It has become common cause that South Africa has had to self-impose austerity measures in many areas of public service in recent years, following decades of wanton criminality, incompetence, and other forms of abuses of resources. This has worsened by a toxic combination of greedy, criminal South African Home Affairs and Border Officials employed at several of our country’s immigration posts.
Their criminal actions and negligence have resulted in a massive influx of foreign individuals into South Africa through:
• Poorly guarded or totally unguarded border crossings,
• Various forms of human trafficking
• Bribes paid to criminals employed in immigration control offices
The combined outcome of this is a country with a shrinking tax base and ever limited public resources, including badly maintained public infrastructure, having to carry an added burden of millions, literally, of undocumented foreigners who have fled their poorly governed country to come and seek economic and other opportunities in South Africa.
It is known that our public health institutions already carry the added burden of undocumented people who routinely cross into South Africa to give birth and to seek other medical serves, services that much abused South Africans are expected to pay for. This situation is unsustainable. Something must give.
With so many undocumented people now in South Africa and government seemingly, unable (or is it unwilling?) to do anything about the situation, no one can deny that the deteriorating situation poses grave danger to our national security, as it totally undermines South Africa’s sovereignty.
A country without properly managed border crossings and immigration points can no longer qualify as a sovereign state.
The decision by government to allow the children of undocumented foreigners to register in our publicly funded schools, all at the expense of South Africa taxpayers, is unacceptable. It cannot possibly pass a constitutional test, given the points raised above about the state of our economy and the plight of many of our communities.
What it all means is that the countless children of undocumented foreigners allowed to be enrolled in our schools will, inevitably, end-up in already over-crowded schools often found in the country’s poor rural, peri-urban, and urban communities, too many of which still use unsanitary, dangerous pit latrines.
Well-resourced private schools are unlikely to share the burden faced by their poor public counterparts. It therefore goes without saying that the influx of children from undocumented foreigners creates unwanted competition for access to already limited facilities and resources aimed at improving the lives of South Africans, the majority of whom have been forced to inherit the still open wounds of apartheid and thirty years of neglect by ANC governments. None of this is acceptable.
As indicated further up, the other implication of the influx of undocumented foreigners into our system is already being felt on public services such as the over stretched healthcare facilities. Our clinics and hospitals are notoriously often in short supply of medicine, bedding, and other crucial sanitation supplies to cater for South Africans.
Next, we shall hear that the children of undocumented foreigners automatically qualify for SASSA grants and their parents for RDP Houses – if this is not already happening – when 54% of South African households currently live below the breadline.
We must remind government that the raft of corrective policies and institutions that were created after the end of apartheid were brought into existence with the aim to level playing fields for South Africans and to heal the gaping wounds of apartheid, not to solve the problems of other countries.
Today, it is hard to find any argument to justify this move by the government other than to give credence to the notion that South Africa is a “free-for-all” country.
Ultimately it is clear that our current political system places too much power into the hands of politicians who, once elected to office, can make any decision without any regard of its impact on South Africans.
They take decisions without having to obtain the views of South Africans through instruments such as referenda. It is an unhealthy power imbalance that calls for serious institutional review and reform, especially in so far as what those elected to office can or cannot do without clear, informed, consent by the people.
Continuing to do things the same way over and over again while expecting different outcomes is a sure sign of suicidal foolishness. This has to stop.
Why Allocate Scarce Education Resources to Children of Undocumented Foreigners?
It has become common cause that South Africa has had to self-impose austerity measures in many areas of public service in recent years, following decades of wanton criminality, incompetence, and other forms of abuses of resources. This has worsened by a toxic combination of greedy, criminal South African Home Affairs and Border Officials employed at several of our country’s immigration posts.
Their criminal actions and negligence have resulted in a massive influx of foreign individuals into South Africa through:
• Poorly guarded or totally unguarded border crossings,
• Various forms of human trafficking
• Bribes paid to criminals employed in immigration control offices
The combined outcome of this is a country with a shrinking tax base and ever limited public resources, including badly maintained public infrastructure, having to carry an added burden of millions, literally, of undocumented foreigners who have fled their poorly governed country to come and seek economic and other opportunities in South Africa.
It is known that our public health institutions already carry the added burden of undocumented people who routinely cross into South Africa to give birth and to seek other medical serves, services that much abused South Africans are expected to pay for. This situation is unsustainable. Something must give.
With so many undocumented people now in South Africa and government seemingly, unable (or is it unwilling?) to do anything about the situation, no one can deny that the deteriorating situation poses grave danger to our national security, as it totally undermines South Africa’s sovereignty.
A country without properly managed border crossings and immigration points can no longer qualify as a sovereign state.
The decision by government to allow the children of undocumented foreigners to register in our publicly funded schools, all at the expense of South Africa taxpayers, is unacceptable. It cannot possibly pass a constitutional test, given the points raised above about the state of our economy and the plight of many of our communities.
What it all means is that the countless children of undocumented foreigners allowed to be enrolled in our schools will, inevitably, end-up in already over-crowded schools often found in the country’s poor rural, peri-urban, and urban communities, too many of which still use unsanitary, dangerous pit latrines.
Well-resourced private schools are unlikely to share the burden faced by their poor public counterparts. It therefore goes without saying that the influx of children from undocumented foreigners creates unwanted competition for access to already limited facilities and resources aimed at improving the lives of South Africans, the majority of whom have been forced to inherit the still open wounds of apartheid and thirty years of neglect by ANC governments. None of this is acceptable.
As indicated further up, the other implication of the influx of undocumented foreigners into our system is already being felt on public services such as the over stretched healthcare facilities. Our clinics and hospitals are notoriously often in short supply of medicine, bedding, and other crucial sanitation supplies to cater for South Africans.
Next, we shall hear that the children of undocumented foreigners automatically qualify for SASSA grants and their parents for RDP Houses – if this is not already happening – when 54% of South African households currently live below the breadline.
We must remind government that the raft of corrective policies and institutions that were created after the end of apartheid were brought into existence with the aim to level playing fields for South Africans and to heal the gaping wounds of apartheid, not to solve the problems of other countries.
Today, it is hard to find any argument to justify this move by the government other than to give credence to the notion that South Africa is a “free-for-all” country.
Ultimately it is clear that our current political system places too much power into the hands of politicians who, once elected to office, can make any decision without any regard of its impact on South Africans.
They take decisions without having to obtain the views of South Africans through instruments such as referenda. It is an unhealthy power imbalance that calls for serious institutional review and reform, especially in so far as what those elected to office can or cannot do without clear, informed, consent by the people.
Continuing to do things the same way over and over again while expecting different outcomes is a sure sign of suicidal foolishness. This has to stop.