Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Monsieur - Do you have ROOM for MORE?

Whether there is room for more amakwerekwere in our fair land is open for debate.

University of South Africa vice-chancellor Barney Pityana believes that securing the country's borders would not work in keeping foreigners out.

He said that what was needed was a system of migration which facilitated the immigration of people at the right places.

"After all, South Africa, with 45-million or 46-million people is not over-populated," he said. (visited any of the hundreds of shack-cities which dot our fair land recently Barney?)

"I think it is not impossible for this country to absorb, in an orderly fashion, more people to come to South Africa." (Amazing that he does not manage to substantiate even one of his statements... double negative notwithstanding!)

and then we have....

The chairperson of the FDC, Graça Machel who said that one of the root causes of the violence was the influx of foreigners into South African cities coupled with the migration of South Africans from the countryside to cities. Add the recent increases in food prices to this enormous pressure on urban infrastructure and you get an explosive mixture: "The poorest South African suburbs no longer have the capacity to absorb more people. It's no longer possible to live there," she said.

Machel blamed the situation on the development models that governments have adopted.

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