Opposition MPs and Parliament guests were shocked as the chairwoman of the parliamentary oversight committee on home affairs, Maggie Maunye, implied that foreigners flocking to the country were soaking up resources and preventing South Africans from enjoying their freedom.
Maunye made the remarks on Wednesday at the conclusion of a briefing of her committee by Home Affairs officials. The delegation included deputy home affairs minister Fatima Chohan, and had dealt with the issue of refugee reception centres.
Maunye suggested South Africa should turn away foreigners, as Spain had chosen to do, and questioned human rights laws and the constitution, which she said were used as an excuse to accommodate foreigners.
“Really, this intake, for how long are we going to continue with this as South Africans?” Maunye asked. “Is it not going to affect our resources, the economy of the country?”
She continued: “I think that as the portfolio committee, we need to sit down and discuss this openly; on how long are we going to continue with the intake without the support of other countries.
“You know, we see on TV Spain turning refugees back to their countries, and here you will be told of human rights laws; you know the constitution is against that and all sorts of excuses, and here we have people who are living in poverty daily, people who are unemployed.
“We’ve never enjoyed our freedom as South Africans. We got it in 1994 and we had floods and floods of refugees or undocumented people in the country, and we always want to play as if no there’s nothing like that.”
She said that apart from refugees, there were also “wrong people” who entered the country, such as the “Rwanda war criminal person… and they are all here”.
“What are we saying about them? We let all these war criminals come to the country. When we are supposed to tell them to go back, we are told that we’re violating human rights laws and all that.”
Maunye added that it was important “that we become cool-headed and sober and decide how to deal with this”.
Maunye tried to backtrack on her comments after a rebuke from the DA.
DA MP Annette Lovemore distanced herself and her party from the tirade, saying such statements were a foundation for xenophobic attacks on foreigners.
Raising a point of order, Lovemore said she was very disturbed by Maunye’s remarks and by associating “ourselves (committee members) with what you are saying”.
“That’s exactly the kind of attitude… that is causing the new wave of xenophobic attacks that is happening right now and (that) NGOs are warning is going to escalate…
“We cannot as a portfolio committee be saying that we don’t want people from outside South African borders here.”
Attempting an about-turn, Maunye said: “I am saying since 1994 we have had an influx of people coming to the country. I said documented and undocumented people, and also that it impacts on our economy.”
She referred to documents dating back to 2008 that detailed how much the country, including banks and insurance companies, were losing through corruption because of fraudulent ID documents.
“I am not saying people must not come to the country,” Maunye said.
“People must come to the country with proper documents.” – The Star