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Resentment toward foreigners remains an active volcano
The attacks on mostly Zimbabwean casual labourers in the Western Cape farming town of De Doorns in November 2009 was a stark reminder that the dislike of foreigners, which exploded in the previous year, has not disappeared and is still boiling hot below the surface. There is also evidence that the danger is far from over and that the original attacks were not merely 'spontaneous'. Furthermore, opposition parties at local level seem equally ill equipped to deal with the issue.
The xenophobia that rocked South Africa and shocked the world in 2008 still is etched in the memory of many, particularly those who experienced the brunt of the violence.
Investigations into the causes of the attacks in 2008 showed that the assault on the foreigners and the destruction of their possessions was not as spontaneous as originally thought. The violence, when it erupted, was the culmination of a long-festering unease and impatience with the increasing number of foreigners competing with the locals for the same limited resources.
With the recession playing havoc with the economy and with the government unable to deliver on its many promises, the long-suffering locals felt that the precarious situation in which they already found themselves, left them under siege from the growing number of 'uninvited' and 'unwelcome' foreigners.
Lack of official response to their complaints and a rapidly deteriorating socio-economic situation convinced those who felt threatened by the foreigners in their midst to take the law into their own hands and rid their communities of what they perceived as a contributing cause to their predicament.
The foreigners were easy targets. Many of them were – and still are – illegally in the country, and they have little or no recourse to protection.
What followed in many townships across South Africa still is imprinted on most of those who followed the unfolding drama and the harassment of foreigners on television and in the print media.
With difficulty, the government restored an uneasy peace and most foreigners in the affected areas were carted off to temporary and hastily erected tented camps, in many cases fenced off by barbed wire resembling prisoner-of-war camps.
Over time, the horrible scenes of the xenophobic attacks faded and the media moved on to other more pressing issues that called for their attention. Occasionally, a report or article published drew attention to the inhumane conditions prevailing in some of these camps and the resistance put up by some when the authorities decided it was time for the camps to be taken down.
But then, just as xenophobia seemed to be filed away in the collective memory bank, De Doorns reminded us that like an active volcano, it was only dormant and awaiting a trigger for it to erupt again. And, yet again, the same reasons that caused the attacks two years ago triggered the violence in De Doorns.
But more was to come.
In January 2010, xenophobia surfaced in another small farming town in the Western Cape – Riviersonderend, which straddles the Garden Route approximately 180 kilometres from Cape Town en route to Mossel Bay.
It came as an unpleasant surprise when attacks by some of the locals on the few Somali shopkeepers and their dependents required the police to step in with rubber bullets to restore peace.
It was later revealed that the death of a local mentally handicapped youth who was last seen alive in the company of some Somalis, ignited the violence. Further investigations showed that the youth died of natural causes and not at the hands of any foreigner.
The incident at Riviersonderend was another rude wake-up call that animosity toward foreigners is bubbling dangerously close to the surface and can explode anytime, anywhere.
If xenophobia exists in two rural and seemingly peaceful towns in the Western Cape, and the locals tell you that the anger is widespread and mounting, then there can be no reason to believe that the same views are not held elsewhere in South Africa – ready to explode at any moment.
The latest two xenophobia incidents came very inconveniently. The World Cup soccer spectacle is only a few months away and the South African authorities are pulling out all the stops to dismiss the growing concern from abroad regarding the high levels of crime in the country and fear that the safety of visiting soccer fans cannot be guaranteed.
On top of this, the media in Zimbabwe recently reported that Zimbabweans in South Africa are experiencing increased harassment and they are warned that “all hell will break loose” after the World Cup.
It seems that those uttering these threats are at least 'patriotic' enough to wait until after the World Cup before they may begin executing these threats.
Not only is the government’s apparent lack of response regarding these latest xenophobia incidents disturbing, but when reaction was forthcoming, it was equally upsetting. In De Doorns, the official reaction was to be expected.
By no means completely innocent, the farmers were accused of being responsible for employing foreigners at cheaper rates than the locals. This is an oversimplification of an intricate situation.
The government equally is to blame by slackening control measures at entry points into South Africa and allowing the migration of large numbers of foreigners into South Africa.
When the government late last year said that Zimbabweans could travel on a free 90-day visitor's permit and apply to do casual work during their stay, the genie was allowed out of the bottle. Many Zimbabweans presumed, wrongly, that this indicated jobs are available in South Africa.
Furthermore, little is done by the government – perhaps it is the 'inconvenient truth' – purposefully to address one of the underlying causes of xenophobia: All South Africans should be educated that xenophobia is undisguised racism, finish en klaar. (Also see “The race debate – part two")
In a country where racism is, for obvious reasons, an extremely sensitive issue and is seen historically as a predominantly white versus black phenomenon, it is important to recognise and accept that racism among people of the same ethnic origin also exists. It is equally repugnant, with xenophobia a manifestation thereof in its cruelest and ugliest form.
DA also guilty
The comments by the mayor of the DA-controlled Theewaterskloof District Municipality, which includes Riviersonderend, were equally disturbing – particularly if it is assumed that it represents official policy.
When asked for reaction to the xenophobia incident in Riviersonderend, the response, according to the "Mail and Guardian" of 22 January 2010 was that, “We don't want you press people to put it in the paper that it is xenophobia. There's a World Cup coming in a few months' time. There would be an outcry if we say it is xenophobia and it involves only 20 people. You see, I love my country and I love the Western Cape."
The mayor might have been quoted “out of context” or it might have been an unfortunate choice of words, but the message is clear: The success of the World Cup is paramount and everything else is secondary. Success has become so overwhelmingly important that it has started to blunt our senses for values, compassion and justice, and created – dare we say it – a warped sense of patriotism?
The World Cup can do South Africa immeasurably good, but can we as a nation feel good and walk tall after a successful tournament if we bury our heads in the sand and prefer to hide our problems under the carpet for the duration of the World Cup when the eyes of the world are upon us?
More importantly, can we afford to postpone dealing with the mounting problem of xenophobia? Risk the danger of its spiraling out of control?
