The following is is an extract from the ‘BLF Elections Battle Plan’ – under the subheading ‘End Afrophobia (xenophobia): Avoiding populist rhetoric, finding African solutions’ – which was previously published on the BLF website:
The ongoing Afrophobic violence, incorrectly called xenophobia, is a direct consequence of colonialism and apartheid. The white colonialists created the African borders and the poverty we experience. Furthermore, triggers of the violence are directly linked to the anti-black economic system which starves the poor for profits.
Crime in South Africa has been a great challenge in our society for decades. Increasingly, it looks like the authorities and the communities most affected have been fighting a losing battle against it. The ANC government as well as the DA have seen it fit to lay all the blame for their failures in arresting the growing issue on undocumented, and mostly indigent black foreign nationals from across the African continent. The notion that crime in South Africa is the result of African foreign nationals is not only false but is part of the anti-black agenda that seeks to maintain division and distrust among Africans so as to ensure its continued colonization and plunder. BLF does not dispute that there are some criminal elements that exist amongst our neighbors from the continent who have settled here, but we refute, without reservation, the claims that the presence of black foreign nationals is the sole, or even main, cause of South Africa’s crime woes. The continued colonization of South Africa, it’s plundering by WMC, the internment of blacks in townships, informal settlements and prisons via the dispossession of blacks, capitalism and the ineffective criminal justice system are the main causes of our current Black condition, not the approximately 1.5 million African immigrants (about 3%) living in SA.
The revamped Nationalist Party, aka the DA, has, in true Nationalist Party style, called for the closure of South Africa’s borders, mostly to our brothers and sisters from the rest of the African continent, as a “solution” to addressing the issue. The DA goes even further and demands the martial execution of African foreign nationals attempting to cross into South Africa without documentation by demanding a greater SANDF presence at border sites. BLF rejects without reservation this proposal to close borders along with the increasing of the number of soldiers stationed at borders; a call that is tantamount to inciting a genocide against black people. Instead, we demand the South African government keeps borders open but tightens their regulation as a short-term solution to the crisis of undocumented immigrants and potential criminal threats. We propose that the South African government documents all who enter South Africa for free, with less restrictions as there currently are to minimize the necessity to try and slip under the radar for those seeking refuge from political and economic unrest in their own home countries but do not possess some or all of the requirements precisely because of the conditions they are fleeing. To curtail the access of criminal elements, South Africa must strengthen its relations with criminal justice agencies in other countries, as far as possible, as well as with Interpol. Additionally, the current backlog in Home Affairs must be cleared and necessary measures must be taken to prevent it ever occurring again. The DHA must keep an up-to-date record of all people in the country as this would enable the government to better monitor threats/potential threats as well as allocate resources sufficiently. A better enforcement of existing punitive measures for those who remain undocumented is a necessary and justifiable response to those who still prefer to slip under the radar, however, it is important to put in place a mechanism to assess each case individually on its own merits to make a determination.
Proposals:
i. Document all people entering the country for free without insisting on immigration status.
ii. Minimum wage for all employed people irrespective of immigration status.
iii. No employer can employ more than 30% non-South Africans.
In the long term, we need economic stability through economic integration. South Africa must show in figures what contribution we are making to the front-line states.
We must immediately advance conditional financial support to Zimbabwe!
Proposals:
i. Transitional Government of National Unity
ii. Amnesty to all and let the exiles return.
iii. Release all political prisoners
Issued by Black First Land First, National Coordinating Committee of (BLF NCC)
29 August 2019
Contact Details
Black First Land First Mail: [email protected]
Zanele Lwana
(BLF Deputy President)
Cell: +27 79 986 7225