Every time I see one of these articles (coming with some regularity now) about South Africa’s troubles with immigrants seeking the promised land and the local population that resents them, that ol’ schadenfreude is hard to hide. South Africa threw off the yoke of “white oppression” and a myth was born that the country would be a model for the world—it would be the RAINBOW nation where people of all races would live in harmony as they were directed to do by a Communist-inspired constitution.
I wondered, when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently touted South Africa’s Constitution as a model for emerging ‘democracies’ (ROFLMAO) like Egypt, if she ever read newspapers (maybe Katie Couric should ask her what she reads). Here we learned that the African National Congress promises the moon to anyone in South Africa—a job, food, housing, fairness, peace and security. No wonder they are flowing in by the tens of thousands from across Africa and the Middle East.
But, the government is learning the hard way, you can’t have Open Borders while offering security and sustenance to anyone who gets there.
Here is the latest news on how the government is trying to cope with the problem:
JOHANNESBURG—South Africa, which receives more individual asylum requests than any other country, announced Thursday it is taking steps to cope with the influx.
The government’s immigration department said in a statement that it faces an “immense challenge” and was extending hours at offices across the country that accept asylum applications from people who have traveled from as far away as Pakistan. Mkuseli Apleni, the department’s top bureaucrat, also said police will help manage lines at the offices, where fights and stampedes have broken out.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees welcomed the moves. The agency’s spokeswoman for southern Africa, Tina Ghelli, told The Associated Press that her agency is concerned that people fleeing oppression and violence are finding it difficult to get help because economic immigrants are abusing and overwhelming the system in South Africa.
According to UNHCR figures, more than 100,000 people sought asylum in South Africa last year. That was well above the next highest number of applications received, some 74,000 in the United States.
And, can you believe it! They have xenophobia too (and it’s not the white people who fear the foreigner).
Somalis make up the second largest group of asylum seekers in South Africa, according to the U.N. refugees agency. In South Africa, they are not confined to refugee camps and can work and receive state welfare benefits.
Most asylum applications are from Zimbabweans, whose neighboring country is gripped by political violence and economic uncertainty. Congolese, Bangladeshis and Pakistanis also apply, UNHCR said.
Xenophobic attitudes led to an explosion of violence against foreigners, particularly those from elsewhere in Africa, in some of South Africa’s poorest communities in 2008.
Indeed tribalism is alive and well even in the Rainbow Nation with the model constitution.