Comments on: On immigrants, refugees and those camps

By: Mpho

Mpho — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 20:26:20 +0000

1. The Immigration Act is racist! No need to argue any further. 2. Why are people who fled to South Africa almost 10 years ago when they escaped military camp having their Refugee Status application heard and turned down only now (as is the case with one of my clients) when Refugee status is determined at the point of application, not at the date of the decision. We don’t play fair.

By: Clara

Clara — Thu, 29 May 2008 16:18:30 +0000

“them being landlocked and all”

I see you’ve been putting a good deal of thought into my proposal, Z … hahaha … actually I was thinking of putting little wheels under those submarines – you know, give them a dry run?

Khosi, what was THAT all about?

By: z

Thu, 29 May 2008 07:08:33 +0000

Not sure whether we have cruise missiles for those submarines to fire at Zim (them being landlocked and all). Also not sure what the typical range is for those fired from submarines. Maybe we can go test them out on some Somali pirates, I’m sure they don’t love us much at the moment, and nobody likes pirates (except maybe Captain Jack Sparrow)

But if Clara really wants us to test out some of the new equipment, we should maybe give those Gripen Advanced Light Fighter Aircraft a test run. But then we should be careful, cause Zimmies recently bought some new air force goodies from their buddies in China. Not to mention the migs they already have. (They did a recent fly by during the counting process)

The only problem I foresee for Zim is the long queues at the petrol station.

By: khosi

khosi — Wed, 28 May 2008 18:12:47 +0000

Hayi wena Clara. The violenc(ie) is no good(i), you see Mad(e)m.

By: Clara

Clara — Wed, 28 May 2008 17:42:28 +0000

“We should also put pressure on the Mugabe regime … (not military pressure) …”

Spoilsport! Whyever not, when this would be the perfect opportunity to try out those brand-new submarines of ours?

By: khosi

khosi — Wed, 28 May 2008 08:20:39 +0000

Pierre,

Agreed

By: z

Wed, 28 May 2008 06:28:57 +0000

Does anyone know anything about regulations in regard to declaring “a disaster area”, as in the above quote?

20000 displaced people, maybe even more, needs a huge relief effort. I don’t understand the bureaucracy of why it takes so long to be declared just that. People think food is an issue, but you need so much more: baby food, nappies, blankets, jackets, sanitaries, volunteers, it goes on and on. In one place 6 volunteers were handling 600 people! They spend a lot of time just sorting through donations, which is very time consuming. Then they need the capacity to spend the monies coming in.

Thank goodness though for Lekota, who was allegedly the only minister to respond to Zille’s call for help. This is not the time for politics! Apparently Zille has been offering help to home affairs for a while now in terms of venue and support staff to sort out the immigration mess. But come on, how is that going to look in the headlines: “DA helps Home Affairs sort out mess”. Ain’t gonna happen.

Sorry for the rant. And no I am not a member of any political party. I am just upset at how things are being handled.

By: Anonymouse

Anonymouse — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:27:57 +0000

Prof de Vos, any chance of claims like these succeeding? http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Xenophobia/0,,2-7-2382_2330306,00.html
If so, can the illegal government of Zim lodge a claim?
I see that one of the Kenian ministers said that SA’s special envoy has to be kicked out of Kenya due to the Sa government’s inability to ontrol violence against its citizens in SA.

By: Pierre De Vos

Pierre De Vos — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:25:44 +0000

I see the UN High Commissioner for Refugees agree with me: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Xenophobia/0,,2-7-2382_2329976,00.html

By: Pierre De Vos

Pierre De Vos — Wed, 28 May 2008 06:18:11 +0000

Wessel, I confess to being one of the bleeding hearts who really do not think we can stop people from coming to South Africa. In a global world (and given the vast differences in economic opportunities) this is going to happen. Maybe by being more vicious we can keep out one million people – but then four million remain.

My point, Khosi, is that we should find a way of managing the sitution. We should not deny that there are 5 million non-South Africans living among us. In the short term that means we should give humanitarian assistance (by setting up camps in necessary). In the longer term it means we should try and find ways of dealing with immigrants by legalising them so that they have same labour rights as South Africans and cannot be exploited (one of the arguments used by those who have vented against foreigners. We should also put pressure on the Mugabe regime (economic and political pressure – not military pressure) to make it clear to them that they cannot continue stealing elections and hanging on to power. That would be a start.