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DA slams 'vacuous' Minister
26/05/2008 17:01 - (SA)
Cape Town - The DA on Monday slammed Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula's "vacuous" handling of the escalating humanitarian crisis resulting from xenophobia.
She should urgently brief the National Assembly's home affairs committee to explain what her department had done to address the crisis, and what steps it intended taking to either help reintegrate or repatriate foreign nationals, Democratic Alliance spokesperson Donald Lee said.
"While estimates vary, it would seem that at least 40 000 foreign nationals have been displaced as a result of the ongoing xenophobic attacks," he said.
The department's response up to now had been woefully inadequate, Lee added.
The Minister had not only consistently refused to acknowledge the full scale of the crisis, but had also failed to implement her own plan mooted on May 15 - four days after the first wave of attacks in Alexandra - to return all displaced people, South African and foreign, to their homes before the end of that week.
In addition to this, her assertion that despite the current chaos, she would not do anything differently to manage the process of immigration into South Africa was yet further indication of just how vacuous her leadership had become, Lee said.
"This is an astonishing admission from a Minister whose department's myriad failings are largely responsible for the current crisis," he added.
"Her inability to assess the full scale of the problem is compounded by her lack of urgency on the question of providing refugee camps or safe-zones."
She had consistently opposed this idea despite the pressing need for their establishment, Lee said.
These would help guarantee the safety of displaced persons, give them access to basic services such as clean water, shelter, sanitation, and food, and provide a secure central point for relief organisations to help.
It would also facilitate processing those foreign nationals who wanted either to be re-integrated into their neighbourhoods, or repatriated into their home countries, Lee said.
- SAPA
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