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Maroela Media reports that on Thursday, trade union Solidarity handed over a memorandum to the embassies of each of the G20 member countries to the effect that SA must be held accountable for its “breach of international conventions on racial discrimination” at the upcoming G20 summit in November.
It was also sent to the European Union’s delegation in SA and to the African Union’s office in Southern Africa. By way of the memo, each of the countries concerned was implored to honour their own commitment to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (ICERD) by holding SA, as a co-signatory, accountable for its alleged non-observance of this convention. Dr Dirk Hermann, Solidarity chief executive, indicated: “As host of the G20 Summit, South Africa is in the global spotlight. We do not believe that G20 member states can be comfortable with South Africa violating UN conventions signed by the other member states through its government policies.”
He went on to argue: “This is precisely what South Africa is doing by way of its more than 140 racial laws. The government is using and intensifying policies that discriminate on the basis of race, rather than class, without there being any indication of an end date of such policies, or that such legislation is redressing anything.” Hermann said the G20 Summit was also an opportunity at which economic cooperation, and the obstacles in its way, could be discussed in depth. In this regard, SA’s race programmes were said by Solidarity to constitute a so-called non-tariff barrier for international companies seeking to do business in the country.
- Read the full original of the Afrikaans report in the above regard by Janice du Plessis at Maroela Media
- Solidarity’s memorandum can be read here
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