MALEMA: “DOCUMENT THEM SO WE KNOW WHO IS HERE” A lot of South Africans heard the word “document” and immediately understood it to mean: give illegal foreigners South African IDs and citizenship. That is not what Julius Malema has been arguing. His position is that South Africa should not have millions of people living inside the country while the state does not properly know who they are, where they live or how to trace them when something goes wrong. Malema previously explained his argument this way: “Everybody has to be documented so that if any wrongdoing happens, we can find your location.” He repeated the documentation argument again amid the current debate around undocumented migrants and the Ekurhuleni murders. The important distinction is this: Documentation does not automatically mean South African citizenship. A foreign national can remain a citizen of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Nigeria, Malawi or any other country while holding lawful immigration or work/business status in South Africa. Malema's broader argument is that bringing undocumented people into a legal system would make them more visible to the state rather than allowing them to operate completely outside it. His comments clearly support identification and traceability; claims about the exact permits, tax arrangements or business-registration mechanism would require a more detailed policy proposal than the remarks reported so far. And that is where the real debate should be. South Africans can still agree or disagree strongly with Malema's immigration policy. People can argue for deportation instead. Others can argue for tighter borders and much tougher immigration enforcement. But we should debate what the man actually said. Because there is a huge difference between: “Give every foreigner a South African ID.” and “Make sure everyone living in South Africa is documented and traceable.” Those are not the same policy. Perhaps the bigger question South Africa should be asking is: Which approach gives the country more control, having undocumented people living outside the system, or creating a lawful system in which the state knows exactly who is here and what legal status they hold? #ThePatriotSA #malema #SouthAfrica #document - @palesatenyane