Güney Afrika’nın 30 Haziran Sınır Dışı Süresi Afrika’da Devlet Otoritesini Gözler Önüne Seriyor

What South Africa’s June 30 deadline reveals about state authority and African integration

The events surrounding South Africa’s self-imposed June 30 deadline for undocumented foreign nationals to leave the country may come to be remembered as one of the most extraordinary chapters of governance in post-apartheid Africa. Yet they should also jolt us towards greater solidarity and unity, and inject fresh urgency into Africa’s integration agenda. Africa has witnessed mass expulsions before. Ghana’s Alien Compliance Order of 1969 forced hundreds of thousands of West Africans, mostly Nigerians, to leave. Uganda under Idi Amin expelled its Asian population in 1972. Nigeria’s “Ghana Must Go” exercise of 1983 led to the repatriation of well over a million migrants, mostly Ghanaians. These episodes were regrettable, traumatic and, in some cases, catastrophic. But they had one thing in common: they were state-driven policies, executed by governments exercising sovereign authority, however myopically.