”
However, Nzuza stated that “it shouldn’t be that because there is this problem, then we must throw the country into chaos.”
He said that an increasing number of illegal immigrants were being deported and that the government was stepping up border controls and inspections.
Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi stated that it was a “work in progress” and that a group of deputy ministers will be assigned to evaluate and increase the visibility of inspections.
Hundreds of people from the Katlehong township, southwest of Johannesburg, marched on Monday to demand that police check the documentation of foreign nationals running businesses as part of a fresh demonstration that took place in Cape Town over the weekend.
While Ghana plans to repatriate hundreds of its citizens this week, its high commissioner Benjamin Quashie told AFP that many of them had expired work permits, raising concerns among certain African governments due to the rise in anti-immigrant sentiment.
In the meantime, the government has called on African countries to confront the governance and economic issues that drive people to South Africa, the most developed nation on the continent.
Over the past twenty years, there have been numerous outbreaks of xenophobic violence in South Africa.
Anti-immigrant riots in 2008 resulted in thousands of displaced persons and 62 fatalities, including 21 South Africans. In 2015 and 2016, there were more outbreaks.
According to analysts, the country’s underlying structural issues are reflected in the roughly 33 per cent unemployment rate, which rises dramatically when discouraged job searchers are taken into account.
