'Feel at home': Mapisa-Nqakula and Cape Town mayor tell foreigners

SA belongs to all who live in it.

This was the resounding message from Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and National Assembly speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula as they sought to assure foreign nationals that they were welcome in SA.

Speaking at the symbolic handover of the Cape Town city hall to parliament, Hill-Lewis said he hoped that President Cyril Ramaphosa's state of the nation address (Sona) — on the evening of the 32nd anniversary of Nelson Mandela's release — would be an opportunity for SA to come full circle to the moment when Madiba addressed the country and the world in 1990.

“I think particularly about the extraordinary intolerance that is being shown to those who have come to SA, sometimes walking thousands of kilometres, fleeing war and terror, famine and poverty, coming here looking for a better life.

“I hope this time we can say to all of those immigrants to SA who have come here for a better life that you should never ever feel afraid in this country. You should never have to apologise for who you are or where you come from in SA,” said Hill-Lewis.

He said the day Mandela delivered his speech from the city hall's balcony represented hope and optimism for the country.

“It represented the defeat of something old and unjust and the ushering in of something new, hopeful, uniting, peaceful, free and tolerant,” he said.

Hill-Lewis hoped this year's Sona, the first to take place outside the parliamentary buildings, would give to the country and the world a renewed sense of vision, of hopefulness, unity, coming together, peace, care, freedom and tolerance.

This was not necessarily the feeling of the country as it prepared for the Sona, he said.

Mapisa-Nqakula reiterated Hill-Lewis' message, saying many South Africans watched Mandela's historic February 11 1990 address from many countries across the world and on the continent where they were refugees.

This had been due to the country's brutal history, she said. 

“There were those who were watching that event on television from their prison cells. So, for us today, indeed, this SA belongs to all who live in it.

“So, if you are in the Free State, you are in Gauteng, you are in Cape Town in the Western Cape, it is SA, and it belongs to all of us. It belongs to all who live in it,” said Mapisa-Nqakula and thanked Hill-Lewis for raising the matter.

Their comments come a week after several political organisations question the employment of foreigners by SA companies. 

This year's Sona will be held at the Cape Town city hall after a devastating blaze that destroyed some parliamentary buildings.

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