President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the violence and threats directed at migrants in South Africa, saying the country should be “concerned and ashamed” that nationals from other countries have been subjected to discrimination, ill-treatment and, in some cases, forced to leave the country under threat of violence.
“We cannot preach integration at summits and practise exclusion in the streets of our countries,” Ramaphosa said.
His remarks came as the leaders of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) prepare to gather in Durban, with migration, economic integration and regional solidarity among the issues confronting the bloc.
“We are deeply concerned and ashamed that people from other nations, some whose leaders are here, were treated badly and were even forced to leave the country under threat of violence,” he said.
“The criminal actions of a few within our communities are a repudiation of the solidarity upon which this Southern African community is built.”
His comments came as March and March, the organisation that has called for undocumented migrants to leave South Africa, prepares to protest in Durban as SADC leaders gather to discuss regional integration.
Ramaphosa said South Africa's treatment of migrants had to be understood within the much longer history of movement across the region.
“Southern Africa has borne witness to the movement of people over millennia,” he said. “Our people are the product of migration.”
Ramaphosa, who will chair the SADC summit on Monday, said that rather than trying to stop migration, member states should create conditions in which people could move by choice, not out of desperation.
“Now, as we work towards our Vision 2050, we should seek a region in which people are able to freely move according to established principles, protocols and laws,” he said.
“This means that we must work together to address the conditions that drive migration.”
Ramaphosa said those conditions included conflict, instability, governance failure, poverty and social discord.
“We need to create equal economic opportunity and build inclusive institutions of governance,” he said.
But migration was only one part of Ramaphosa's broader vision for a more integrated SADC economy.
He warned that the region remained too dependent on markets outside Southern Africa, despite having the resources to build a stronger regional economy.
“A regional market is different. A regional market is an advantage that we ourselves own. Others cannot take it away from us,” he said.
Ramaphosa said Southern Africa also risked repeating its colonial-era role of exporting raw materials while importing finished products.
“We export the ore and we import the battery,” he said. “We supply an industrial revolution taking place somewhere else and we then purchase its products at a price set by others.”
He said the region needed to use its mineral wealth to drive its own industrial development.
Ramaphosa also warned that the same pattern could emerge in the digital economy, with African countries providing the raw material while others capture its value.
“Already, we are exporting data and importing intelligence,” he said.
He said SADC needed to develop its own computing capacity, connectivity and skills so that the value of data generated in the region could be captured locally.
Speaking at the SADC public lecture at the University of KwaZulu-Natal on Friday, on the eve of the summit, Ramaphosa also called on universities to play a bigger role in shaping the region's future.
“The future of our region will be determined not only in cabinet rooms and summit halls, but also in lecture theatres, laboratories, workshops and centres of innovation,” he said.
He welcomed UKZN's contribution to regional value chains, critical minerals, ethical artificial intelligence and digital inclusion, as well as its work on climate resilience and youth and women entrepreneurship.
The 46th SADC Ordinary Summit will be held in Durban on Sunday and Monday.
wendy.jdc@nationalmg.co.za