HUNDREDS of African migrants living in South Africa’s commercial hub, Johannesburg, took to the streets on Monday in protest over remarks by the city’s mayor, Herman Mashaba, insinuating that foreigners were fueling criminal activities in the city.
By KHANYILE MLOTSHWA
The demonstration was organised by the African Diaspora Forum, a coalition of African migrants’ associations in South Africa.
The protesters later petitioned Mashaba, demanding a retraction of his “xenophobic” remarks.
Mashaba reportedly sent a representative to collect the petition on his behalf and promised to respond in due course.
Ngqabutho Mabhena, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe Community in South Africa, said the African migrants were joined by South Africans from various social movements.
“The African Diaspora Forum is representative of all African migrants in South Africa,” he said.
“Our demand is for the mayor to withdraw his utterances as they are xenophobic. His comments are wholly undesirable, given the previous xenophobic incidents in Johannesburg and other parts of the country. His utterances will roll back the work that we have done over the years in integrating local communities and migrants.
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“For him to associate migrants with criminals is very unfortunate. As leadership of migrants, we call on the police to deal with criminal elements without looking at the origins of an individual or their race.”
The demonstrators said they wanted to remind Mashaba that it was wrong to give them a blanket criminal tag as some South Africans were also involved in criminal activities.
The protest took place at a time outgoing African Union Commission chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma was presenting a State of Africa address in Durban, where she said the continent, especially in West and East Africa, was moving towards integration and a single African passport.
Dlamini-Zuma said the freedom of movement of African citizens on the continent would be more advantageous than detrimental and singled out Rwanda as a good example of a progressive policy around migration.
“Rwanda was the country that led this move and they opened their borders for all Africans. That kind of policy has seen them increase their tourism by 24% and trade by over 50%,” she said.
“Generally, the free movement of people has more advantages than disadvantages. If people are free to move, they come in and leave. If they know they can’t come back at their will, they end up staying. We are developing a comprehensive protocol of free movement and we are hoping it will be signed by 2018.”
