Don’t Shun Them, Formalize Them: A New Approach to Foreign Nationals in South Africa
Don’t Shun Them, Formalize Them: A New Approach to Foreign Nationals in South Africa By Larry Matlala Incoming Candidate Mayor, City of Tshwane The streets of South Africa have become a pressure cooker. As unemployment rises, particularly among the youth, a dangerous narrative has taken hold: that foreign nationals are the enemy. They are accused of stealing jobs, flooding our streets, and crippling our local economy. I stand before you to say that I hold a fundamentally different view. The anger felt by our unemployed youth is valid. The desperation of living in a country with so few opportunities is real. However, we are pointing our fingers in the wrong direction. The truth is, the informal businesses and labor that foreign nationals dominate are not the jobs most South Africans are fighting for. We cannot allow our economy to grind to a halt while we wait for South Africans to accept work they feel is beneath them. The reality is harsh but necessary to face: many of th...