In response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent address on South Africa’s immigration crisis, Nqabayomzi Kwankwa, a Member of Parliament for the United Democratic Movement (UDM), emphasized that the credibility of proposed government measures will depend entirely on implementation.
“The taste of the pudding will be in the eating,” Kwankwa stated, stressing that past commitments on migration management have repeatedly gone unfulfilled.
Kwankwa provided historical context to underscore the urgency of action. He noted that as early as 2007, the African Peer Review Mechanism (APRM) issued a country report warning South Africa about the socioeconomic impact of illegal and undocumented migrants, particularly on the labor market and impoverished communities. The report explicitly recommended that the issue be addressed through policy and legislative reform.
Following a resurgence of xenophobic violence in 2015, Kwankwa recalled that Parliament intervened by establishing an ad hoc committee and dispatching members to constituencies to address community tensions linked to undocumented migration. Despite these initiatives—and similar government commitments made in 2008 and 2015 to pursue continental and regional approaches to migration—Kwankwa observed that many promises remain unimplemented.
While unequivocally condemning violence and vigilantism, Kwankwa affirmed that there is legitimacy in requesting undocumented individuals to come forward to facilitate orderly repatriation to their countries of origin. He argued that South Africa should not bear sole responsibility for migration pressures driven by governance failures elsewhere on the continent.
“We cannot allow other nations to shift blame and responsibility for their misgovernance onto the South African government,” Kwankwa said.
The UDM spokesperson also cautioned political leaders against dismissing or patronizing citizens enduring difficult socioeconomic conditions in townships. He referenced the tragic deaths of more than 20 children last year from food poisoning linked to spaza shops, observing that public and political response would likely have been markedly different had the victims come from middle-class backgrounds.
“Because it’s children of people from poor backgrounds, we tend to gloss over it and focus on broader issues,” Kwankwa remarked, urging that the lived realities of marginalized communities be centered in policy discussions.
Kwankwa concluded that while the UDM welcomes renewed high-level attention to the immigration crisis, the focus must now shift decisively to accountable, transparent, and effective implementation of stated measures.
