Ramaphosa Slams SA Police For ‘Apartheid-style’ Treatment Of Foreigners
President Cyril Ramaphosa has slammed the police’s “apartheid-style” approach of requiring foreign nationals to produce identification documents.
“Obviously we cannot accept behaviour like that where people are hunted down in that way and are asked questions in that way about their own identity, because it takes us back to the apartheid way of doing things,” Ramaphosa said on Saturday.
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“We are now in a democracy and we should be very restrained and respectful of the rights of people in our country.”
Ramaphosa was speaking to journalists before a presidential imbizo in Bloemfontein when he was asked about reports of police stopping foreign nationals and demanding identification.
His remarks came after a day of rolling protests and the murder of a Zimbabwean, Mbodazwe Elvis Nyathi, in Diepsloot, north of Johannesburg, on Wednesday by a group going door-to-door demanding residents’ passports and identity documents.
“We regret the loss of life of a Zimbabwean and I am also pleased that the police, together with the minister, has been on the ground and have been stabilising the situation and there are investigations now underway,” said Ramaphosa.
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“Of course, we deplore any action that is taken against anyone to a point where they are killed.
JUST IN: #PresidentialImbizo: Ramaphosa says reports of police asking foreign nationals to prove their identity is worrying and unacceptabl. @TimesLIVE @SundayTimesZA pic.twitter.com/ueSwOra3H2
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“We continue to say that we should not take the law into our hands and we should not be targeting anyone in the way that people from other countries have been targeted because whatever we say, it no sooner becomes something that becomes xenophobic.
“As South Africans we should always be respectful to people from other nations, and whatever challenges we have we should use the law enforcement channels.”
