Posted: 2008-05-23 23:59 Who are we?  Presenter: David Williams Guest(s): Jerry Vilakazi - Click here to listen to the interview Summit TV speaks to Jerry Vilakazi from Business Unity South Africa (Busa) about conditions in the camps where Africans fearing for their lives are now living after a wave of xenophobic attacks DAVID WILLIAMS: Welcome to Face to Face. We’ve had violence in Gauteng - xenophobia is one cause it’s been ascribed to, but it’s much more complicated than that. How is business responding to this? To talk about this is Jerry Vilakazi chief executive of Business Unity South Africa (Busa). Jerry, broadly what is the reaction of Busa to this problem? JERRY VILAKAZI: We are very shocked. We find it very unfortunate - the timing of it. This is at a time when the economy is depressed - and when all the eyes of the world are upon South Africa with 2010 around the corner. Suddenly we have this kind of uprising all over the show. It’s a very unfortunate development. We condemn it as business in the strongest terms that we can - even if people have reasons to explain why we have these xenophobic attacks we condemn them… DAVID WILLIAMS: You’ve been out there on the ground - you’ve gone out and tried to find out what’s going on - what is your impression? JERRY VILAKAZI: I think going to Alexander with a number of chief executives and business leaders today really gave us the feel on the ground - you can feel the tension. In Alexander the local leadership has come forward and is talking to the people on each street in the community saying: “Let’s stop this situation. Let’s find better solutions.” We also went to the police stations where there were more than 500 of the people that are displaced - families have been separated, and a woman just gave birth to her baby two days ago. The environment is not one that you’d like to look at. We entered into a tent where we found a man that was attacked - who was still lying there in blankets. Two journalists were interviewing him from Germany. When we approached he was uncomfortable and stopped when he saw us - because he thought that we were probably South Africans that were coming to spy on them. We had to assure him that we’re coming from business - and we were there to look at ways of helping. So the situation is very depressing - but we remain very optimistic. We welcome the strong decisive decisions that we are seeing now coming from government to stop it… DAVID WILLIAMS: Are we though? What are those reactions, and are they not too late? JERRY VILAKAZI: I don’t think it is too late. I think the situation itself was very unfortunate - I think it took all of us as a country unexpectedly. Nobody thought this would happen in South Africa at this point in time. So I think we have seen the police move in. The situation was beyond control in some of the areas - they couldn’t cope with the situation. We have now seen government taking a decision to send the army as a backup where it is needed. I think it’s a welcome move - that shows that something is being done. We’ve also seen government stepping in - a panel has been appointed to try and establish why. There are definitely some root causes - underlying factors - that whoever is agitating these xenophobic attacks has actually taken advantage of this, there’s something that’s made our people and the communities vulnerable to being influenced… DAVID WILLIAMS: But isn’t it clear - common sense tells us on the one hand it’s xenophobic, and yes there are issues around xenophobia - but it’s also the mob, it’s also criminals? JERRY VILAKAZI: Yes, clearly there are criminal factors behind this whole issue. We cannot tolerate and accept any explanation. We do understand that there are innocent community members who have become bystanders - who have participated because of reasons that were worrying them, issues of unemployment. Those are the conditions I think this afternoon - when the business leaders addressed the community, and the community gave us their interpretation of things on the ground - they raised the issues of high levels of crime and unemployment… DAVID WILLIAMS: But these are not surprising things? You as business you can go there and listen to them - and be sympathetic - but surely you also have to address yourself to government and say: “Has your policy been doing what it should be doing?” JERRY VILAKAZI: We believe the policies are doing what the policies should be doing, but we’ve always been concerned that in the situation here in South Africa - while together with government the policies we have seen for instance on job creation, in the past few years we have seen a number of jobs created year on year increasing - but that’s not yet at the right level, and that’s why we’ve committed to policies such as Asgisa that aspires for 6% to 7% growth - because we need to reach those levels of economic growth to be able to generate sufficient jobs. The business sector is investing in Business Against Crime because we’ve always known that unless we deal with the crime... DAVID WILLIAMS: All this sounds like business as usual. It sounds like all the things you’re supporting - Asgisa and Business Against Crime. It’s business as usual - surely we need something different now? JERRY VILAKAZI: We definitely do need something different - but at the same time we need to be cognisant of the policies that we have pursued some of which are beginning to bear results. However, having said that this requires that we all react - and do so speedily. That is why you saw today senior business leaders and chief executives of big companies going out there to see for themselves. We realise there are some allegations and accusations for instance that certain sectors and companies have discriminated against locals - and appointed foreign nationals because they pay them less and all those things. We wanted to listen to see if there’s evidence to support those kinds of accusations - this afternoon we said to the community “Report that to the authorities…” DAVID WILLIAMS: What should business people do? Those who weren’t there today - there’s a broad business community - what are they supposed to do in reaction to this? JERRY VILAKAZI: I think at this stage there is a serious crisis. Firstly we all need to pull together resources - we saw the people have no blankets, we saw the people queuing for food. We want to thank the business community that’s already gone out to provide food packs working with churches and other organisations. We want to encourage more business people. There is a crisis centre that’s been set up by the Gauteng government. We would like people to contact us at the Busa office or to contact that crisis centre so we pool resources in the short term to assist those that are displaced. At the same time we must start engaging very seriously to look at a medium to long term solution to this problem. www.summit.co.za Transcripts: onsub1@avusa.co.za mvr/met Comments Related to this transcript: Comment on this transcript... Name : Email : Comments :