Beit Bridge is a Humanitarian Crisis

The situation at Beit Bridge, although not surprising, is a humanitarian crisis and should be dealt with as such. No matter what your personal feelings about non-nationals are, no human being should die or be stuck without access to water due to the inefficiency of a governmental system.

LAND Party calls for the immediate intervention by the Human Rights Commission. We cannot have women and children left to suffer and even die at our borders, no matter which country they come from.

LAND Party calls on the government to immediately lift the curfew at the Beit Bridge border post to relieve the backup.

LAND Party calls on border control to immediately provide portable ablution facilities and water to the people who have been waiting for days on the road.

LAND Party calls on all South Africans to exercise tolerance and resist using this inhumane situation to air their xenophobic views.

We need to remember that the situation at the Beit Bridge border is happening for exactly the same reason that non-nationals are taking jobs from locals – the ineffective governance of the ruling party. We urge South Africans not to take out their anger at these situations on non-nationals. They are our African brothers and sisters who are as much victims of the circumstances the ruling party has created as we are. We must remember that these people are our brothers and sisters who come from countries that assisted and protected the revolutionaries during their fight against apartheid and without whom the struggle would have been much longer and harder.

South Africans must wake up to the fact that non-nationals are, like us, still suffering from the after-effects of mass colonisations by greedy European settlers and corrupt governments. People must direct their anger at the useless government which has created and perpetuates these inhumane and unjust situations because they are disorganised and too busy looting to be able to come up with pragmatic solutions.

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