DA Blames Zimbabwe’s “Democratic Backslide” For SA Immigration Crisis

South Africa’s Democratic Alliance (DA) has said Zimbabwe’s “democratic backslide” is the sole cause of the immigration crisis that South Africa has faced since the late 1990s.

In a statement on Monday, 4 May, the DA’s spokesperson on International Relations and Cooperation, Ryan Smith, said the influx of Zimbabwean migrants into South Africa placed a tremendous burden on civic and social services and fuelled violent societal divisions in the country.

“It is not the people of Zimbabwe who are to blame for fleeing to South Africa for a better life; it is President Ramaphosa and the ANC who continue to ignore human rights abuses and democratic capture in their own backyard out of pure political expediency,” Smith said.

He also accused fringe parties of inflaming xenophobia and ethnic hatred by exploiting a crisis he said the ANC had created.

“For as long as South Africa refuses to stand up and condemn dictators and human rights abusers on our continent, our country will forever be the only place of asylum for the refugees the ANC continues to create,” said Smith.

“This is yet another example of the ANC’s diplomatic hypocrisy as it selectively addresses human rights abuses elsewhere in the world while ignoring the same acts just next door.

“The ANC does not address human rights abuses out of principle; it only does so where it can gain political mileage.”

Smith contended that the ANC, South Africa’s largest political party and the dominant partner in the Government of National Unity, continues to disregard human rights abuses in neighbouring states.

“It is blatantly clear that the ANC has no interest in the regional stability of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) or its members, as the South African government continues to pretend that nothing is wrong in neighbouring democracies, that civilians are not massacred in the streets by their governments, or that opposition is violently stifled and contained,” said Smith.

“The ANC’s cognitive dissonance between South Africa’s diplomatic responsibilities as a regional power and its own interests as a political party is the single largest threat to SADC’s stability and prosperity.”

Smith’s comments followed President Ramaphosa’s unannounced visit to Zimbabwe on Sunday for talks with President Mnangagwa at his Precabe farm in Kwekwe.