SA Leaders’ Pre-Election Migrant Rhetoric Spurred Anti-Foreigner Sentiment – Malawian NGO Grouping

Riyaz Patel

Malawian civic organisations are demanding that the African Union and SADC hold South Africa’s leaders accountable for their statements on migration in the run-up to the May poll.

The NGOs believe those comments resulted in the sporadic looting of foreign-owned shops.

They’ve called on the SADC to convene an extraordinary session of the heads of states to resolve the matter.

One hundred and fifty Malawian NGOs, under the banner of Black Economic Empowerment Movement, said the AU must make a pronouncement on the black-on-black violence in South Africa, EWN reported.

The movement’s Bright Kampaundi: “That will force the South African leadership to take responsibility on its pronouncements on foreigners it was making during the campaign period. This has a direct bearing on what is happening right now.”

Kampaundi said it was saddening that the recently held SADC summit of heads of government didn’t discuss the ongoing violence in