South Africa’s economic capital is drawing up a plan to make foreigners feel more welcome, including providing them with better housing and health care, Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo said.
South Africa has faced growing criticism that it is unfriendly towards outsiders and that they are often the victims of police abuse and official indifference.
”It’s an issue that you can’t ignore,” Masondo told Reuters on the sidelines of a migration conference late on Tuesday.
”We want to develop a coherent policy — these things must not be incidental.”
Masondo said a wide-ranging plan for migrants could include everything from helping them get better housing to English classes.
About a quarter of Johannesburg’s population is foreign — many of them illegals who flock to the continent’s wealthiest economy to escape conflict or desperate poverty.
Johannesburg has come under fire over its treatment of some of its most-vulnerable residents, especially after frequent police raids and large-scale evictions in areas frequented by foreigners.
Police say the campaigns are meant to root out crime in a city that has one of the world’s worst reputations for violent crime.
But critics say immigrants are often used as scapegoats for high levels of crime and unemployment, and blame authorities for targeting them through the sweeps of their neighbourhoods to spruce up its image ahead of the 2010 Soccer World Cup.
Masondo said just the opposite was true.
”Our thinking is that we should utilise the pressure that comes with the World Cup to deepen our programmes. But these must be legacy projects so when 2010 has come and gone, the big event didn’t just force us to clean up our image, but forces us to do better work,” he said. — Reuters