You can call it xenophobia, but South Africans are angry and demand more from their government, writes Jongisilo Pokwana ka Menziwa.
Johannesburg - The greatest calamity our country faces is not what happened with what some called xenophobia and others called Afrophobia, or simply acts of sporadic, opportunistic criminality.
It is, rather, what lies ahead – a possible chaotic and uncontrollable mass national revolution – if the conditions that brought us here are left unturned.
It is horrible and indescribable, regrettable and embarrassing, not only to South Africa, but to the countries of those people who have sought refuge here.
People cannot be fooled by the denial of the effects of the influx to cities, whether it is the issue of urbanisation and rural exodus, or the incoming immigrant community. – the result being the competition for jobs and other opportunities.
In the eyes of many people in the townships, the immigrant merchants have more disposable income than they do. They view foreigners as living in better conditions than they do. They view them as being responsible for bringing in drugs and avoiding prosecution owing to either police bribery or having false, stolen identities.
This might sound petty, but if it is the reality on the ground, then it deserves attention. The dichotomy of this problem is that while many South Africans came out openly against the attacks on foreigners, the sentiments are that they were speaking against physical attacks, not against the conditions which they see prevailing between them.
This means we may see the attacks go away, but we must not be fooled into thinking that we have done away with the problem.
In 2008, the attacks might have been severe, but this year’s events are disturbing. The issues are not simply about competition for jobs.
The fact is that South Africa has a huge undocumented immigrant community. The number of people who are documented and operating legally in the country are a fraction of the immigrant community. Most of these are economic migrants, while many are running away from the politics back home. Then there are those displaced by war.
In Zimbabwe, there was the meltdown that led to the crumbling of its economy, with the result being the adoption of the US dollar. Many left home, even trained officers.
With military training at their disposal and the advantage of having no identity, if any, from such a group should resort to crime, it would be foolish of us to think our security forces could easily detect and capture these people.
The African Diaspora Forum, which I recently joined, co-ordinated a mass march in Johannesburg of people opposed to xenophobia, including religious leaders and the government of Gauteng led by Premier David Makhura. The Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) remained under the radar, presumably because its president, Kgosi Setlamorago Thobejane, made a clear statement representing the national executive committee, which in essence was in support of the statements made by King Goodwill Zwelithini, that Contralesa believed the king was misunderstood.
I am a member of the Contralesa provincial executive committee in Gauteng, and I voiced my vehement disagreement to this stance, which I viewed as disgraceful, regrettable and dishonest. It remains to be seen whether the African Diaspora Forum is not harbouring rotten elements. Ideally, it must have credible leadership, it must have members of the immigrant community who are lawfully documented and who are not linked to any criminal activities.
In the week of the attacks in Durban, a man living in a village in Cala in the Eastern Cape was said to have killed his girlfriend and buried her. It is said he mutilated her body, presumably for muti.
Before anyone could worry about scrutinising the story’s merits and credibility, sadly many took the matter personally and all they wanted to hear was that a “foreigner” had somehow entered South Africa and wandered deep into the remote rural village in the Eastern Cape in order to commit that murder.
While I do not wish to deal with the merits of this case, I do want to illustrate that deep emotional hate has developed as a result of the influx of illegal and undocumented immigrants, some of whom are linked to crime and drugs.
In a village near Mthatha, there was almost a community uprising over immigrants. Villagers believed immigrants were impregnating local girls and believed they had introduced drugs to the area. What prevails here is the anger of the community against the people they had warmly welcomed and thought would be good community residents.
One of the contributing factors to the way in which the recent conflict was dealt with, is that we are approaching local government elections. In March, King Zwelithini made utterances that were generally seen as a major contributing factor to what happened in Durban.
His statement was viewed by many as reckless and irresponsible. I am one of them. I thought he would be honourable and reverse his utterances as a matter of urgency, but clearly he refused to do so. Not only did he refuse, but politicians who had spoken unambiguously against his utterances were reportedly forced to apologise to him. Even if one would have wished not to believe these apologies, one cannot shy away from the role that was swiftly assumed by KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu. He seemed to suddenly become the king’s spokesman, blatantly reducing his premiership to that of messenger and spin doctor.
