SA Migration International

20 April 2015, News 24
South Africa after 1994, well that is what everyone outside of our borders thought, was the haven to ‘flee to’ as employment, opportunities to make lots of money would be in abundance and our borders became ‘free for all’ to enter with the birth and introduction of democracy in our country.
This being in strict contrast to what the situation was prior to 1994 when there was some kind of influx control into the country, and because of that policy being in place to control it, job opportunities were in abundance, irrespective of race, greed or colour, and the unemployment rate amongst all of the citizens, irrespective of colour or creed, in the country was a mere 5.8% yet what counted against us was the fact that the majority were being discriminated against because of their skin colour and had no say in the running the country or could vote. This was wrong and had to be corrected, and for that we have to thank one man, and that man was Nelson Mandela, whom had served 27 years of his life in prison, but still retained his dignity and realized that the only way that ‘things would work in this country’ would be through reconciliation where there was no place for hatred and all of those things that were part and parcel of a system that discriminated against people of his own race, creed and colour.
During the time of his tenure we were living in situations of peace and tranquility, but the moment that he laid down the scepter to lead the country the problems started.
He was succeeded by Thabo Mbeki whose Deputy was Jacob Zuma. He then later sacked Jacob Zuma because of his ‘inappropriate relationship’ as viewed by the Judge in the case against Shabir Shaik, and then Polokwane happened – Thabo Mbeki despite being in the race for presidency was defeated and Jacob Zuma was elected as our new President.
The people at the time thought many things would be better, and even Julius Malema at the time admitted that he would ‘physically kill for Jacob Zuma’. How things have changed to what he says now?
And then the realities of the situation set in.
Maladministration, mismanagement, corruption, nepotism, cronyism became the flavour of the day, with the president even in his personal capacity being accused of having committed 763 fraudulent actions but through his personal and ‘other connections’ manipulated that he never ‘had his day in court’ to this day and 763 people still remain as victims at his hand and through his actions.
And now the appropriate question would be, but what has Malusi Gigaba have to do with all of this?
Well since 1994 the Department of Home Affairs have had so many Ministers all of whom have tried unsuccessfully to get the Department of Home Affairs to ’actually work’ and all of them having failed dismally in their duties and the mess just got bigger and bigger by the day, and with the influx of foreign nationals into the country and the Department not being able to process documentation, be it exile status or whatever, the Department became the breeding ground for corruption where officials within the Department all had a ‘price’ for giving ‘Identity Document, Refugee Status and even Exile Status’ to all and everyone that had the right colour and denomination of ‘money’ to pay for it.
And the end result of it all is a situation where our country is filled to capacity with foreign nationals, all of whom are trying to now make money in the democracy that came about in 1994, and after which they thought that the opportunities in the country would be abundant for them to make a living but in reality never happened.
And then the unemployment in the country rose to a staggering 28% amongst all races and to 38% amongst the youth the future leaders of the country and an economy that was previously growing at 6% or more, now slipped down the drain and currently only growing at 1.2% with some months even having negative growth figures.
Where in 1994 South Africa had no foreign debt and we had a favourable trade balance in that our exports were more than our imports the situation has since made a 360o turnaround, and now we have borrowed so much money from overseas financial institutions that the interest alone on the loans amount to a staggering R 100 000 000 000.00 per annum that is R 100 billion per year and our trade balance is negative in that we import more than we export, as exported goods are cheaper, because we introduced minimum wages, which makes our local products so expensive that the imported ones can not be afforded by the people with their meager disposable income that citizens of this country now have and unemployment being the flavour of the day.
Where previously the only grant that was paid by government was an old age pension, and now we have over 16 million people getting state grants, thinking that it is the ANC that it has to thank for it, but the real contributors to state coffers in order for them to pay such grants, are the loyal tax payers (5% of the population) that contribute to such an extent that the budget of the country is financed, the interest on loans can be paid, the grants (all of them can be paid) and once again people through the lack of their education that they cannot afford are manipulated to believe everything that they are promised prior and before each and every election by the ruling government is nothing but ‘empty promises’
And now we have ‘xenophobia’, which according to the English Dictionary is hatred against foreign nationals, those foreign nationals that provided a service of supplying goods at reasonable and affordable prices, but the ‘xenophobia’ is but a mere maître for ‘common criminality’ to gain a disposable income to support in many cases their substance abuse, and in a some extreme circumstances a situation to support their families.
To even call it African nophobia is but an exact example of how the government of the day interprets the situation and tries to cover up for all of its failures in the ruling of this country.
Having received a country that was working on a ‘silver platter’ and ruling it into the doldrums that we are in where government cannot even account for the R 800 (that is R 800 000 000 000.00) billion rand that it spent in the 20 years of governing this country is to say the least governing without accountability.
‘Common criminality’ is the only appropriate word to explain the attacks on all of the foreign nationals, as most of the ones that are active in it, doesn’t even understand the proper meaning of ‘xenophobia’ and accusing the foreign nationals for stealing their jobs! What jobs I dare to say? – One man or as in this case two men fueled it and now we have total disaster in every possible way.