Excluding refugees from the right to work as private security providers simply because they are refugees will inevitably foster a climate of xenophobia which will be harmful to refugees and inconsistent with the overall vision of our Constitution. As a group that is by definition vulnerable, the impact of discrimination of this sort can be damaging in a significant way. In reaching this conclusion it is important to bear in mind that it is not only the social stigma which may result from such discrimination, but also the material impact that it may have on refugees.
Readers of this Blog have been arguing about being an “African” and referred to President Thabo Mbeki’s very famous and moving speech he made in the late 1990’s called “I am an African”. I post it here also for those who yearn for the days when we could all be so proud of our President, before HIV/AIDS, “no crisis” Zimbabwe, the “ultra left”, Vusi Pikoli and Jackie Selebi, sullied his reputation. Those were the days when our President gave me tears in my eyes for all the right reasons.
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