PETER BRUCE | We need a firm but compassionate hand on migration

Two drunk thugs slithered into an establishment owned by a friend the other day and pointed to the guy behind the counter. “Why are you giving this man a job?” they asked my friend. “He’s a foreigner.”

“Because he does the job well,” my friend said. “He’s honest, keeps the place clean, and the customers like him.”

“You should be employing us,” said the one. “We’re South Africans.”

“You’re also drunk,” said my friend. “And I should give you a job?”

“Yes, we are drunk,” said the talker. “But we are not all drunk.”

Point taken, but aren’t we all just sick of this now? As the umpteenth wave of xenophobia sweeps South Africa, I reckon more than 90% of the foreign Africans living in my part of the country, the Overberg/Overstrand, are here illegally, undocumented and desperate.

This is a direct result of two things. First, for the most part, they come from poorly governed and corrupt countries, and they’re looking for work to support babies and parents back home. Second, South Africa not only indulges the corrupt governments that create the migrants in the first place, but it is itself corrupt and poorly governed and cannot run a proper border

South Africa in particular has been more than generous to an entire generation of migrants since becoming a democracy in 1994. Much of this may have been simple neglect, incompetence and corruption, but it is a fact nonetheless

Once, the majority of the people targeted in protests around the country would have been Zimbabwean, and we would have complained about Thabo Mbeki indulging Robert Mugabe’s dictatorship while poor blacks here paid the price as cheap Zimbabwean labour fled repression at home and replaced them.

But a large number of the people being chased out of their shacks and into community halls for safety and then deportation this time seem to be Malawian, and there’s not a lot of repression in Malawi. It’s a solid democracy with a free media and independent courts. And South African employers like Malawians.

None of which gets you around the problem of them being here illegally and the fact that if you’re employing one you’re probably also breaking the law. Some folk will say they don’t care, but they would if they had to choose between the Malawian in the kitchen and a weekend behind bars before the courts open on Monday.

Migrations are one of the world’s oldest phenomena. Migrants are brave and innovative, and they have enriched their new societies for millennia. But they are also a political weapon now, encouraged by bad actors like Russia to flood into societies no longer capable of assimilating them and of preserving their own cultures at the same time.

The aim of the game is to create political revolt as right-wing populist parties spring up in response to the new cultures among them. It isn’t hard to understand. Liberal democracies are the last remaining threat to the “new world order” so many modern leaders find to their taste.

South Africa in particular has been more than generous to an entire generation of migrants since becoming a democracy in 1994. Much of this may have been simple neglect, incompetence and corruption, but it is a fact nonetheless. Yet no decent South African now wants people literally run out of the country. They may have to go, but this has got to be done right and with care and compassion.

None of his choices are simple. He cannot deport every illegal immigrant, and many who have been here a long time and have given up trying to legalise their positions because of home affairs corruption have a real case for remaining anyway

A reckoning is coming. President Cyril Ramaphosa was unconvincing on television this past week, but illegal immigration is one of the few problems even he, the great deflector, can’t blame on apartheid.

None of his choices are simple. He cannot deport every illegal immigrant, and many who have been here a long time and have given up trying to legalise their positions because of home affairs corruption have a real case for remaining anyway.

For the rest there are simply too many. At the same time the president has to protect them from marauding and often drunk gangs. He can’t jail people who employ illegals, for fear of swamping the courts. At least from deportation centres he could recruit every scientist, doctor, electrician, plumber and engineer he can find and offer them a future here while ensuring the rest a safe return home.

And then you do this: you publish a spot fine for any South African found hiring illegal immigrants. The fines are routed through the South African Revenue Service to be added to your tax for the year. When Sars takes your money, you only get to argue about it afterwards.

Lastly, you grow up and start running this country like it matters. We are a liberal democracy, but nothing works without rules and laws. Ignore them and you soon have a Donald Trump, mad as a March Hare, dribbling populist bile at your doorstep.

Police your borders properly. Treat public sector corruption as acts of treason. Be firm but act with compassion. In every way possible from now on we should set an example.