Despite the transition from a very authoritarian regime to a young democracy, post- Apartheid South Africa has not yet managed to get rid of the racist burden that undermines South African political life. Racism is still deeply entrenched within the South African mentality and constitutes a real obstacle in the democratic transition undertaken by the country. More alarmingly, racism seems to have derived into a new form from 1994 onward: xenophobia. Very paradoxically, xenophobia mainly affects Black African foreigners which these same sacrosanct peoples that the African Renaissance project flatters. Insofar indifferent or even unconcerned by this particular problem and despite our previous claims over this subject, the South African government and especially the Department of Home affairs must realize that even if xenophobia is a worldwide plague, South Africa is nevertheless regarded as the most xenophobic country in the world along with Russia. The consequences of this unfortunate status could damage the credibility, the influence or even the image of South Africa- as it presently handicaps Russia-, the Department of Home Affairs must now develop real public policies to stop this shameful trend. The SAHRC proposes three different solutions to sort out this problem: (1) No action: Xenophobia is nothing but a consequence of the nation building process. Therefore fighting against xenophobia is at the same time fighting against the nation-building process. (2) Launch a national scale campaign to promote foreign cultures in order to weaken misperceptions that South Africans have towards foreigners. (3) Encourage common policies over immigration within the regional organisations South Africa belongs to (SADC, SACU, AU).
[...] With such a partnership, South African institutions will be more able to familiarize itself with foreigners' problems as well as it will enhance the involvement of foreigners in South African political life. At last the SAHRC recommends promoting foreign culture by organizing cultural events such as films, theatre, music or literature festivals all year long and in all South African urban centres capable to host these kinds or artistic manifestations. South Africa must follow the model that France has outlined two decades ago by dedicating every year to one particular country or culture such as the year of Armenia (2006), the year of Brazil (2005). [...]
[...] With a very striking headline: Xenophobia: Intolerance towards Fellow Africans must be tackled.[13], it recalls among other things, the role that foreigners played in the struggle for independence in South Africa as well as how the South African history-and economy- was, and is still linked with immigration (notably in mining industries of the Rand). More importantly it distinguishes three different types of foreigners: the undocumented foreigners (or illegal aliens), the refugees and legal migrants. This linguistic distinction is very prejudicial for the SAHRC. [...]
[...] We have effectively noticed an alarming rising of the level of xenophobia -especially towards Black African foreigners -all around the country. Moreover, this tendency seems to have inexorably increased since 1994 whilst no efficient public policies have been launched to thwart this trend. In the following parts of this paper we will try to present and identify the causes of the rising xenophobia before attempting to propose relevant solutions that will be able to sort out this shameful burden within South-Africa. [...]
[...] On the one hand, foreigners do not benefit from the same treatments in front of laws as South African citizens do On the other hand, it leads to some unsolvable contradictions between the official positions concerning foreigners and immigration issues (theoretical aspect) and the real situation in South African's daily life (pragmatic aspect) At last, as it reveals the inefficiency of the current public policies dealing with foreigners The SAHRC has for instance noticed that both the police and the department of home affairs perpetrated a lot of abuses toward foreigners. [...]
[...] Project Migration Policy Series No R Mattes (2004) - The Laws of (In)hospitality: Black African in South Africa .The Journal of Democracy. B. Landau(2004) - Imagining immigration: Inclusive and Exclusive Policies in Post 1994 South Africa. Africa Today. Sally Pedeby(2005) - Race and Identity in the Nation. In State of the Nation. South Africa 2004-2005. HSRC. Zimitri Erasmus (2005) - ANC Today, Volume1 Number 31, (August 2001) - ANC Today, Volume number 18 (May 2001) - Website of the SAHRC: http://www.sahrc.org.za Website of the SAHRC. [...]
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