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THE IMPARTIAL OBSERVER
Matters of the moment

Damning Xenophobic Incivility in South Africa

The present xenophobic scourge does South Africa no good…
apartheid violence and black-on-black violence
ought to have made South Africans violence averse.

The harried ghost of South Africa’s past resurrected this week, like a hibernating monster that was inebriated on a life-changing xenophobic portion. Peace was thrown to the wind, and the forgotten violence of the past dredged up in one blinking moment. In the end, there was death – senseless and gruesome death, initially, of 22 innocent people, mostly immigrants from other parts of Africa and mostly Southern Africa. Since I wrote this piece on 22 May the death toll has risen to 52, with some 25,000 immigrants displaced, even with the unprecedented use the South African military to assist the police contain the mob and quell the raging violent chauvinistic attacks.

The present xenophobic scourge does South Africa no good; and so for several reasons, beyond undermining its decency and normalcy. South Africa is supposedly a member of the alliance of civilization in good standing. However, its reputation in its totality, and along with it democratic credentials, are at risk of being irreparably tarnished by the rising xenophobia and violent backlash against immigrants within its ranks.

Far from its bona fides as the conciliatory and forgiveness exemplar – and Nelson Mandela’s homeland – South Africa is flushed with a spate of exceedingly ugly hate and madness directed at immigrants, which has resulted so far, in reported 52 gruesome deaths. On record, some 400 persons have been arrested for the xenophobic attacks and related acts. Incidentally, the death toll could have been higher with indeterminate outcome, had the targeted immigrants been less law-abiding, rallied and fought back in self defense, as some have vowed to do henceforth, if attacked. In fact, in the outlying areas of Johannesburg, such as Berea, Braamfontein and Yeoville, other non-African immigrants joined ranks to fight back the marauding mob. However, the attacks are spreading away from the Gauteng province and when it reaches the contiguous KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga, the death toll will certainly rise.

Backlash against immigrants is nothing new. Indeed, sometimes it is a product of politicization and polarizing domestic rhetoric. Realistically, what is going on in South Africa is no worse than the levels of xenophobia we have witnessed in France or Germany when skinheads and radical extremists routinely pursue African immigrants and maul them. However, I do not recall a singular incident in Europe with such a high toll. Also, in fairness to France and Germany the law enforcement agencies react swiftly to nip such ugly incidents in the bud.

What is appallingly ugly in this case, is that South African are attacking their fellow Africans, many of whom are legitimate refugees or asylum seekers, who have sought succor in South Africa as a haven from their economically and politically troubled countries. Also, some immigrants are in South Africa, as a natural response to the shrinking national borders and dictates of our globalized system. While xenophobic attacks in any form is utterly unacceptable, the attacks on the Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and Nigerians is doubly so, considering that those countries carried the burden of the global anti-apartheid campaign, when the present marauders were under the yoke of an oppressive apartheid regime.

However, the attacks on the immigrants or the Amakwerekwere - as they are derogatorily called - have been incremental since the end of apartheid almost 15 years ago. The South African government failed grossly in reading the handwriting on the wall. Ironically, while it may not have seen the need to protect foreigners, it has also failed to protect the South Africans belonging to the Shangaani tribe. The Shangaani are found Mozambique and to a lesser degree in South Africa. South Africans of Shangaani descent have also been victims in this mayhem. What an incongruity?

This unfolding saga is a painful, given that two summers from now South Africa is supposed to throw its borders, doors and homes open to global visitors arriving for the 2010 FIFA World Cup Tournament. Most of its visitors are bound to be from Africa. Unfortunately, tourists and even rabid football fans are loath to go anywhere that is prone to violence or somewhere, they are aware that that their kith and kin were not welcome.

Furthermore, what makes present the South African crisis exceedingly ugly is, that it stokes the memory, conjuring a not-too-distant-past, when the current oppressors, were themselves the victims and the oppressed. Moreover, South Africa has had its share of violence against innocent victims; apartheid violence perpetrated by the state and its third forces and later on, retribution-induced black-on-black violence, against turncoats and real or perceived collaborators of the apartheid regime were set ablaze during “necklacing”, with petrol-filled tires. These realities and experiences ought to have made South Africans violence averse.

