Chairperson, there is great concern about the influx of people from Zimbabwe flooding our country and others in the Southern African Development Region. The issue is not much about their fleeing from the land of hunger and unemployment, but more about how we in South Africa respond to them. Different delegations from among others politicians, civil society, committees of Parliament and even those from the public service such as the police and custom officials from the South African Revenue Service have had interactions with these people, but each group has their own views on the matter.
The matter has become so serious that it looks like government is heading to a point of raising hands in helplessness. This comes to mind when one takes into account that on the occasion when you have fielded questions in this House, the President said these people come and go and at times present themselves to be repatriated so that they may go back home and come again when it suits them.
Of great concern is that all these groups have no common response regarding how to treat these Zimbabweans. Some politicians argue that farmers may not effect arrests on these people and others say that in terms of some statutes farmers are acting within their rights to effect citizen arrests while the police argue that arresting them violates their right to freedom of movement.
The country has to come up with a common response regardless of who comes across the illegal immigrants. The time has come that as South Africans we sing from a common score when we deal with such issues, to avoid speaking at variants with one another and thereby send contradictory messages. Thank you.