Prof Lesiba Teffo: "This Is Self-Inflicted Pain. Blame the Politicians"
"I don't blame the foreigners. I blame the politicians who were advised and didn't act twenty years ago."
He said:
"We are one of only five countries in the world that have not taken basic principles into account."
"The Refugees Act makes room for 'country of safety' and 'first safe country' ..; that's the 1951 Geneva Convention."
"Any country can deny anybody the right to asylum under exceptional circumstances ..; without giving an explanation."
"When we took over, we thought we were unique. We thought we were special. But we were wrong."
"I don't blame the foreigners. I blame the politicians."
"They don't listen. They speak from ivory towers. I speak from the ground."
"You don't need sixty years to deal with this. We don't need fifty years to address the bedrock."
The government was warned. They were advised. They had the tools. And they did nothing.
For 20 years, they opened the borders. For 20 years, they put foreign interests before South Africans.
And now, when the crisis is out of control ..; when our women are being murdered, and our children are being poisoned ..; they want us to believe they are "dealing with it."
Too late. The time for talk is over.
Prof Teffo is right. This is self-inflicted. And the politicians are to blame.
I can tolerate Zimbabweans and Mozambicans because they are our neighbors but these military aged men from Somalia, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Bangladesh we have nothing in common with them and we are not even their neighbours. They should go back home! We need to put our differences aside and fight this.