Press Statement
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
The Africa Project for Participatory Society (APPS), in partnership with PASSOP, will launch a monitoring report entitled “Enquiry concerning South African residents’ perceptions of deportation and the Zimbabwean Documentation Project” at IDASA today, August 25th, at 13:00 o’clock. The findings of the report make clear that there could be xenophobic violence if there is a return to mass deportations of foreign nationals. Additionally APPS believes continued pronouncements regarding the return to deportation of Zimbabweans are creating tensions.
APPS is concerned that there has already been a lack of communication from the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) and in order to avoid further stoking tensions, there must be clarity and mass-deportation must be avoided at all cost. The strong correlation between mass-deportation raids and xenophobic violence, as was witnessed in 2008, compels us to urge the government for a more inclusive and carefully designed policy that strictly excludes the possibility of mass deportations.
Although the official statements from the DHA have stated that mass deportation will not commence upon revoking the moratorium on Zimbabweans, due to the vague and unclear future plan of action, the possibility of mass deportation still exists. This lack of communication from the DHA is confusing and creates anxiety within the Zimbabwean community.
The research outlined in the report shows that South African’s perception on the ZDP and deportations was rather evenly divided. While 47% of respondents confirmed the generally negative and xenophobic opinion most South Africans hold about foreigners (for reasons such as, overcrowding, consuming limited resources and jobs, etc) a significant number of respondents, 51%, believed that mass deportation would result in a violent backlash and view deportation as ineffective.
Hence, the research concludes that the majority of respondents believe that mass deportation is not only inhumane but ineffective and see that the community would most likely respond with violence, which is made into a concern for the South African community as well. The most feasible solution to fight off xenophobic attacks is to grant long-term residents with permanent resident status.
Please contact Mandisi Majavu on 0723544088 or Siddiq Khan 0833915752