Next time you meet a foreign national - especially a Somali - in South Africa, think twice before telling them to return to “their own country”.
There is really nothing for them to return to; its institutions have been hobbled for decades.
Instead, their desperation should humble us. While their country craves strong effectual institutions, we are trashing ours daily with power games, jostling for tenders and senseless cabinet reshuffles.
The gruesome terror attack in Mogadishu last Saturday put the spotlight on the perennial paralysis plaguing Somalia.
The worst living conditions in South Africa are paradise to most Somalis, whose country has not known peace since 1990 when Siad Barre was ousted.
The country has been at war for as long as the Midvaal mayor Bongani Baloyi has been alive.
Who am I to slight legitimate calls for our border and immigration control to be tightened, because that would be irresponsible!
Let us admit, however, that we do not quite appreciate what it is like to live in that looming prospect of a truck full of military-grade explosives crushing the Carlton Centre or Sammy Marks Square, if not Gateway or Century City, killing more than 300 people in one attack.
Having just returned from another country that only emerged from civil war, Liberia, perhaps my sensitivity is heightened.
My inclination to visit fellow African countries during their elections took me to Rwanda, Kenya and recently Liberia over a period of nine weeks.
As a South African, for whom elections are routine with no incidents, it was unnerving to be among Liberians who were fixated on delivering a peaceful election.
Bear in mind that this election offers Liberians the first peaceful transfer of power from one head of state to another in 75 years.
Yet, two days before the October 10 elections, they prayed for peace.
Politicians, media personalities, business leaders and regular Liberians faced a choice of 20 presidential candidates, and they openly flaunted their preference at times.
Still, in their political divergence they coalesced into a collective prayer for a peaceful election.
Meeting 25-year-olds who were raised in refugee camps made it clear for me: people who know war from experience neither talk glibly about it nor toy with conflict over provincial executive committees as we are wont to do here in South Africa.
They crave the first train out of Mogadishu to safety - anywhere far from the Horn of Africa.
Ask those Somalis lucky enough to have made it elsewhere in the world about how keen they are to return to the capital of that country.
Try 34-year-old Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah in the UK or 39-year-old Keinan Abdi Warsame, now living in Canada; you could even interview 48-year-old Ayaan Hirsi Magan or 62-year-old model and entrepreneur Zara Mohamed Abdulmajid, who are both living in the US. Who are these people, you ask?
You know them as long-distance runner Mo Farah, musician K’naan, politician and activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali and fashion model Imam.
Strife-torn Somalia, their homeland, spat them out and the world snatched them up.
Mo Farah was knighted for his sterling athletic accomplishment for the UK, after bagging gold medals in the 5000m and 10000m events at the last two Olympics.
K’naan was introduced to us courtesy of his Fifa World Cup 2010 song, Waving Flag.
These are among the more than a million Somalis spread across 20 countries, unable to deploy their talents to the benefit of their own people.
At least they have a choice, and because of their skills, top countries snatch them.
We must be careful what we do with our institutions, or who knows where we could end up! At the rate we are going, we might also want to be kind to the Somali refugees among us or assist them in the stabilisation of their country.
They would kill not for their preferred political candidate, but for institutions as strong as ours - the very ones we euthanise daily.
* Kgomoeswana is author of Africa is Open for Business, a media commentator and public speaker on African business affairs.Twitter handle: @VictorAfrica
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.