The bloodthirsty slaying of a defenceless Mozambican will hopefully serve as a wake-up call to all of us, writes Victor Kgomoeswana.
Johannesburg - Hardly a week after the gory pictures of the killing of Emmanuel Sithole - a Mozambican national - in Alexandra near Sandton, I am hopeful that South Africans can rise to the challenge and reject Afrophobia.
Several people, organisations, companies and political leaders have spoken against the attacks; some have taken commendable action.
Save a few red herrings and incidents of heckling, perhaps this is a crisis that could unite Africans and particularly ingrain the true love of self among all of us – because self-hate is at the heart of how (not why) we have brutally attacked our own in the name of poverty, unemployment and crime.
Let us deal with the red herrings later; including whether or not photographer James Oatway and reporter Beauregard Tromp should have taken the pictures of the attack on Emmanuel.
Key indicators are encouraging so far. Follow-up action might take longer to materialise, but there are noteworthy developments to make us optimistic.
After all, we are South African; we overcame the worst crime against humanity to give birth to what is among the best constitutions in the world.
Our problems notwithstanding, I propose that we commend those behind the following:
Not in His Majesty’s name!
Catastrophic consequences
His Majesty King Goodwill Zwelithini on Monday addressed his subjects at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban.
In his anti-xenophobia address to about 3 000, His Majesty must be commended for displaying an awareness of what happened in Rwanda before the genocide of 1994 – when Hutus blamed their misfortunes on the Tutsi minority to the extent of mounting a campaign to exterminate the “cockroaches”.
This means he understands that statements made in jest, or casually, can lead to catastrophic consequences.
Although he correctly insists he did not call for anyone to be killed, his gesture is commendable.
But as much as we cannot attribute the killing to his earlier calls for the immigrants to “pack their bags and leave South Africa”, the Durban rally did not singlehandedly stop the attacks.
So far, only seven, versus about 60 in the 2008 episode, have died; none since the rally by His Majesty.
Credit must go to whoever prevailed upon the king to respond, although later than he could and should have, to the abuse of his name and cultural stature to perpetrate hate crimes against fellow Africans.
Now, thanks to the power of the media, when one searches for His Majesty vis-à-vis xenophobia, there will be more than his original video clip to go by; the latest will be a message of reconciliation and peaceful co-existence.
Which calls to question His Majesty’s snide remarks against the media – but that is a side issue for now.
Love or hate them, marches are part of human expression whenever a public show of solidarity is called for. Since the rally in Durban, plenty of meetings, conferences and marches were held to register the rejection of Afrophobia.
Labour federation Cosatu reminded us all that when the marching and protests are over and done with, unemployment still has to be addressed.
It will be remiss not to take this seriously. However, all major centres witnessed different forms of protest.
Notably, Gauteng premier David Makhura promised that the government would not repeat the mistakes of 2008. He meant that after registering our unhappiness with the attacks, we should not relax in the false belief that everything has been resolved.
Since no further killings took place after the murder of Emmanuel Sithole was published, it is easy to assume everything is under control.
It is also commendable that the Government went all the way to deploying the army to troubled spots; what else could be done?
Still, there is truth in what Premier Makhura said. Quelling the unrest and stopping the killing is but the first step. When all is under control, it is important to follow up on the underlying issues, such as unemployment, the un-employability of many young South Africans, poverty, lack of opportunity and poor service delivery.
Law enforcement and the control of immigration are other major issues to be addressed. It is therefore commendable President Jacob Zuma set up his inter-ministerial committee under the chairmanship of Minister Jeff Radebe.
Some have criticised the president for responding too slowly. The jury is out on that; but nothing beats a head of state speaking out as much as he has over that past days against Afrophobia.
He is not running the country by himself, though by setting up the committee, and hopefully holding it to account to deliver, we can get somewhere. Will that happen soon enough and convince the rest of Africa, though?
Isolation of South African companies and artists
In Mozambique, Kenmare Resources repatriated about 62 South Africans based at its titanium mine due to concerns over their safety.
Sasol suspended operations at its low-pressure compression project being run by contracted service providers as well. There was a demonstration outside MTN’s regional office in Abuja, Nigeria. All these developments in one week point to a deeper crisis unless action follows quickly.
Business Against Xenophobia
MTN and Sasol are not minor companies. Their footprint across Africa and their contribution to the GDP of South Africa call for more action before other companies suffer the same fate.
We might be seeing one or two isolated cases for now, but soon it could be a massive flame of rejection – tantamount to sanctions against South Africa by the rest of the continent. Although calls have been made by diplomats and many other leaders for African countries not to retaliate, we have read of concerts in Harare and the UK being cancelled, affecting artists such as BigNuz, Kelly Khumalo, Cassper Nyovest and Ringo.
Does that look like the beginnings of a cultural boycott of South Africa or what?
I was part of a summit organised by the Nepad Business Foundation in Sandton on Thursday – one of many taking place elsewhere.
In welcoming the guests Dr Reuel Khoza, chairman of Nedbank, asked the question: who can really tell the difference between the Mosotho of the Free State and one from Lesotho, or an Ndebele from Zebediela from one who hails from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe?
Speaker after speaker pointed to how business is feeling the pinch already. This acknowledgement of the risk posed by how we treat African immigrants here in South Africa is a good start by business leaders, though the less than overwhelming attendance suggested the message has not yet sunk in.
Perhaps, when more incidents such as those affecting MTN and Sasol are reported, business leaders will start considering action against Afrophobia as a strategic must-do, not an act of social responsibility.
That might be another matter at the heart of our problems, leadership-wise, as one of the civil society activists suggested.
In Dr Khoza’s opinion, acting against Afrophobia is too late for business. He argues that big business should ask deeper questions about how to transform the economy of South Africa to make it more inclusive so that we never have to deal with township youth attacking shopkeepers from neighbouring countries.
Some of the red herrings I referred to earlier include the attack on the media for publishing what President Zuma called a “terrible picture”. His Majesty also weighed in on this anti-media sentiment. I heard callers to radio stations also ask why the journalists were willing to take pictures of someone being attacked, instead of helping him?
At the risk of stating the obvious, did we not apprehend those accused of killing Emmanuel Sithole because of the picture? Another obvious point: did the photograph not also show many residents and passers-by looking on as Emmanuel was being attacked?
If we do not mind looking on while others are being fatally attacked, what should a photojournalist or reporter at the scene do?
The way in which we demonise the media almost suggests that James Oatway and Beauregard Tromp should have put their cameras aside to intervene – or run away from the scene – to avoid having to present a “terrible picture” for a front-page story.
I even heard suggestions that they should have taken the pictures and handed them to the police.
Do the people suggesting this understand what perpetrators of such acts do to photographers who are known to hand over their pictures to the police?
My question is: why did the reporters get to the scene of the crime before the police? Somebody must have told them about what was happening there…
Even if those who tipped of the media about the incident called the journalists instead of the police, we should ask why they believed more in the media than the police?
Media and police
Does that not show us that we have more faith in the media than in law enforcement agencies? Why is that?
Instead of accusing media for being alarmist or sensationalist, we should rather be ashamed of ourselves for being in denial about the extent of the problems facing our country. Maybe then we will act with a sense of purpose and urgency – which is what is called for at this point of Africa’s history.
Africa is bleeding on our doorstep. It needs cooperation, not accusations.
* Kgomoeswana is author of Africa is Open for Business, anchor of CNBC Africa’s weekly show Africa Business News, and anchor of the daily show Power Hour on PowerFM. He writes in his personal capacity.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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