Immigration Issue Must be Tackled.
Its interesting that in 1996 the Home Affairs deputy minister, Lindiwe Sisulu, was already calling xenophobia a problem:
There is no doubt the people of this country are becoming very xenophobic and the service we provide requires urgent overhaul, as immigration remains a problematic area.
...
Immigration policy is a touchy area. It has sparked xenophobic conflict. Often, the issues of legal and illegal immigrants are conflated in the minds of the public.
Most South Africans have not been exposed to people from outside [the country]. Apartheid itself was so structured that black and white were cocooned and very few, either than those who experienced the same treatment in exile, had such exposure. Now they find themselves almost overnight faced with the influx of people from other cultures very far even beyond the borders of this continent.
It makes me wonder about some government leaders claiming shock and horror that South African citizens could do such a thing as these recent xenophobic attacks. Calling on third force involvement and criminal elements and so forth.
Maybe there were other factors involved in these recent attacks. And I hope some investigation will bring them to light, if they are.
But it doesn't seem quite honest of the government to claim to be surprised by xenophobia, if it was already discussing the problem of xenophobia in 1996.
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