South Africa High Commissioner Johnny Sexwale (left) said migrants to New Zealand should stop "bashing" and badmouthing their home country. Photo: Supplied / South Africa High Commission
South African migrants say it's nonsense for the High Commissioner to accuse expats of lying about conditions and crime rates in their home country.
South African High Commissioner in Wellington Johnny Sexwale told RNZ his compatriots travel and work abroad in the same way New Zealanders do, but then lie about their reasons and "bash" South Africa when they resettle here.
It came amid figures showing South Africans were the third largest nationality to take New Zealand citizenship last year.
Waikato man Philip Bothma said he became a New Zealand citizen after emigrating 27 years ago.
"He comes with this nonsense, absolute nonsense that we only come here for work, I gave up a management job, and I'm one of zillions," he said.
"The guys living here by us, their son is a specialised electrician. So you don't tell me we came here for jobs - the vast majority are because of crime."
Bothma was joined in New Zealand by his parents, after an incident in which they and his sister were carjacked as she came home from work.
"Three men stopped behind my sister's car, pointed pistols at my sister and retired parents, hijacked my sister's car and laptop. They were never apprehended. My sister and parents were just lucky they weren't shot dead like it ends in most cases sadly."
He and other South Africans RNZ spoke to said delays for South African passports were between one and two years, leaving them trapped in New Zealand if they have a family emergency, but don't yet have a New Zealand passport.
The High Commissioner last month acknowledged the high volumes of passport applications, and hoped a new Auckland consul would help speed up that process.
"We don't have a representative in Auckland, that's where we have the majority of South Africans, and once that is done I think it will ease too the pressure off the passport applications," he told RNZ.
He also said some South Africans lie about what motivated them to move, also saying that some expats were returning to their homeland to live.
"I tell you, I was spitting when I read that," said a Bay of Plenty woman, who asked to use only her first name Dorothy to avoid potential social media backlash.
"He's claiming they're going back - where are the statistics to support that? They have the fourth highest global murder rate of approximately 85 per day. They have one of the highest reported rapes in the world of about 115 per day, and they reckon that's only 50 per cent of what is actually happening."
According to the United Nations Office for Drugs and Crime, South Africa's murder rate in 2023/24 was the second highest for countries that publish crime data. The annual police crime statistics confirm there were 42,289 rapes in 2019/2020, which amounts to about 115 a day.
Dorothy believes South Africans want to set the record straight that serious crime is the reason behind most people leaving.
"Any South African, most of them, will have a story to tell - either directly, family and friends, or indirectly - where they know someone who knows someone that has happened to."
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
