Document immigrants or xenophobia will flourish – chamber

SA’s xenophobia problem stemmed from government’s failure to document immigrants, the South African Chamber of Commerce and Industry (SACCI) has said.

This important step in law enforcement was creating a security threat and a regulation gap when it comes to policing economic activity, creating the perfect environment for foreigners and foreign-owned businesses to compete with an unfair advantage over local businesses.

SACCI CEO Alan Mukoki said it was unfortunate that government’s ineptitude at recording movements at the country’s borders was behind the violence between impoverished South Africans and foreign nationals. He said being an undocumented individual operating an unregistered business gave businesses an unfair advantage over the local market, because abiding by these rules ostensibly cost more for operators.

This also applied to local businesses which hired undocumented foreign nationals to avoid adhering to labour laws.

“It is common knowledge that if you are not registered as a business you are not likely to be compliant with regulations and your business is not likely to be registered in the first place. You cannot even have a tax number or a VAT registration number,” Mukoki said.

“If you came into the country through any other means like bribing an official, you will not have the necessary papers and you won’t pay taxes.”

Sipho Zungu, chair of the All Truck Drivers Association, said its organisation has been vocal about the employment of undocumented or fraudulently documented immigrants. He said government was allowing companies to employ undocumented foreigners to avoid compliance with South African labour laws, creating an unfair advantage for these immigrants.

But Mukoki said foreign nationals hired by such businesses were victims too and left vulnerable to exploitation.

“It all starts with home affairs,” said Mukoki. “And from then it affects other authorities tasked with monitoring economic activity. There is not enough information about who enters and leaves the country – and all of this leaves room for economic sabotage.”