Our government is in the habit of closing their eyes to matters of a challenging nature. One such issue is the uncontrolled movement of people into our country in general and into Gauteng in particular.

In 1994, our population was estimated at about 40-million. Fast forward to 2018, we are about 50-million people and multiplying at an alarming rate.

Extrapolate this growth we will be at a 100-million people in no time. Our existing infrastructure cannot cope and cannot grow fast enough to accommodate this growth.

Gauteng is bearing the biggest strain. Official response so far has been meek excuses for overcrowding crises at hospitals and schools. What seems to escape them is that the more they were to provide these facilities, the more people would be attracted to an already suffocating province.

Population explosion and influx control are like swear words to this government, as these terms were used by the apartheid government to achieve its racist goals. We are however living in different times, yet some of the challenges are similar to those during the apartheid era.

The sooner effective measures are introduced to stop this obvious threat to our nation, the better.

Our constitution is sometimes cited as a reason for not taking hard decisions in favour of the country. The constitution is a document created in the best interest of South Africans and if it fails to do that it promises we must rethink its relevance to us.

James Ndhlovu,email