The South African government has criticised the “misconception” that foreign migrants steal jobs from citizens — a key reason for recent anti-immigrant violence that claimed 62 lives.
“It is a misconception to conclude that migrants steal jobs from South Africans. The opposite is actually true,” Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana said late on Thursday in a speech at the 21st annual labour conference.
“In the last two months we have our people being easily misled into believing that their genuine concerns on poverty and unemployment are caused by our fellow brothers and sisters from Africa,” he said.
A total of 62 people lost their lives and thousands were displaced in the wave of xenophobic violence last month, triggered by the accusation, among others, that fellow Africans were stealing jobs from South Africans.
Mdladlana said recent official figures indicated that South Africa actually “gains economically from entry by fellow Africans … spending in South Africa by visitors from Africa and the Middle East exceeded the combined expenditure of visitors from the Americas”.
He said that in 2005, seven of the top 10 spending countries in South Africa included Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Lesotho — whose nationals were targeted in the recent xenophobic violence.
He said that the foreigners were “job creators” rather than job snatchers. — AFP