Honourable Members, South Africa is not a xenophobic country.

However, to deny that there are xenophobes in this country and that some of the violence perpetrated against foreign nationals and their property could have xenophobic roots is to flounder in a fools’ paradise.

In this regard, the People’s Coalition against Xenophobia, has expressed its concern to the Ad Hoc Joint Committee Probing Violence against Foreign Nationals, in a written submission, in the following terms:

“Numerous studies into violence against foreign nationals, from as far back as the 1990s, have pointed to an increase in xenophobic tendencies within South African society.

“However, despite the evidence, there remains a tendency within South African society as a whole and within some sectors of government, in particular, to deny the existence of xenophobia and to reduce the attacks on foreign nationals to mere acts of criminality, no different to any other such criminal attacks against South Africans.”

The coalition, made up of 11 civil society organisations, maintains that “xenophobia denialism” has been a problem in the country since the attacks in 2008.

The DA agrees.

Writing in Daily Maverick on “Xenophobia: The Power of Naming” (15 July 2015) on how the Ad Hoc Committee has conducted itself during some of its interactions with the public, Professor Raymond Suttner, former political prisoner and a leader in the ANC-led tripartite alliance in the 1990s, is very critical of the manner in which the co-chair of the Ad Hoc Committee, Hon Ruth Bhengu, has berated journalists for using the words “xenophobia” or “xenophobic.”

“The parliamentary group she led comprised representatives from all political parties. None have departed from the script that the issue is crime and there is no xenophobia,” Suttner criticised.

I wish to place it on record that my DA colleagues on the Ad Hoc Committee, Hon Toby Chase and Hon Bridget Masango, and myself never held this view.

As a matter of fact, we cringed with embarrassment and frustration every time Hon Bhengu or her co-chair Hon Motlashuping lectured members of the public and the media on “the dictionary meaning of xenophobia” and as Suttner puts it, “instructed the media to report that it’s just attacks, not xenophobic attacks…”

We in the DA believe the misplaced attempt  to expunge, through “naming,” any reference to xenophobia, in the committee’s deliberations was condescending and wrong.

There can be no argument about the fact that there is xenophobia in this country. It cannot be “named” away. However, it would also be very wrong for anyone to suggest that South Africa is a xenophobic country.

As an Ad Hoc Joint Committee mandated by this Parliament to enquire into the incidence of violence against foreign nationals and related matters, we had a responsibility to hear, without bias or prejudice, in their own words, those who appeared before the committee.

Unfortunately, an impression has been created in the minds of some persons and organisations that the committee went about its work with a pre-determined outcome in mind.

Namely, that South Africa is not a xenophobic country and therefore, there was no xenophobia in the country. And that the violence against foreign nationals could not have any xenophobic roots.

This wrong impression could have a negative impact on the credibility of this report with dire unintended consequences.

Honourable Members, following media reports of remarks attributed to King Goodwill Zwelithini at a public gathering in Pongola, KwaZulu/Natal, on Human Rights Day last March, there were allegations that the remarks may have sparked the violent attacks against foreign nationals in parts of KZN and Gauteng a few weeks later.

The DA believes that the Ad Hoc Committee erred when it rejected a proposal to offer the king an opportunity to make a submission to the committee either in person or writing to clarify his remarks.

The ANC majority in the committee and the IFP vehemently opposed the proposal. By adopting this dogmatic position, we believe the committee abdicated the important principles of being objective and impartial.

We note that the king did subsequently address an imbizo at Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban on 20 April 2015.

However, we believe that the king has been denied the freedom to choose whether to work with the committee, an organ of this parliament, or not. As a prominent and responsible leader in this country, the DA believes he would have grabbed the opportunity. As such, the monarch has been denied the opportunity to exercise this right. This was blatantly not fair to him.

The DA hopes that the committee has not set a dangerous precedent that this parliament and the rest of our constitutional democracy may come to regret.

Honourable Members, I would like to stress that the DA is committed to the building and nurturing of a violence-free, safe, democratic South Africa. We are committed to the eradication of xenophobia and its attendant very costly violence. We are committed to the establishment of an equal opportunity society for all the people in this country.

Despite its flaws, we support this report, as we believe it is a genuine attempt by this parliament to get to the bottom of the scourge of violence against foreign nationals in this country and root it out.

We wish to commend the work already done in this regard by the Inter- Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Migration chaired by Minister in the Presidency Hon Jeff Radebe.

Following comprehensive work on the possible causes of the 2008 and 2015 outbreaks of violence against foreign nationals, the IMC on Migration has concluded that: “As seen in recent weeks, there is considerable latent potential resurgence of violent anti-foreigner sentiment should we fail to address these challenges.” The challenges are detailed in the report of the IMC on Migration.

This House must take this warning very seriously.

The interventions being implemented by the government as reported by the IMC on Migration must be strengthened and pursued with vigour.

The recommendations of the Ad Hoc committee we are considering today must also be taken very seriously and implemented with diligence, if we are to stem the lawlessness and anti-foreigner  violence that plague the country.

We must spare no legitimate effort to make South Africa a safe, productive and prosperous place for all the people who live in the country.