The question remains, why not? Many South Africans are asking how the country arrived at this point, fourteen years into democracy, and with perhaps the most liberal and human-rights based Constitution in the world? As a living beacon of the possibilities of the “rainbow nation”? Unfortunately, research suggests that the current spate of attacks is the outcome of widespread and long-standing anti-. [...] Much of the work of the first democratic Parliament in the years following the 1994 elections was devoted to repealing this legislation, and introducing new law and policy that advanced the principles and values of the new Constitution and the non-racial state. [...] While an Amendment Act was passed in 1995 which made some changes to the 1991 Act, including the removal of “some of the more blatant violations of the rights of undocumented immigrants”, Peberdy and Crush suggest that the Amendment Act retained fundamental features of the principal legislation that were “deeply rooted in policies whose purpose was racial domination and the extension of unfettered. [...] 7 and the South African Police Services in the detection, prosecution and removal of illegal aliens from the country”, emphasising that the “cooperation of the community is required in the proper execution of the Department’s functions”. [...] Survey respondents were asked about how many migrants they thought are currently in the country: of particular importance due to widespread speculation about these numbers, and the vast differences in figures published by government and in the media.24 Perceptions about the numbers of migrants in the country relative to the population of citizens also appear to be grossly exaggerated.
- Pages
- 34
- Published in
- Port Elizabeth, South Africa
