How to defeat the demon of xenophobia

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Xenophobia: ‘No African is a foreigner in Africa,’ says Zandile Gumede

Foreigners are being accused of stealing locals’ jobs, accelerating crime and hindering South Africans’ progress to green pastures, but how true are these claims?

Blessing Mhlanga   21 Aug 2019   21:27 PM

The recent lootings of foreign nationals’ shops and the brutal attacks on immigrants paints a scandalous and destructive picture about the South African community as a whole. With locals alleging that foreign nationals do more harm than good to the nation, some have come to accept that xenophobia is a demon that local citizens are failing to defeat.

Kunene (2019) reported, Moses Thusi, a local resident complained, “There are no job opportunities at companies, mostly factories, close to us. We have noticed that employers are hiring more foreigners from neighboring countries compared to us and our children have resulted to crime because there are no jobs.”

A 2010 survey by Southern African Migration Programme found that 60% of South Africans believe immigrants “take jobs” whilst 55% believe that they worsen crime.

In the report (ANA, 2019) An Ethopian shop owner lamented, “This is the third time this happens and frankly I feel like I’m done with South Africa. All we are trying to do is make an honest living but people keep stealing from us and we are tired of it.”

In the response (Chaskalson, 2017) based on the evidence we have available, we can conclude without reasonable doubt that immigrants do not take jobs from South Africans overall - in fact, a best-case scenario suggests that they are creating a small number of jobs where they settle.

Another report (Misago, 2019) asserted that recent xenophobic attacks demonstrates state complicity in a number of ways. First, state officials’ calls on citizens to defend the country’s sovereignty and democracy is an order to attack foreigners; an order which the citizens, already harbouring revasive and strong xenophobic sentiments, is unlikely to turn down. Second, the most carried out the attacks in the presence and full view of the police (the state). The lack of decisive police response to prevent or stop the attacks implies the state’s support or passive involvement. Third, these xenophobic attacks have not elicited any official acknowledgement or condemnation. This is a sign of endorsement or at least tolerance by the state.

Subsequently, (Fabricius, 2019) suggests that While the ANC may not want to admit it, there is a very real problem of xenophobia in SA,’ says Gareth Newham, head of the Justice and Violence Prevention programme at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). He said a 2017 paper by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation on Social Cohesion between South Africans and Africans found that South Africans lacked trust in people from other African countries - 56% didn’t trust African foreign nationals; 17% did.

From their website (Polity, 2019) opinionated, Last week President Cyril Ramaphosa told an election rally that government would crack down on undocumented foreigners. The opposition Democratic Alliance is no better. Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba has been condemning foreign immigrants for years and his party has an election platform of getting tough on them.  

Allegedly, (Savides, 2019) opposed, “Both the municipality and the Malawian High Commission are in agreement that the incidents that led to Malawians nationals being chased out of their homes are not xenophobia but were criminally motivated as their belonging were stolen by the angry mob,” the municipality said in a statement.

eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede asserted, (Savides, 2019), “No African is a foreigner in Africa and, as the municipality, we are committed to working together with organizations representing immigrants and civil society formations to deal with issues that cause tension between and among our people. During profiling, we discovered that most African immigrants are highly skilled artisans and we are looking at partnering with them in creating skills transfer and mentorship programmes that will target the youth.

With locals increasing their fury against foreigners, forcing them to live in fear for their lives or succumb to brutal attacks, the state clearly has a heavy task on their shoulder in trying to slay the demon of Xenophobia.

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Bibliography:

Kunene, N 2019, ‘No jobs for SA locals’, News24, 15 April. Available at: https://googleweblight.com/I?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.news24.com%2FSouthAfrica%2FNews%Fno-jobs-for-sa-locals-20190415-2&geid=NSTNR [Accessed 21 August 2019].

ANA, 2019, ‘Soweto residents say looting will continue until govt deals with ‘issues’, IOL, 15 August. Available at: https://googleweblight.com/i?u=https://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/gauteng/soweto-residents-say-looting-will-continue-until-govt-deals-with-issues-30818386&hl=&tg=209&pt=8&geid=NSTNR&tk=156047646418710102 [Accessed 21 August 2019]

Chaskalson, R. (2017) Do immigrants “steal” jobs in South Africa? What the data tell us. Available at: https://www.groundup.org.za/article/do-immigrants-steal-jobs-south-africa-what-data-tell-us/ [Accessed 21 August 2019]

Misago, J. (2019) ‘Is the state complicit in Xenophobic violence in South Africa?’Daily Maverick, 15 August. Available at: https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2019-08-13-is-the-state-complicit-in-xenophobic-violence-in-south-africa/amp/ [Accessed 21 August 2019]

Fabricius, P. (2019). ISS Today. Available at: https://issafrica.org/iss-today/xenophobia-what-xenophobia-we-love-foreigners [Accessed 21 August 2019]

ISS (2019). Polity. Available at: https://m.polity.org.za/article/xenophobia-what-xenophobia-we-love-foreigners-2019-04-05 [Accessed 21 August 2019]

Savides, M 2019, ‘Violence aimed at foreigners was criminal, not xenophobic, says Malawi High Commission’, Times live, 29 March. Available at: https://www.timeslive.co.za/amp/news/south-africa/2019-03-29-violence-aimed-at-foreigners-was-criminal-not-xenophobic-says-malawi-high-commission/ [Accessed 21 August 2019]