so as i leave jo-burg (for a couple weeks anyway), the country is going through a pretty crazy time. apparently people don't like us foreigners. for over a week now (or 2), "xenophobic" attacks has gripped the country, particularly in the townships (though its now moving to the city center). these are not just some minor protests, but actually locals wounding and killing (shooting, setting on fire, hacking...) foreigners, mostly from zim (but from other countries as well). many more foreigners have had to flee from their homes and stay in shelters and police stations just to avoid being attacked and killed.
and people said the craziness in zimbabwe was not the concern of south africa.
what is also surprising is the response from the government. after waiting an entire FIVE days to comment, the president finally acknowledged that there was a problem and it should be addressed. after waiting a couple more days he took "decisive" action this weekend by announcing that a panel had been set up to look into the attacks. i repeat, as the violence and killing escalate daily (even hourly), the president decides that what's most needed is a panel. A FREAKING PANEL. why the hell do we africans like to talk about stuff and not provide any actions?? it beats me. at least some of the local leadership and the police have stepped in to try to help, but every once in a while it'd be nice to have some backing from the top.
i think i shouldn't be surprised at the inaction of this administration anymore. this is the same president that went to zim after the electoral commission refused to release the election results and violence against the opposition supporters was increasing and declared: "there's no crisis in zimbabwe". right. this is the same president who sacks his health ministers cuz shes actually trying to do something to curb the spread of AIDS. right. this is the same administration that is part of a coalition in the UN security council blocking more decisive humanitarian action by the UN to provide aid and relief to residents of Myanmar. right.
alright, i've calmed down a bit...back to the attacks. apparently some locals believe that foreigners are taking jobs that "belong" to them and are doing so for less money (kinda remind you of the mexican situation in the states?). i think this issue needs to be addressed very forcefully, because it will not go away easily. some people need to realize that we live in a global society (SA especially is a melting pot filled with a ridiculous melange of people from different parts of the world). the government also needs to address this in 2 ways: 1. the legitimate claim of many s africans not having jobs. this includes education and up-skilling to fill more specialized jobs; and 2) the illegitimate use of violence as a recourse (not that violence is ever legitimate). I've always believed that violent people will act upon their violence regardless of what the situation around them is. only at times, do they find an outlet/excuse that actually makes them seem legitimate (like foreigners taking jobs, or many other times, religion). so these perpetrators of violence are nothing more than cruel and crazy people that desire to do harm to people. now they have an excuse to use.
there's no happy ending to this post. but i hope something is done quickly about this situation. otherwise, south africa, once a hopeful place, may resemble kenya. and then we'll have the west saying again: here we go again with africans.
4 comments:
Loumonne, interesting post.
Don't agree with your analysis on violence.
The masses take to violence just as the middle-class take to heated debates over red wine. Violence is the outlet of the people who feel they have nothing in this world. It's not justified but that's how it is. It's also not justified when some middle class bobo goes on a racist rant about how a black government is unable to run a country. Both are acts of violence, in that sense.
The acts of violence we've seen this past weekend is a sign that the people in the lowest socio-economic strata are angry beyond belief. They have no jobs, no future, and the government is far away from them. It's the knee-jerk reaction to the feeling of being robbed. What do I do in Egypt when I look away for a second and can't find my carkeys or phone? I think "Did that low-class car guard do it?". It's a moment of weakness, but it happens.
The same happens with white people in South Africa and black people. The same happens in the States with a white person and a Mexican. It happens in England with a black British guy and a Kossovan. When no concrete reason exists to explain injustice or sense of betrayal, blame the foreigner. Blame the bystander. Punish the foreigner in order to atone for my sense of hurt.
Violence is never justified but it never means that the perpetrators are inherently evil. Violence in South Africa (as you remember, Khutso explaining) is to do with anger, bitterness, and extreme financial strain. It's do with need. Homeboy needs to live, eat.
