Mcebisi Jonas, chair of MTN Group, told business and government leaders on Thursday that South Africa’s recent wave of anti-immigrant violence undermines the economic integration the continent needs to grow.
MTN operates in about 20 African and Middle Eastern markets and depends on subscriber growth outside South Africa.
Jonas said properly managed migration has historically supported South Africa’s economy rather than drained it.
He pointed to the role migrant labour played in building the country’s mining, agricultural and commercial sectors, along with regional trading networks such as West African merchant corridors and Somali business communities that have connected African economies for generations.
He said South Africa’s real problem is not too many migrants but too little growth and too much exclusion, adding the country loses skilled citizens to emigration while making it difficult for skilled foreigners to stay.
Jonas spoke at the Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation’s Winter Seminar focusing on Migration and Africa. The event addressed months of attacks on immigrant-owned businesses in South Africa, including vigilante raids on shops and forced evictions of foreigners into makeshift camps.
Continental integration under the African Continental Free Trade Area depends on the movement of goods, capital and people across borders.
Jonas said South Africa cannot present itself as open for investment while treating African workers and traders with hostility.
He described this as sending a contradictory message: Africans are welcome as customers and investors but not as people.
“Our markets are in Africa. Our opportunities are in Africa. Our future is in Africa,” he said.
“South Africa’s economic crisis is a product of weak growth, poor governance, inadequate education outcomes, infrastructure failures and structural inequality.
If every foreign national left the country tomorrow, those problems would remain.
“The protests have been driven by opportunistic politicians who are manipulating people’s fears and anxieties for electoral advantage ahead of the November local government elections.
“Criminal syndicates and hooligans have seen an opportunity to expropriate people’s businesses and loot the possessions of those who are driven out.
“We are witnessing the operation of malign outside networks of funders, organisers and social media operators of bot farms,” he said.
“In this instance, we do not know whether their agenda is about boosting the prospects of local political groups, destabilising SA, or isolating it from its neighbours.
“I think many countries have denied the role played by foreign intelligence agencies.
“What we can say is that the attempts to direct blame for SA’s problems on foreigners are fundamentally mistaken. The deterioration in our cities, collapse of public services, unemployment and an economy that has failed to generate enough opportunities are the result of policy failures accumulated over many years.” — Business Day
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