<\/p>\n
Speaking during a biannual conversation hosted by the University of SA’s Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs in Pretoria, Mbeki said blaming migrants diverted attention from the underlying causes of economic hardship. \u201cIt is very, very wrong, absolutely wrong, to say these crises of unemployment and poverty are caused by undocumented migrants,\u201d Mbeki said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s false, completely false. There are people who are trying desperately hard to protect the culprit, the real person who is messing up.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mbeki said unemployment and poverty required an accurate diagnosis before people could develop effective solutions. \u201cThe problem of unemployment and the problem of poverty are very serious problems,\u201d Mbeki said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have to solve them, and to solve them, we must make the correct diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mbeki acknowledged that undocumented migration remained a challenge and said immigration laws should be enforced. \u201cThere is a challenge of undocumented people in the country,\u201d Mbeki said. \u201cThere\u2019s a law in this country which says if you want to come here, you must get your visas. That law must be respected.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The remarks come amid increasing tensions over undocumented migrants and renewed public debate about immigration enforcement, employment and access to public services.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mbeki also addressed recurring military coups in the Sahel, linking the seizures of power partly to public frustration with political systems dominated by small groups of influential families.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Using Mali as an example, Mbeki said regular elections created the appearance of democratic competition while political power continued to rotate among four families. \u201cWhat you don\u2019t see is that all of these elections that have been held in Mali over these decades have been about changing power between four families,\u201d Mbeki said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s why you then get a coup. The people say, \u2018We\u2019ve had enough of these four families.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mbeki said military takeovers involving younger soldiers in Sahel countries reflected dissatisfaction with political systems that had failed to deliver meaningful participation and change.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
–ChannelAfrica–<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":43180,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_members_access_role":[],"_members_access_error":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"news-type":[78,26],"class_list":["post-48937","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-featured","news-type-general_news","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"Former South Africa (SA) President Thabo Mbeki has rejected claims that undocumented African migrants are responsible for the country\u2019s unemployment and poverty crises.","published_date":"","news_description":"Former South Africa (SA) President Thabo Mbeki has rejected claims that undocumented African migrants are responsible for the country\u2019s unemployment and poverty crises.","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48939,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/48937\/revisions\/48939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43180"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=48937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}