Build One South Africa (BOSA) has issued a measured but firm response to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent address on immigration, urging the government to move beyond acknowledgment and deliver actionable solutions backed by funding and deadlines.
Speaking on behalf of the party, BOSA Deputy Leader Nobuntu Hlazo-Webster expressed appreciation that the President has now recognized the severity of the immigration challenges facing the nation. “We welcome the president finally acknowledging the scale of the problem because this has taken too long,” Hlazo-Webster said. However, she stressed that recognition must be followed by measurable implementation.
Hlazo-Webster framed the current situation as symptomatic of a broader governance shortfall. She pointed to scenes of citizens intervening in immigration enforcement as evidence that public trust in state institutions has eroded. “What we’ve witnessed in the streets is not simply a migration problem. We’ve been seeing a leadership vacuum when citizens begin acting in the place of immigration officials, in the place of police officers, in the place of border management authorities,” she explained.
While the presidential address referenced porous borders, strained asylum systems, and the need to strengthen the Border Management Authority, Hlazo-Webster noted a critical gap: the absence of concrete fiscal commitments. She questioned why systemic issues—such as the dysfunction within the Department of Home Affairs, chronic underfunding of border agencies, and overwhelmed asylum processing—were not addressed with specific remedial plans.
“We hear him describing the symptoms but not dealing with the causes,” Hlazo-Webster observed. She highlighted that mentions of relocating asylum facilities or bolstering border management lacked accompanying budget allocations or implementation schedules. Similarly, she noted that deportation budgets, historically inadequate, were not detailed with new funding assurances.
Drawing a parallel to prior government promises, Hlazo-Webster referenced the President’s repeated commitments to establish specialized courts for corruption and gender-based violence—initiatives that have yet to materialize at the scale or speed required. “We have not seen that implementation in the way that it has been needed,” she stated.
BOSA’s position, as articulated by Hlazo-Webster, is not one of outright rejection but of conditional engagement. The party affirms that acknowledging a crisis is a necessary first step, yet insists that sustainable resolution demands transparent timelines, dedicated resources, and accountable execution.
“We want to see timelines. We want to see resources to ensure that the issues are dealt with,” Hlazo-Webster concluded, underscoring the party’s call for governance that translates policy statements into operational reality.