Sud Africa

South Africa has accused the US of using Kenyan nationals without work permits at a facility processing applications by white South Africans for refugee status.

Seven Kenyans were arrested after intelligence reports revealed that people “had recently entered South Africa on tourist visas and had illegally taken up work” at the centre, said a statement from South Africa’s department of home affairs.

Washington accused South Africa of “interference” in its efforts to admit white Afrikaners as refugees, in a response issued to Agence France-Presse.

The US is offering asylum status to Afrikaners as it says the community is facing persecution. South Africa’s government has rejected the claims.

The US has reduced its yearly intake of refugees from around the world from 125,000 to 7,500, but says it will prioritise Afrikaners, who are mostly descendants of Dutch and French settlers.

This is one of the issues that have caused a sharp deterioration in relations between South Africa and the Trump administration.

South Africa says the Kenyan nationals arrested in Tuesday’s raid will now be deported and will be banned from entering the country for five years.

They had previously been denied work visas but were found “engaging in work despite only being in possession of tourist visas, in clear violation of their conditions of entry into the country”, the statement said.

South Africa also expressed concern that foreign officials appeared to have coordinated with undocumented workers and said it had reached out to the US and Kenya to resolve the matter.

The home affairs department said the raid showcased the commitment that South Africa shared “with the United States to combating illegal immigration and visa abuse in all its forms”.

No US officials were arrested and the operation was not at a diplomatic site, it said.

While the State Department is yet to respond to the BBC’s request for comment, in a statement issued to US publications, Tommy Pigott, principal deputy spokesperson for the State Department, said the department was “seeking immediate clarification from the South African government” on the issue and expected “full cooperation and accountability”.

“Interfering in our refugee operations in unacceptable,” US publication The Hill quoted Pigott saying.

The processing of applications by white South Africans is being done by RSC Africa, according to the US embassy in South Africa. RSC Africa is a Kenyan-based refugee support centre operated by Church World Service (CWS).

The BBC has asked RSC Africa for comment.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that Afrikaners are being subjected to a “genocide” in South Africa, even though there is no evidence that white farmers are more likely to be the victims of crime than their black counterparts.

He offered Afrikaners refugee status earlier this year after South African President Cyril Ramaphosa signed a law allowing the government to seize land without compensation in rare instances.

A first group of about 50 people flew to the US on a chartered plane – it is not clear how many others have moved, or are in the process of applying.

Because of the legacy of the racist apartheid system, the majority of privately owned farmland in South Africa is owned by the white community and South Africa’s government is under pressure to provide more land to black farmers. However, it stresses that no land has yet been seized under the new law.

South Africa has repeatedly tried to mend fences with the Trump administration, most famously when Ramaphosa led a high-level delegation to the White House earlier this year.

However, this backfired when Trump ambushed him with images, videos and news reports allegedly showing that the government was persecuting white people.

One video featured firebrand South African opposition figure Julius Malema singing: “Shoot the Boer [Afrikaner], Shoot the farmer”.

However, a South African court has ruled that this song, which Malema often chants at his political rallies, is not hate speech.

Last month, the US boycotted the G20 summit in South Africa and has said it would not invite South African officials to its meetings since it took over leadership of the grouping of the world’s biggest economies.

The case of two black women who were allegedly shot and fed to pigs by a white farmer and two of his workers has caused outrage in South Africa.

Maria Makgato, 45, and Lucia Ndlovu, 34, were allegedly looking for food on the farm near Polokwane in South Africa’s northern Limpopo province in August when they were shot.

Their bodies were then alleged to have been given to pigs in an apparent attempt to dispose of the evidence.

A court has begun hearing whether to grant bail to farm owner Zachariah Johannes Olivier, 60, and his employees Adrian de Wet, 19, and William Musora, 50, ahead of their murder trial.

The three men have not yet been asked to enter a plea in court, which will happen when the trial begins at a later date.

Protesters demonstrated outside court in Polokwane, holding placards demanding that the suspects be denied bail.

Inside, the courtroom was packed with families of the victims and the accused – and magistrate Ntilane Felleng agreed to an application for the proceedings to be filmed by the media, saying it was in the public interest to do so.

After several hours, she adjourned the bail hearing until 6 November to allow for further investigations – so the suspects remain in custody.

Earlier, Ms Makgato’s brother Walter Mathole told the BBC the incident had further exacerbated racial tension between black and white people in South Africa.

This is especially rife in rural areas of the country, despite the end of the racist system of apartheid 30 years ago.

