Hon members, the former president of the ANC, Comrade Oliver Tambo, uttered the following words in Luanda, Angola, in 1977 at the Congress of the People's Movement for the Liberation of Angola - Labour Party, MPLA - and I quote:
We seek to live in peace with our neighbours and the peoples of the world in conditions of equality, mutual respect and equal advantage.
This is what should guide our relations with foreign nationals, especially those from the African continent. Racism, racial discrimination and related intolerance are in conflict with our Constitution and human rights culture and should be eradicated in all their forms.
In addition, South Africans were recipients of friendship, solidarity and support by the peoples of Africa and the world. The South African government therefore understands international solidarity perfectly well. Foreign nationals have lived among South Africans for decades in conditions of peace and friendship.
The new antiforeigner sentiment in some communities is fuelled by a number of factors. Amongst these are poverty, income inequality and joblessness. It also entails competition for scarce resources such as housing and basic services. There is also a high percentage of unemployment among the youth, which gives rise to vulnerability and negative influences.
Ineffective implementation of municipal bylaws regulating informal trading has also been cited as a problem, which has led to competition for trading space. There are also criminals who hide behind the screen of antiforeigner sentiments. We are attending to all these underlying causes.
Last year we established an Inter-Ministerial Committee, IMC, chaired by the Minister of Police, to deal with the matter. They developed a plan that the government is implementing. An important intervention is to mainstream civic education in society and promote awareness about foreign nationals and the fact that not all of them are illegal immigrants. There are also foreign nationals who are in our country as refugees fleeing conflict in their countries.
The government has systems of providing assistance to them in a humane and caring manner. We acknowledge that many of them contribute immensely to economic growth in our country. They bring skills and add to the cosmopolitan atmosphere that any progressive country in the world needs.
We welcome the involvement of Chapter 9 institutions, for example, the South African Human Rights Commission, in helping us to deal with this challenge. The commission sent government its report and recommendations on what government departments should do following the tragic 2008 attacks. The IMC will be meeting later this month to review progress, including what has been done to implement the Human Rights Commission's recommendations.
Most importantly, government cannot effectively deal with this challenge alone. We invite all sectors to become part of the campaign to build a caring society.