Deputy Speaker, it's important that we must say this afternoon to each other; nation states are not an accident of history. Nation states were adopted by the international community in order to regulate the relations between different people and countries. Shortly after the Organisation of African Unity, OAU, was formed, it also adopted a position on these nation states. It said that we will not change the boundaries inherited from the colonial period because to try and change those boundaries would have unleashed fresh conflicts around the world in fact in our continent.
So, we are a nation state whether we like it or not. South Africa is a nation state, and the citizens of this country are the principal, the very first responsibility of the government of this country. Therefore, it cannot be that we can run the affairs of our nation without managing relations between us and other countries.
Citizens of this country have documents, if they leave this country, we give them passports, they can identify themselves when they get there, they can say why they are there if the
countries to which they go do not need them, they say to them, please, we have enough labour, you can go back to your country.
We also have that right in relation to other countries. But, our government cannot allow for people to come from anywhere and everywhere and come into this country without documentation, without indicating why they are here, without indicating where they are going to live, without saying how much money they have to spend for that period. We cannot do that because we are also not allowed to do that in other countries. So, that is the first problem. If our country is not going to look after this country and manage entrance at the boarders and so forth, we will be in difficulties.
Now, today I had thought before we have this debate, we would ask the government to tell us how many people come from this country who are here without documents, how many people come from that country without proper registration, how many are here as refugees, in other words running from conflict and how many are here because they have come to sell drugs? This government
must know all those things because if we don't have that we will say everything that's happening is xenophobia.
MOTLATSA MMUSAKGOTLA: Rre Lekota, nako ya gago e hedile. Dula mo fatshe, e fedile nako ya gago.