The three men in court in Polokwane also face charges of attempted murder for shooting at Ms Ndlovu’s husband, who was with the women at the farm – as well as possession of an unlicensed firearm.

Mabutho Ncube survived the ordeal on the evening of Saturday 17 August – and crawled away and managed to call a doctor for help.

He says he reported the incident to police and officers found the decomposing bodies of his wife and Ms Makgato in the pigsty several days later.

Mr Mathole said he was with officers and saw a horrific sight inside the pig enclosure: his sister’s body which had been partly eaten by the animals.

The group had reportedly gone to the farm in search of edible food from consignments of recently expired or soon-to-be-expired produce. These were sometimes left at the farm and given to the pigs.

The family of Ms Makgato say they are devastated by her killing – especially her four sons, aged between 22 and five years old.

“My mum died a painful death, she was a loving mother who did everything for us. We lacked nothing because of her,” Ranti Makgato, the oldest of her sons, tearfully told the BBC.

“I think I’ll sleep better at night if the alleged killers are denied bail,” he added.

The opposition Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) party has said the farm should be shut down.

“The EFF cannot stand by while products from this farm continue to be sold as they pose a danger to consumers,” it said after the bodies were found.

The South African Human Rights Commission has condemned the killings and called for anti-racism dialogues between affected communities.

Groups representing farmers, who are often white, say farming communities feel under attack in a country with a high rate of crime – though there is no evidence farmers are at any greater risk than anyone else.

There have been two other incidents that have ratcheted up racial tension recently.

In the eastern province of Mpumalanga, a farmer and his security guard were arrested in August for the alleged murder of two men at a farm in Laersdrift near the small town of Middleburg.

It is alleged the two men, whose bodies were burnt beyond recognition, were accused of stealing sheep.

The accused remain in custody while the ashes undergo DNA analysis.

The most recent case involves a 70-year old white farmer who is alleged to have driven over a six-year-old boy, breaking both of his legs, for stealing an orange on his farm.

The bail hearing for Christoffel Stoman, from Lutzville in Western Cape province, is ongoing.

The court has heard that mother and son were walking past the farm as they made their way to town to buy groceries.

It is alleged the six-year-old stopped to pick up an orange that was on the ground – and the mother watched on in horror as the farmer allegedly mowed him down.

The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) said the farmer was facing two counts of attempted murder and reckless driving.

NPA spokesperson Eric Ntabazalila told the BBC that the state was opposing the accused’s application for bail.

Two political parties – the African Transformation Movement and the Pan Africanist Congress – are calling for the expropriation of Mr Stoman’s farm following the incident.

South Africa’s African National Congress (ANC) has suggested forming a government of national unity after losing its parliamentary majority in last week’s elections.

It says it has reached out to all parties but negotiations are still underway.

“The results indicate that the South Africans want all parties to work together,” ANC spokesperson Mahlengi Bhengu-Motsiri told journalists.

The ANC got about 40% of the vote, with the centre-right Democratic Alliance (DA) on 22%, the MK party of former President Jacob Zuma on 15% and the radical Economic Freedom Fighters on 9%.

This was the first time the ANC has lost its majority since Nelson Mandela led it to victory in the first democratic elections following the end of the racist system of apartheid in 1994.

Under South Africa’s proportional representation system, any government would need to be formed of parties which together got more than 50% of the vote.

Ms Bhengu-Motsiri said the ANC has had discussions with the DA, the EFF and other smaller parties.

She revealed that despite reaching out to MK, there has been no positive response.

The ANC spokesperson added that the ANC would like to resolve this quickly as parliament convene in less than two weeks.

Its first priority will be to elect a president to form the next government.

Since the results were announced, there has been feverish speculation in South Africa about what sort of coalition could be formed.

Forming a government of national unity would allow the ANC to sidestep the dilemma of who to work with.

A coalition with the DA would have angered many party activists who see it as representing the interests of the white minority – a charge the party denies.

The DA also opposes two of the ANC’s core policies – its black empowerment programme, which aims to give black people a stake in the economy following their exclusion under apartheid, and the National Health Insurance (NHI) Bill, which promises universal healthcare for all.

However, working with two radical parties that broke away from it – MK or the EFF – would alarm the business community, as they both favour seizing white-owned land without compensation and nationalising the mining sector.

There is also a wide chasm between MK and the ANC due to the personal animosity between President Cyril Ramaphosa and Mr Zuma, the man he replaced as ANC leader in 2018 after a bitter power struggle.

