Former South African President, Thabo Mbeki, has refuted claims that the bulk of crimes in that country are committed by foreign nationals.
Mbeki said it is wrong to paint all foreign nationals with the same brush, adding that foreigners who are committing crimes in South Africa must be arrested and deported.
He made the remarks during a conversation with students and diplomats in Pretoria. Said, Mbeki:
We need to walk away from the false notion that the bulk of crime in this country is caused by foreigners. It is not correct.
The bulk of crime in this country is caused is committed by South Africans. There are foreigners who commit crimes.
You should arrest them and charge them. This is what we should do and avoid labelling other people.
Mbeki also said South Africans are not xenophobic.
The former President said that South Africa owes African countries for its independence, especially countries such as Angola and Mozambique where thousands of people were killed by the racist regime for supporting the country’s struggle for freedom. He said:
The African continent has felt, for a very long time, very, very close to this country, that it has its own responsibility to assist in the liberation of the people of South Africa.
You take a country like Mozambique just across our border, which lost thousands and thousands of people killed because it was refusing to walk away from the support here. The same thing happened in Angola.