There can be no return to concept of second-class citizens

Sanity finally prevailed this week, and the rights of the poor and the marginalised were restored.

There was a storm of resentment when we reported on the use of green cards to identify workers and job-seekers in the Western Cape town of Worcester.

What was especially shocking was that the green card system was agreed to by the Worcester police and the local Community Policing Forum.

We are told that poor black workers and those seeking employment were the only ones to be issued with these cards.

We are also told that all this was done as a way of combating crime.

Many of those who have never been forced to justify their presence in any part of South Africa saw this as a storm in a teacup, a racist tag wrongly attached to an anti-crime system.

But they fail to understand what our constitution says about freedom of movement.

"[Every] citizen has the right to enter, to remain in and to reside anywhere in the Republic".

What happened in Worcester can never be justified, whatever argument is advanced.

Those of us who are privileged cannot restrict the free movement of fellow South Africans, no matter how poor they are.

It is shocking that there are those who try to justify the system and say there was nothing wrong about the issuing of green cards to job-seekers. They say it was done to try to protect property from criminals.

The question that needs an answer is: Why were only blacks issued with the cards? Are black people inherently criminal?

National police commissioner Riah Phiyega's order that the police end their involvement in the green card system should be welcomed. Phiyega should also order the police to prevent communities taking liberties that might violate the rights of the poor.

If we don't stop towns and villages treating blacks as second-class citizens South Africa will revert to the dark ages.