Chairperson, hon Minister, Deputy Minister, Members of Parliament and guests, this Budget Vote debate takes place against the backdrop of the department's immigration programme that deals with matters relating to refugees and asylumseekers. The allocation of the budget reflects a steady decline. This objective reality needs to be assessed against the priorities of the strategic plan of the Department of Home Affairs and the centrality of immigration policies and functions.
The ANC policy on migration, immigrating refugees and xenophobia is very clear. If migration is managed properly, it can lead to development in the country and its gross domestic product, GDP, with benefits for all.
In recent years, the rise in the number of immigrants to South Africa has been accompanied by increasingly visible acts of xenophobia against foreign nationals, particularly those from other African countries. Xenophobia, the hatred of foreigners, is one of the global challenges which the ANC has tried to address through international forums, continental bodies and within our borders.
The xenophobic sentiments evident in parts of South Africa run against the current of the country's main political traditions and are in sharp conflict with the strong nonracial culture of the ANC and the majority of the citizens of our country.
Since its formation in 1912, the ANC became the pivot of African unity in South Africa and beyond, its broad, outward-looking progressive nationalism reflecting both the humanist traditions of African democratic inclusiveness and the universal values of the major religions of the world. The ANC's formation stirred the human solidarity of the African continent. The government and peoples of the African continent played a central role in the achievement of democracy and nonracialism in South Africa.
The instance of xenophobia in South Africa is largely linked to immigration. The South African government in recent years repatriated more than 270 000 people. The great majority of these people were undocumented foreign nationals from various countries in Africa. More than 100 000 came from Mozambique; more than 60 000 from Zimbabwe; more than 7 000 from Lesotho; and more than 3 500 each from Swaziland and Malawi.
The figures do not tell the whole story of undocumented foreign nationals who illegally cross South Africa's borders in search of safety and better opportunities. There are thousands of foreign nationals who, while they do not possess legalised documents, stay undetected in the country for long periods of time. In addition, there are thousands from the continent who are refugees and others who hold various types of permits, including documents for work and study purposes.
In the political management of this scenario, it is important that we align ourselves with what the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, UNHCR, resolved as far back as 1951. They resolved that we make a clear distinction between political refugees and economic migration and deal with these two distinctively different groups separately.
The increase in immigration was a predictable consequence of South Africa's democratic breakthrough in 1994. More immigrants are going to come to South Africa. This will continue to be the case each year until both the political and economic conditions on the continent change for the better.
There is another positive dimension and long-standing advances that tend not to be highlighted on this debate, namely that for years South Africans have lived side by side with foreign nationals. They worked together in the mining migrant system, lived together in the townships, studied together and shared accommodation in institutions of higher learning.
Since 1994, South Africa has benefited from migration, and the ANC has always advocated the revision of immigration policies. The need for job creation and scarce skills has been part of the relationship between the Department of Home Affairs, citizens and foreign nationals.
It was obvious that the new conditions of democracy, peace, justice and prosperity in South Africa would bring to the country many foreign nationals, especially from the African continent. The new arrivals would, in the main, include asylumseekers from those parts of the continent where political conflict still rages, as well as economic refugees fleeing from hunger and want in their own countries.
Regarding immigration control, successive colonial and apartheid regimes used immigration control as one of their tools to convert South Africa into a colony of a special type. While the immigration of whites was encouraged and assisted as part of a deliberate recruitment programme, blacks were carted, through controlled immigration and forced removals, to areas that were reserved for occupation by Africans, coloureds and Indians.
An indication of things to come was the enactment in 1913 of the Immigrants Regulation Act. The Act also proscribed the movement of black people in South Africa and made them foreigners in the land of their birth. Fighting xenophobia includes supporting the progress of regional integration with all the countries of the Southern African Development Community, SADC, and commitment to the vision of the African Renaissance. The ANC is also committed to upholding the letter and the spirit of the Constitution, which protects the human rights of both South Africans and immigrants within the country. While xenophobic elements in society will call for further limitation of the rights of foreign nationals, such limitations themselves are likely to result in an increase in xenophobia.
It is important to understand the phenomenon of xenophobia in the context of globalisation, which also threatens to reinforce the material basis for racism on a global scale. The process of globalisation is also associated with the emergence of new forms of racism, xenophobia, and gender and related intolerances.
While the free movement of capital and goods across national borders is encouraged and growing, the movement of people across borders, especially the movement of unskilled labour from less developed to the more developed countries, is becoming increasingly circumscribed.
The ANC supports the establishment of a human rights-based system for migration control through legislation. The ANC will work to ensure that its structures are equipped to assist foreign nationals to legalise their stay in South Africa. It will work with other forces on the continent to encourage economic growth and social development across Africa.
The ANC is committed to promoting community awareness of tolerance and respect for the rights of foreign nationals and their integration into local communities.
The question that remains to be answered is: What is to be done to deploy resources through the budget where they are needed most? After all, the ANC budget must enhance the vision of building a caring society and working towards a peaceful national democratic society. This position is in line with the ANC's stance at the 52nd national conference in 2007 of building a peaceful and caring society.
A word of caution is also necessary. We are aware that South Africa's new constitutional democracy is being taken advantage of by all sorts of different groups externally with different agendas. Hence part of the approach is to ensure that the Department of Home Affairs is working together with the criminal justice cluster to develop a policy and system that will ensure that illegal acts are captured in a data system that will assist in monitoring the movements of perpetrators and the enforcement of South African laws.
There is a need to strengthen border post services while, on the other hand, it is necessary to speed up satellite infrastructure to ensure connectivity. It is equally important to have the border post network incorporated into the overall departmental network.
In conclusion, it must be noted that social integration has been entrenched in our country over the years. Equally, adversarial incidences tend to reverse the gains of the past in a society that is transforming itself from a racist legacy.
This budget is important in taking forward the progress of the Department of Home Affairs. The ANC supports Budget Vote No 4 for the Department of Home Affairs. Working together, we can do more. I thank you, comrades. [Applause.]