Opening a two-day conference in Cape Town to mark Africa Day, Rasool said the Western Cape Cabinet was briefed yesterday by the police and intelligence agencies on their state of readiness to quell any spread of the violence to the Western Cape which had affected other parts of the country.
He said the provincial government was adopting a 'two-track' approach which would see strong law enforcement on the one hand while encouraging and actively facilitating conflict resolution through dialogue between locals and foreign nationals.
"The Western Cape government is proactively dealing with any possibility that violence similar to that in other parts of the country may erupt in our province," said Rasool.
"We have asked the security agencies to do whatever they need to do to maintain law and order. We are determined to maintain the dignity and self-worth of South Africans and protect fellow Africans from abuse, violence, murder, and dispossession," he said. "At the same time, government officials responsible for promoting dialogue and human rights, together with other institutions, must ensure that we find channels of peace in our communities," said Rasool.
The Province will draw on the lessons learnt from similar experiences in the Western Cape in mid-2006 by working closely with community leaders, non-governmental organizations, human rights groups, religious leaders and diplomatic representatives of foreign states, amongst others. The Premier called on these groups to ensure that they succeed in keeping peace because we want to ensure that the army in our province remains confined to their barracks. "It would be an admission of defeat of our human spirit if we needed to call out the army," he said.
In 2006 the Western Cape experienced a wave of attacks against foreign nationals in various informal settlements like Lawaaikamp and Masiphumele. Rasool said that law enforcement by the police and mediation, conflict resolution and institutional building can ensure that decent solidarity prevails amongst communities.
"Our assessment is that the community structures and conflict resolution procedures we set up in 2006 are still holding. For long-term sustainability and to build social cohesion in those communities, Cabinet decided that these structures need to be upgraded and perhaps be better resourced with permanent offices. We want strict law enforcement by the police while mediation, conflict resolution and institution-building - and building solidarity amongst our people - continues," said Rasool.
The Premier also reiterated the point he made at a Catholic mass on Sunday: "We must not allow sophisticated labels like xenophobia to act as an excuse for criminality. Someone who hacks a foreigner to death is a murderer and must be arrested and dealt with. Sociologists can analyse xenophobia and lawyers can plead xenophobia in mitigation, but we have the obligation to deal with the murderer."
The two-day conference forms part of the province's activities to celebrate Africa Day on May 25th. A range of cultural activities are planned for weekend at the Company Gardens, and will include music, poetry, and food from across the continent.
Rasool said the Western Cape government had convened the Africa Day conference to celebrate the positive developments in the continent over the past decade. These include unprecedented economic growth of 5.5% GDP, successes in conflict resolution with only less than five conflict spots remaining and numerous democratic elections around the continent.
Rasool said: "In one of the most perverse ironies of life, in the week that we were poised to celebrate Africa Day, a wave of conflict has hit our country, a conflict that we had hoped its manifestations we had seen the last of when Nelson Mandela became President in 1994."
In a passionate plea to the conference, Rasool said participants need to ask if South Africans may have internalised much of the violence that was visited on us during apartheid. "Maybe we need to reconnect as Africans, and rededicate ourselves to an agenda that fully overcomes our common history of colonialism, slavery and violence, and say that there must be a basis for solidarity and resolve not to do violence to one another".
Enquiries:
Palesa Morudu
Department of the Premier
Cell: 083 304 2425
Issued by:
Jeremy Michaels
Chief Director: Communications
Department of the Premier
Provincial Government of the Western Cape
Cell: +27 (0)82 772 1122
Office: +27 (0)21 483 9955
Fax: +27 (0)21 483 7196
E-mail: jmichaels@pgwc.gov.za
Postal address: PO Box 659, Cape Town, 8000.
Physical address: Office of the Premier, Mezzanine Level, M23, 7 Wale Street, Cape Town, South Africa, 8001.
Website: www.capegateway.gov.za