Speaking at the coronation of a chief soon afterwards, King Zwelithini rejected the link between his statement and the attacks on immigrants, stating that he only called for Zulus to take up arms and wage war against poverty by means of ploughing their fields. I will not go into the merits and demerits of his speech, but I have a superb command of the Zulu language and I listened carefully to that speech. I certainly cannot be fooled by anyone’s comment on it.
The facts are clear.
The questions that remain include: For how long will political gains on the electorate dictate how we respond to such national crises? Are we listening to people as a country? Have we made the distinction between the government and the people; between politics and tradition; between governing and controlling? At what point do we confront the issues on the ground, with the view of taking our people and our country forward?
Today we have a country in which a leader of a particular political party will say: “We represent the indigent, poor and downtrodden.”
Why do we still have this large section of society? What is being done to ensure that the rise in unemployment is reduced?
Beyond rhetoric, tokenism and political grandstanding, nothing is being done to effectively change the scenario.
Besides electrification of most of the country, in many rural areas taps still have no water. Then there is the unrealistic promise of free housing, which is a bone of contention because illegal immigrants who have fake identities are said to own RDP houses in South Africa.
As a result, what our people see on the ground is that no one cares and all they are seen to be is voting capital. People are demanding more from our government because they know it is a functional government, it is rolling out new infrastructure, it is the biggest employer in South Africa, led by a party that liberated our people.
An unavoidable revolt may loom because our people know the extent of the wealth of their country, which is the subject of enjoyment by only a select few, the privileged.
The dichotomy of the state of affairs in South Africa is therefore to be understood in the context of the prevailing circumstances, unattended to, which then compel the people to vent their frustration.
The sad part is that there are community leaders who support the expulsion of the immigrant community because of unemployment, poverty, crime and drugs.
Vusi Mona, a senior government official, said: “Now that we’ve all exhaled about xenophobia, let us get this right: Asking illegal immigrants to leave the country or deporting them to their countries of origin is not xenophobic.
“And I agree with the president that the rest of the continent must rise to the challenge and ask itself why its citizens are flocking to South Africa. African states must fix that which is wrong in their countries. We are anti-xenophobia, but the emotional blackmail against South Africa is simply not on.
“In spite of South Africa’s good intentions and relative prosperity, it simply cannot cope with increasing numbers of people jumping the border into the country.
“It comes down to resources.”
The reference to the president refers to a speech Zuma made in which he was arguing that our recent problems regarding violence cannot be viewed simply as South African problems, and that if there was no political or economic difficulties in our region, we would not carry such a burden in terms of the immigrant community.
I responded to Mona by saying: “Indeed you are right, Mr Vusi Mona. This time around I also fully support what the president said. We must not tiptoe around the problem and simply wish it away.
“The violence was totally wrong, but the response of countries such as Nigeria is both childish and pathetic. They must ask themselves why they are not wanted in Botswana. So the real work begins now, hence the new campaign must be called Beyond Xenophobia.”
Our government has some programmes to deal with the situation we are emerging from, but my priorities are:
* Creating lasting employment.
* The registration of all foreigners – black, white, Chinese, Indian.
* The strengthening of crime intelligence to nail corrupt officials.
* Waging war on drugs and everything linked to it.
* Waging war on organised crime and identity theft which make it easy for criminal elements among the immigrant community to remain undetected.
* Speeding up economic transformation and investments into the rural economy to reduce the influx into metros and big cities.
If we fail to do these things, then we are heading for disaster.
* Jongisilo Pokwana ka Menziwa is from the Pokwana Traditional Council and is chief executive of Vusizwe Foundation for Oral Historical Research, the regional chairman of Contralesa, and a council member for the Eastern Cape Provincial Archives and Records Service. He writes in his personal capacity.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
The Star