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Herman Mashaba: xenophobic or does he want to restore law in Johannesburg?

DA's Herman Mashaba celebrating his victory after being elected as the new Mayor of Johannesburg. Photo Thulani Mbele. 22/08/2016
DA's Herman Mashaba celebrating his victory after being elected as the new Mayor of Johannesburg. Photo Thulani Mbele. 22/08/2016

The biggest question in local government and being posed by citizens in Johannesburg is whether mayor Herman Mashaba is expressing xenophobic sentiments or he genuinely wants to restore order in the city.

Last week‚ in his 100th day in office‚ Mashaba told a media conference that illegal immigrants who got here should be treated as criminals.

“You see‚ for me‚ when I call these criminals ‘criminals’‚ I want them to understand that they are criminals...They are holding our country to ransom and I am going to be the last South African to allow it‚” he said.

The City of Johannesburg is struggling with problems linked to illegal immigrants where hijacked buildings in the city centre are used by criminals to further their evil intentions.

Mashaba has committed his administration to fixing the city centre‚ attracting investment back and creating much needed jobs.

But he has already admitted that there are constraints to what he can achieve as a mayor in dealing with immigration issues as most power rests with national government.

Corruption Watch has already condemned Mashaba’s views on illegal immigrants‚ describing them as reprehensible.

In June last year‚ Western Cape Premier Helen Zille spoke in Zurich where she proposed that the issue of migrants should be dealt with holistically.

“As liberals‚ we believe that this crisis must be tackled by going to the root causes of the problem‚ not merely addressing the symptoms. This involves looking beyond the ‘pull’ factors that draw people towards open‚ free societies in which they aspire to live; it involves identifying and addressing the ‘push factors’ that constrain people’s opportunities and deny their freedom under corrupt‚ authoritarian or fundamentalist regimes worldwide‚” she said.

On Wednesday‚ Mashaba reiterated his views on illegal immigrants on EWN when responding on an issue of a hijacked building.

“I stand by what I said.”

 Migration to big cities is a global challenge and Johannesburg is one of the cities which attracts people in their thousands in search of opportunities.

This puts pressure on infrastructure‚ resources and opportunities available to everyone.

The United Nations predicted in 2014 that the number of people living in cities would increase from 54% to 66% by 2050.

In his speech this week‚ Premier of Gauteng David Makhura said the province needed to create 400‚000 jobs consistently every year to put a serious dent in unemployment.

A little more than 16‚200 people moved into Gauteng‚ monthly in search of economic opportunities in the past three years‚ raising the provincial population numbers by 585‚000 to 13.2 million people.

While Mashaba’s views have attracted interest from Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba‚ it turns out the two have some common ground on this issue.

In April last year‚ Gigaba announced that Home Affairs would be beefing up its immigration inspectorate to investigate companies employing foreign nationals without the correct documentation.

Gigaba said that his department would be spending a sum of R118-million over the next three years to recruit immigration inspectors who will conduct raids on companies.

The DA’s federal chairperson James Selfe explained the party’s position on immigration. He said that the country’s borders were not properly managed and it was difficult for the country to know how many people lived in South Africa whether legally or illegally.

“Having said that‚ we are a country that is skills-short and many people who come from other countries bring much needed skills in this country on a wide variety of areas which is absolutely necessary for our continued economic growth. You need to regulate. The country needs to work out what are the skills we need? Are there South Africans who have those skills‚ if not‚ by all means invite people in to fill those skills needed‚” said Selfe.

He added: “You need to start regulating. You need to start saying to people are you here legally or illegally? If you are here illegally‚ can we legalise you?”

Another factor in handling immigrants was people fleeing situations of conflict‚ wars and oppression. In this situation South Africa had a “humanitarian duty” to allow the people to reside in the county as refugees.

“Most illegal immigrants in my view do not commit crime because they do not want to draw attention to themselves. But the fact of the matter is that there are many illegal immigrants in South Africa…It is not to say people should be deported but you need to know how many people are in South Africa‚ where they are‚ what they are doing and whether they are employed or not‚” Selfe concluded.

 

 

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