Mr Zuma has said he is open to working with the ANC as long as it has a new leader, while the ANC has said President Ramaphosa will not be removed and that it is non-negotiable.

While it will be difficult to get parties from across South Africa’s political spectrum to agree on common policies, Ms Bhengu-Motsiri was optimistic.

“We believe that despite any differences we may have, working together as South Africans, we can seize this moment to usher our country into a new era of hope,” she said.

She added that the ultimate decision on the way forward was up to the ANC’s national executive committee, which will be meeting on Thursday.

South Africa has previously had a government of national unity.

Following the historic 1994 elections, Mr Mandela’s ANC worked with his former enemies in the National Party, which was responsible for the implementation of apartheid, as well as the Inkatha Freedom Party, a conservative party with a ethnic Zulu base, whose supporters had frequently clashed with ANC activists, leading to thousands of deaths.

Anche il Sud Africa, con una delegazione di stilisti e creativi emergenti, parteciperà alla Torino Fashion Week in programma nel capoluogo piemontese dal 27 giugno al 3 luglio.

Dal 2010 il settore sudafricano del tessile, dell’abbigliamento, della pelletteria e delle calzature ha avuto una vera e propria una rinascita, dopo essere stato messo quasi in ginocchio da produzioni provenienti dall’estero e meno costose, grazie all’introduzione del programma di competitività del settore tessile e abbigliamento (CTCP) del Governo e a un focus del Piano d’azione per la politica industriale (IPAP) che ha fornito agli operatori del settore locale una piattaforma per lanciare un ambito davvero competitivo.

Il tessile abbigliamento in Sud Africa riveste un ruolo significativo non solo per la creazione di posti di lavoro, ma anche per l’intera filiera costituita da piccoli agricoltori che forniscono materie prime lavorate, come cashmere (dalla capra indigena), lana (di pecora), seta selvatica e cotone. E ha, dati alla mano, una sua tipicità che non passa inosservata: quattro lavoratori su cinque sono donne.

Negli ultimi tempi il settore sta lanciando una sfida non facile, è cioè competere con Paesi come la Cina, l’India e il Vietnam che producono – e questo il mercato europeo, e italiano in particolare, lo sanno  – beni molto più economici. E per questo occorrono capitali ma anche molte abilità e capacità di ricerca. Il governo sudafricano ha pubblicato il suo decimo piano d’azione sulla politica industriale (IPAP), con particolare attenzione all’approfondimento dello sviluppo industriale, all’accelerazione della trasformazione economica radicale e all’aumento della capacità di produrre prodotti a valore aggiunto. La rinascita del settore dell’abbigliamento e del tessile è parte integrante di questo piano.

E proprio nell’ambito di questa strategia di governo e non solo che una delegazione di oltre 20 designer sudafricani emergenti parteciperà alla Torino Fashion Week 2018 per trovare nuovi mercati, esporre i propri marchi e talenti e incontrare potenziali partner per migliorare e innovare le capacità produttive e portare avanti l’industria della moda sudafricana. Il 28 giugno, in occasione del ‘South Africa Day’, si svolgeranno una serie di sfilate in cui sarà possibile ammirare tutto il colore, la fantasia, la creatività degli stilisti che porteranno in passerella le molteplici anime della Nazione Arcobaleno, come la definì uno dei suoi figli più importanti, l’Arcivescovo Desmond Tutu.

Per chi volesse saperne di più sulla moda e sul tessile sudafricano e/o fosse alla ricerca di partnership interessanti potrà partecipare il 2 luglio, dalle ore 10,30, nella Sala Sella del Centro Congressi di Torino (Via Nino Costa,8) ad una conferenza alla quale parteciperanno, tra gli altri, TSD Nxumalo, Console Generale del Sud Africa a Milano, Federico Daneo, Direttore del Centro Piemontese di Studi africani e l’Avv. Paolo Bertolino, Segretario generale Unioncamere Piemonte, oltre ad una rappresentanza di designer sudafricani e rappresentanti dell’industria tessile italiana.

Dall’8 aprile Italia e Sud Africa saranno più vicini grazie ai voli diretti che collegheranno Roma a Johannesburg. Niente più scali, niente più rotte alternative ma un unico, lungo viaggio di poco più di 10 ore che finalmente faciliterà i movimenti e i progetti dei tanti estimatori del paese africano. I voli, effettuati da Alitalia, saranno di tre tipologie, a seconda delle disponibilità economiche e delle esigenze dei passeggeri. E dopo Roma e Johannesburg ci auguriamo che anche altre città italiane e sudafricane possano essere collegate.