Sad and shameful as these developments are, South Africans cannot morally shirk their responsibilities of being their brothers’ keepers and still expect to lead Africa. On a more strategic and political vein, South Africa cannot allow immigrants to be hounded out in an extra-judicial fashion and indeed killed, and still lay claim to its rightful place as the dominant regional power, bulwark and hegemon. Incidentally, there are clear indications that a third force may be inducing these attacks. The South Africa’s National Intelligence Agency boss, Manala Manzini, obliquely acknowledged this point by hinting that some people linked to former apartheid security forces were stoking the violence. Even if it were so, it is still a failure of policy as well as intelligence not to have nipped this crisis in the bud.

With the raging globalization, no country with a large and buoyant economy like South Africa’s can escape attracting immigrants, asylum seekers and odd jobbers; not the United states where reportedly, there are 20 million illegal immigrants from Mexico alone, not the United Kingdom and her European Union partners, not Nigeria, not Saudi Arabia and certainly, not South Africa. That is the reality; and reality bites.

Two decades ago there was as similar backlash in Nigeria against West African immigrants. There were no known killings, but the ruling military government, reacting to public clamor, expelled thousands of immigrants without due process. That action, considered popular then, still haunts Nigerians across the rest of West Africa, especially in Ghana. It was un-African and in the end, counter-productive since it violated extant ECOWAS protocol on free movement of its people.

South Africa has long been a haven for immigrants. The worsening regional and continental economy made migration to South Africa very attractive, well before the crisis in Somali and Zimbabwe threw up more refugees seeking homes away from home. The growing global food crisis has however, added to the level of pressure and irritation for South Africans, who see immigrants as now threatening their livelihoods. Crime rates have risen, as has homicide with the influx of immigrants. These trends, understandably, are worrisome for the locals.

There is some merit in such concerns, but the situation is compounded by the government’s tardy response and even lackluster attitude in publicly countering such polarizing sentiments. As far back as 1998, the Human Rights Watch issued a report, in which it flagged the possibility of the present crisis. It also called for the review of South Africa’s Aliens Control Act, which governs all aspects of migrants control in South Africa, calling it, “an archaic piece of apartheid legislation, at odds with internationally accepted human rights norms and the South African Constitution.”

It needs saying once more, that this crisis is a result of policy failure and inattentiveness. Such failings, give the tacit impression that the authorities are not concerned about violence against foreigners and the evident rise in xenophobia within it boundaries. Unfortunately, there is a deafening silence on the part of South African authorities either in reiterating that vigilante justice and the attendant violence is illegal, or highlighting the utility and upside of immigration as a positive economic force. The belated remarks by President Thabo Mbeki, in admitting that, “Today we are faced with a disgrace, a humiliation as a nation in that we have allowed a handful of people to commit crimes against other Africans living in our country," comes far too late and long after the horses have bolted from the barn.

President Thabo Mbeki also glossed over a critical issue; that the backlash visited on the immigrants may also be a displaced aggression of a domestic population long frustrated about their unmet expectations. Freedom and democracy, clearly has not yielded the dividends many black South Africans expected in the post-apartheid era. Simply, the patience of the poor in South Africa may have just run out, and the immigrants are withstanding the worst of it.

Perhaps, it is worth ending where I started. This crisis sullies the perception of South Africa in everyway possible. The present xenophobic scourge does South Africa no good. Beyond undermining its decency and normalcy, the genie is already out of the bottle. It will require a concerted and extremely assertive hands-on approach to curb this scourge before it makes South African cities ungovernable and unattractive to foreign visitors and investors. There will also be some economic price to pay were that to happen.

South African authorities should also be aware, that there is already anger brewing is several African countries, Nigeria included, against what is perceived as the hostile and malign attitude towards their nationals in South Africa, regardless of whether they are refugees or not. Such feelings can easily turn insidious and lead to retributive acts against South African nationals and interests elsewhere, which really, no one in Africa needs.

There must be a way to cap the present damning xenophobic incivility in South Africa; we need to find and institute it quickly to avoid further mayhem. A stitch in time saves nine!

With neither anger nor partiality, until next time, keep the law, stay impartial, and observe closely.