Coalition Against Xenophobia:
African Renaissance Civic Movement, Alternative Media Productions, Action Aid International, Amnesty International (South Africa), Animal Rights Africa, Anti-Privatisation Forum, Black Sash Trust, Blakbox Imprint, Ceasefire Campaign, Central Methodist Church / Refugee Ministries, Children's Rights Project, Christians for Peace in Africa, Earthlife Africa (Johannesburg) , Education Indaba Forum, Ethiopian Community of South Africa (ECSA), Foundation for Human Rights, Freedom of Expression Institute, General Industrial Workers Union of SA (GIWUSA), Golden Triangle Community Crisis Committee (Golcomm), Group of Refugees Without Voice, Imbawula Trust, Inner City Resource Centre, Islamic Relief Johannesburg, Jubilee South Africa, Keep Left, Khanya College, Kliptown Concerned Residents, Landless People's Movement Gauteng & Northwest, Lawyers for Human Rights, Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, Masibambane Unemployment Project, Medecins sans frontiers (Doctors without Borders, Merafong Demarcation Forum, NEHAWU Johannesburg, Pacifique Sukisa Foundation, Palestinian Solidarity Committee, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Samancor Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee, Samigos, Social Movements Indaba (SMI), Somali Association of South Africa (SASA), Sounds of Edutainment, Treatment Action Campaign, Ubuntu Indaba Forum, Umzabalazo we Jubilee, Workers World Media Production, Yeoville Stakeholders Forum

To: The Premier of Gauteng, Mbazima Shilowa;

The Department of Home Affairs;

The Department of Housing

As we gather today, united in our common outrage at the brutal acts of xenophobic violence unleashed over the last few weeks, it is important to remember that these horrific acts that have spurred us into action are the result of many years in which xenophobic attitudes, practices, and beliefs have been allowed to exist and proliferate amongst all of us. It is not uncommon for elected leaders, police and other government officials to voice xenophobic attitudes and beliefs in their actions. And the policies designed by the Department of Home Affairs have done little to integrate our brothers and sisters from other parts of Africa into our society. As ordinary citizens and members of civil society organisations come together to accept our responsibility for the persistence of xenophobia in society and to play a role in eradicating it, it would be appropriate for government to take responsibility for the role that it has played in allowing the current situation in which we find ourselves to prevail.

Those who have openly attacked others have claimed that South Africans are being denied access to scarce jobs, basic services, and better lives because of the need to compete with people from other African countries for limited resources. But poverty and unemployment are situations we share with our brothers and sisters from other parts of the continent as a result of the neoliberal macro-economic policies that all African countries have adopted. These policies are designed to pit one group of the working class against another, and the South African government has made no attempt to develop alternatives to this system that would prevent struggles amongst us African people for 'the better life for all'. It has also been extremely slow to respond to our current crisis, offering only short-term, 'quick-fix' solutions without much time or attention being given to longer-term approaches that tackle the root causes of the problem. The desperate conditions in which many of us find ourselves today are the direct result of the policies adopted by the elected leaders of Africa.

As we take action as ordinary residents and members of civil society against xenophobia, we call on the South African government to acknowledge its role in the crisis and to assume responsibility for providing solutions to the problems that speak to the root causes of the problem, and that provide immediate relief to affected people and long-term change for us all.

To this end, we call on the South African government to:

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Provide immediate emergency support for individuals and families displaced by the current violence.

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Immediately suspend and revisit existing policies relating to immigrants, in particular those regarding the definition and treatment of refugees, both political and economic - No one is illegal! There should be no Lindela!

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Suspend the neoliberal macro-economic policy approach, and instead provide access for all who live in South Africa to proper jobs, decent quality housing, water, electricity, and the general means to live in a dignified manner so that there will be no need to fight over resources.

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Investigate the actions of the police and other state authorities in the current wave of violence, with the aim of devising mechanisms for encouraging anti-xenophobic practices amongst state authorities.

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Pledge of Solidarity

There is always the danger that a pledge made on the day of a march like this might be forgotten once the crowds have dispersed and the marchers have returned to their normal lives. But our pledge begins with the simplest of affirmations -

We will not forget what has happened here in these last two weeks. We will not forget the blood spilled of one brother by another. We will not forget the images of our parents and sisters fleeing the violence brought to bear in our name. And we will not forget that it took too long for us to act in defence of our family - a family that knows no borders. We remember so that we can work together to stop this violence and to ensure that

"never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another".

[Presented to representatives of immigrant communities of Johannesburg]