I can tell you having lived in England, violence there is random and boredom-driven. Kids are bored and have no direction in life. What do they do? They take pot shots at the quiet Chinese girl walking down the street. A bunch of white trash yobs beat up a Serbian guy or a Polish guy coming back from work. If you step into Mitcham or Brixton in London at the wrong time, you can (not always) count on being harrassed if you're a foreigner.
Xenophobia is going to rise with globalization unsettling local economies and governments, and people looking for reasons why their leaders are failing on their promises.
Hi Folu
I'm a journalist at France 24. It would be interesting to speak to you about the Zumbabwe situation for you right now. Is there a number I can call you on?
Thanks,
Sophie Pilgrim
spilgrim@france24.com.
Sean Jacobs has just circulated an article that’s been submitted to The Guardian (UK) on analysis of xenophobic acts in Gauteng.
MT
What's behind the murder and violence against immigrants?
By today, at least 15 people have been murdered in orchestrated
attacks by groups of South Africans against immigrants in poor
townships around Johannesburg. Two of these were burned to death. The
victims are mainly Zimbabwean immigrants. News reports quote the
attackers as saying the immigrants are "job stealers".
This is a modern, industrialised country, with one of the world's most
progressive constitutions, that prides itself on inclusivity. South
Africans champion such concepts as the "rainbow nation" and "the world
in one country", and despite much resistance, held a much-heralded
truth and reconciliation commission.
This makes the events of the last week even more vexing.
But South Africa has not confronted all its evil, evidently. The
xenophobia that prompted these attacks permeates society.
This despite the fact that South Africa's powerhouse industries - gold
mining and the manufacturing sectors of its industrial heartland of
Johannesburg - were built on migrant labour, much of it from
neighbouring countries, with populations that also paid a heavy prize
for their governments' and people's support of the anti-apartheid
struggle. They hosted political exiles and endured bombings,
assassinations and military aggressions.
Although it does not justify it, the immediate cause for the violence
of the last week is the desperation of sections of the poor black
South Africans living in subhuman conditions. South Africa remains the
most unequal country in the world. As polling firm Markinor (using
very optimistic measures) reported earlier this month, in an
increasingly youthful population (78% black), only 42 of every 100
South Africans have a job, 49% are poor (with monthly household income
below R2,400 or £1,700), 13% are HIV positive, 24% of homes have no
electricity, 32 % no tap water, 69% no hot water supply, and R21
(£1.4)of every R100 (£6.8) they earn, they spend on food.
Most of these people have consistently voted for the African National
Congress of Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, and next year they will
probably make Jacob Zuma South Africa's next president. What they have
witnessed under an ANC government, however, is how a small elite have
enriched themselves, how whites have actually benefited from freedom
and how the majority still lives in poverty with high rates of
violence and illness.
However, as Zwelinzima Vavi, leader of the country's largest trade
union federation, COSATU, noted this week, the poor and desperate are
not about to revolt, but instead will turn against foreigners.
Vavi's comment has a political subtext. COSATU has been a consistent
critic of an Mbeki administration it sees as insufficiently committed
to labour and redistribution. But he has a point. Worse, the bulk of
anti-foreigner sentiment is aimed at black Africans. The violence of
last week is also not a new phenomenon. The last decade has witnessed
attacks on Somali street traders in Cape Town, people thrown off
trains outside Johannesburg and immigrants rounded up on the streets
(including South Africans deemed "too dark"), held in cramped,
inhumane detention centres and put on overnight trains out of the
country.
Poverty and desperation are only part of the story.
Extensive research (pdf) by the Southern African Migration Project
(SAMP) has shown that South Africa, Botswana and Namibia, are among
the most xenophobic countries in the world and that South Africans
hold by far the harshest anti-immigrant sentiments. Furthermore, these
anti-immigrant and anti-refugee sentiments cut across all major socio-
economic and demographic categories. Young and old, black and white,
educated or not. They "display an extraordinary consistency in their
antagonism towards foreigners, particularly those from other countries
in Africa and especially those deemed to be 'illegal immigrants'."
Even refugees are viewed negatively.
