By Sõzarn Barday
Why South Africa should reject the politics of “keep your people in your country”
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma’s call for people to “keep your people in your country” is a position with which I fundamentally disagree.
South Africa has a legitimate interest in regulating who enters and leaves its territory. Border controls allow the state to administer immigration law, record movement and identify who has permission to remain. But that does not mean that every undocumented person should automatically be treated as a criminal.
There is an important distinction between an immigration-status violation, an asylum claim and refugee protection.
An undocumented foreign national may have an irregular immigration status. An asylum seeker may be seeking protection from persecution. A recognised refugee has been granted protection under the law. These categories should not be collapsed into one political label of “foreigner”.
South Africa’s Refugees Act exists specifically to provide for the reception of asylum seekers and recognition of refugee status, and South Africa remains bound by its international refugee obligations.
The answer to undocumented migration should therefore be lawful and proportionate immigration administration, not the automatic criminalisation or demonisation of people because they lack documentation.
Africa existed before its borders
There is also a historical problem with telling Africans to “keep your people in your country”.
Africa’s peoples were moving across the continent long before today’s countries existed.
The Bantu expansion is generally understood to have originated in the Nigeria-Cameroon region, with populations moving through Central and East Africa over many centuries before Bantu-speaking peoples reached southern Africa. The ancestors of the Nguni peoples, including the populations from which today’s Zulu- and Xhosa-speaking communities developed, are generally associated with migrations southwards from East Africa and the Great Lakes region.
This is not to suggest that Zulu or Xhosa people are foreign to South Africa.
It demonstrates the opposite: migration is part of the history of the peoples who became South African.
The modern borders of Africa were largely created or formalised under European colonial rule. Those borders are legally real today, but they are not ancient divisions between African peoples.
The map is younger than the people.
South Africans should remember who sheltered us
There is another reason this debate requires historical humility.
During apartheid, neighbouring African countries provided refuge, support, training and transit to South African liberation movements and political exiles. Countries such as Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania, Botswana, Angola and Zimbabwe paid a heavy price for supporting the struggle against apartheid.
South Africans once crossed borders because they could not safely remain at home.
We should not forget that history when discussing Africans seeking refuge here today.
This does not mean South Africa should have open borders. It means that our immigration policy should distinguish between enforcing immigration law and denying protection to people who genuinely need it.
What should Africa’s future look like?
Instead of asking how we can keep Africans apart, perhaps we should ask how we can bring the continent closer together.
Europe’s Schengen Area demonstrates the possibilities of regional freedom of movement. Africa should develop its own model of integration suited to our circumstances.
Why should an African find it easier to travel to another continent than to move within their own?
The long-term ambition should be an Africa where Africans can move, work, study and trade more freely, while individual states retain appropriate systems for security and immigration management.
We should be working towards deeper African economic and political integration — and, ultimately, towards greater freedom of movement across the continent.
One currency.
One movement.
One visa.
Not because national identities should disappear, but because African cooperation should become stronger than the colonial divisions that continue to shape our continent.
South Africa should enforce its immigration laws. It should improve border management. It should address irregular migration. It should protect its citizens.
But it should also protect refugees, honour its legal obligations and remember its own history.
We should not respond to Africa’s migration challenges by building higher walls between Africans.
We should be building a more integrated Africa.
One currency. One movement. One visa.
Sõzarn Barday is a lawyer. She writes on human rights, international law, and political developments. The views expressed are her own.