Eastern Cape education MEC Fundile Gade has joined the chorus of those calling for government intervention and for it to join the broader civic movement behind protest marches against undocumented immigrants.
Gade said failure to act swiftly by the government would put the country in turmoil.
He said continuously ignoring this issue was tantamount to authorising the country’s demise, with service delivery to indigent citizens being placed under severe strain.
SA’s financial and other resources are stretched in accommodating undocumented immigrants accessing services, which are meant to benefit mostly locals.
SA is home to about 2.4-million migrants, just less than 4% of the population, according to official figures.
Most come from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, which have a history of providing migrant labour to their wealthy neighbour.
While many are in the country legally, others remain undocumented, infuriating a number of movements and communities, especially in the wake of allegations related to drug dealing and other serious crimes.
Protest marches have flared up against undocumented immigrants in many areas of the country.
In recent years, the rise of anti-migrant groups such as March and March and Operation Dudula, have gained notoriety for their demands that foreign nationals be removed from the country.
In some areas, physical attacks against foreign nationals have been recorded.
President Cyril Ramaphosa used his address on Freedom Day last week to condemn recent attacks aimed at migrants.
Also last week, hundreds of people took to the streets of Pretoria in a protest organised by March and March, heading towards the Union Buildings, the official seat of the government.
Their cry was the alleged influx of undocumented immigrants, which they said politicians were not doing anything about.
Gade said the government stance needed to change before it was too late.
“The current impulse between South Africans and foreigners is eating at the belly of who we are and what we stand for.
“Continuously ignoring this impulse is tantamount to be authorising our demise through a back door as political leadership across all political formations,” he said.
Gade said the continued presence of undocumented immigrants in SA had long-term unintended consequences.
“Either by default or by design, we have reached a stage wherein genuine citizenry must live in fear.
“The already ‘overheating’ public services are demonstrating exhaustion and are in a state of collapse because ordinarily they were not designed to service faceless people whose identity isn’t aligned to the financial and resource distribution policies we are currently using.” − Daily Dispatch
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