Category / In The Media / Media Articles

In this opinion piece, Professor Loren Landau and Rebecca Walker argue that the recently proposed White Paper on Immigration in South Africa does not provide an empirical foundation for effective developmental policy reform but instead offers vague proposals to address problems that are less about immigration than bureaucratic and political mismanagement. Read more here:

“Anti-immigrant activism is politics by other means, with violence likely to become common amid fundamental ruptures in governance. After years of unfulfilled promises, a youthful citizenry has lost considerable faith in formal electoral politics.”

“That this violence continues unabated is evidence that no effective preventive measures are in place. Indeed, the South African government’s response to this violence has been (and still is) largely characterised by a lack of political will and denialism. This has led to a culture of impunity and lack of accountability not only for instigators and perpetrators of the violence, but also and perhaps more importantly for mandated state agencies (such as the police and crime intelligence) for their failure to prevent and stop violence despite visible warning signs.” – Dr. Jean Pierre Misago 

“While the #FreeJacobZuma campaign is the catalyst, the underlying reason is one that the country has not dealt with in its 27 years of democracy: the failure of the African National Congress to take responsibility for the past pain and trauma that the citizens have experienced, and to create an economy that delivers on the promise of equitable economic sovereignty for all South Africans.” Hakima Haithar

“While foreign nationals are scapegoated for a variety of issues that are wrong in the country, xenophobic violence has a lasting impact on all South Africas, often leading to anti-democratic township governance” writes Professor Loren landau.

Professor Loren B Landau – Professor at African Centre for Migration & Society (ACMS) at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg and the Department of International Development at the University of Oxford & Roni Amit – an Assistant Clinical Professor of Law at the University of Tulsa unpack refugee restrictions in their article titled Decolonization’s borders.