South Africa and the neighbouring countries largely shaped by its
policies have always been about hating others. Colonialism and
apartheid (the two systems that dominated its 400 year history) were
built on such a consciousness. Pundits and observers of South Africa
often generalise about its progressive politics. What they forget is
that sections of South Africa's political class - a small minority -
leads its population to adopt progressive laws and attitudes on
sexuality, marriage, capital punishment and even immigration. In
contrast, the population is generally conservative and socially right-
wing. Openness and tolerance and a historical consciousness did not
necessarily go along with opposing apartheid.
Most South Africans don't have passports and rarely travel into the
rest of the continent. Of those who travel, mostly whites, they go to
Europe (which they culturally identify with), Australasia and North
America. The education system, even after apartheid, has not done much
to improve this state of affairs. It's a hard fact to come to terms
with, but Thabo Mbeki's African Renaissance failed largely because it
did not connect to the country's black majority. In the same way,
while laudable, the recent solidarity action by Durban dockworkers and
truckers to unload and then transport guns to the Zimbabwean regime,
is an exception.
An interesting finding of SAMP has been that anti-immigrant sentiments
exist in South Africa despite relatively little direct contact with
people from other countries. Less than 10% of survey respondents have
had a "great deal" of contact with people from other countries, 35%
said they had "some contact", 11% said they had "hardly any" contact
and a remarkable 43% said they have had "no contact at all" with
immigrants.
The misinformation and sentiments about foreigners come from
elsewhere: the public utterances and collusion by political leaders
and public officials (police, municipal officials) and more
importantly from media images. In a research study by SAMP that I
worked on, we found that South African media coverage of foreigners in
a wide range of sources (from television news documentaries,
broadsheets to tabloids) are overwhelmingly negative, relying on
stereotypes about foreigners as "criminals", "illegals" and "job
stealers". Evidence for such stereotypes was never substantiated by
evidence. While some of the coverage got better over time, stereotypes
persist.
Some commentators in South Africa have blamed the current wave of
xenophobic violence on the crisis in Zimbabwe (that large numbers of
Zimbabweans fleeing Mugabe's terror add to job and crime woes) or
suggested that the instigators are not South African, as Mandela's ex-
wife Winnie Mandela did last week. It would be an inadequate response
if it were true. And it is not true. South Africa has to face up to
some hard truths this week.
Sean Jacobs
tintinyana@gmail.com
“Only intellectuals love poverty. Poor people love luxury” (from a
Brazilian samba).
If you are wondering what you can do—there are some suggestions below. There is also a march on Saturday:
Protest against attacks on immigrants
Johannesburg
Saturday 24 May
Starting point Marks park (empire road near hillbrow) 9am
Bring placards, banners and above all your friends and comrades, local and immigrant.

1.) Drop off clothes, blankets, tinned food etc
You can do so at Aletta Sutton - Aletta Sutton Educare Centre: 3 Jubilee Road, Parktown (between the Education Campus and the Medical School)
Ann's house: 111 Fulham road, Brixton - ann.simmonds@gmail.com
Directly at the Central Methodist church - 79 Pritchard Street, Jhb Centre, 3rd Floor
Jesuit Refugee Services - 130 Commissioner Street, 2sd Floor Dynamo House, Johannesburg
2.) Help with feeding refugees at the Rosebank Union Church
Bring yourself and some tinned food and help out with night-duty at Cnr William Nicol & Sandton Drive, Sandton on Wed at 17h30. Apparently a 1000 refugees are housed in tents at the church (or nearby?)
3.) Join the Wits march against Xenphobic attacks:
Date: Wednesday, 21 May 2008; Time: 16:00 – 17:30; Venue: To be confirmed
4.) Make a donation
Central Methodist Mission, FNB, Pritchard Str branch, Branch Code: 251105, Acc no 50450644817 (please email Tina at central_district@methodist.org.za)
5.) Reassurance
If you are South African, ask those who are around you who you know are from other countries (i.e. any country) whether they are okay, whether anything bad has happened to them or their families, and whether there is something you can do to assist.
Send out the message that not all South Africans are raving xenophobic lunatics - they are by far the minority.
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