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Xenophobic attacks: what do we do?

May 22nd, 2008
by Pierre De Vos.

A colleague of mine, Prof Darcy du Toit, sent me an email in which he makes some salient points about the use of the army to quell the xenophobic attacks and asks some searching questions about the underlying causes and how to address them. He was responding to news reports that Lawyers for Human Rights have expressed concern about the army being deployed to quell the ongoing xenophobic violence. The report stated as follows:

While condemning the ongoing attacks, the LHR said deploying the army to police civilians was a concern as there was the lack of a legal framework for the military to get involved in what was essentially a police responsibility. ‘Such use of the military risks exacerbating the situation and creating a security environment similar to that continuously used prior to 1994.

Because his response was too long to post in the comments section, I repost it here:

Does the LHR response not miss the point? It was emphasised that the police remain responsible and the army would only be involved in a supportive capacity. The simple fact seems to be that the available police are too few in numbers to be patrolling all potential scenes of violence. It is certainly true that “use of the military” escalates the situation, but what is the alternative – letting the police continue on their own in the hope that the violence will die down? Or would the precedent of ongoing attacks which the police are powerless to prevent not encourage an even greater escalation of “copy-cat” violence? Might the visible presence of soldiers in the streets not help to discourage the commission of acts of violence in their presence?

Amidst the deep anguish caused by these events there is a danger of some of the fundamental causes of the xenophobic attacks being lost sight of. On the one hand there are legal and moral issues involved. It is wrong and criminal to attack foreigners, especially those from countries which welcomed South African political exiles pre-1990 and supported the struggle against apartheid. Forming such a judgment, however, does not change the ugly reality on the ground.

There may well be criminals involved who exploit the situation to steal and to loot. But it is widely understood that many (or most?) of those involved in the attacks do so not because they are innately criminal or bad. It is widely understood that many of attackers are from the poorest of the poor, reacting against what they see as an endless stream of equally poor refugees settling in their midst, competing for the same pitifully scarce resources, diminishing whatever hopes they may have of bettering their lives and those of their children.

True, the government should have been more pro-active since 1994 at least in changing those bleak conditions. True, President Mbeki should not have closed his eyes to what was happening in Zimbabwe and allowed a situation to develop where additional masses of desperate people would pour into the country. But the government wasn’t, and Mbeki did. Now we are facing the consequences.

It doesn’t help, in this situation, to let emotion get the better of our judgment. This morning I heard two radio talk-show hosts (on Cape Talk / Radio 702 as well as SAFM) deploring the fact that the violence is against fellow black Africans while European immigrants are not seen as targets – not that Europeans should be attacked, as one talk-show host emphasised, but doesn’t it show “hypocrisy” and “negrophobia” rather than “xenophobia”?

Such reactions ignore the grim reality. Had the poorest of the poor from Europe and elsewhere been allowed flood into the informal settlements, I have no doubt that they would soon (sooner than black Africans) have come under attack. There is no “hypocrisy” in not attacking white immigrants with whom one is not competing for the means of subsistence, who live in a different world.

Similar loss of perspective is revealed by contrasting the hospitality shown to South African exiles in the 70s and 80s in neighbouring states with the violence now being unleashed against citizens of those countries. The 70s and 80s did not see large numbers of impoverished “economic refugees” from South Africa pouring into the poorest suburbs of Harare and Maputo. South African political exiles were by and large sponsored by political organisations, often with funding from international humanitarian organisations, making them less dependent on local economies. The two situations can’t really be compared. All one is left with is a sense of tragedy at the harsh way in which history has turned events on their head – but still we must deal with the consequences.

If soldiers can place themselves between would-be attackers and potential victims in troubled areas, thereby preventing the latter from getting at the former while alerting the police to incidents and enabling arrests to be made, it will indeed not solve the root causes. But it may give immigrant communities a degree of protection, and a respite from violence, which in past weeks they have not enjoyed. That, I suspect, may be worth more to them than the knowledge that the LHR, like most South Africans, is “condemning” the attacks.

But, most of all, the events should be a wake-up call to the government and all other parties involved – including private citizens – that if we continue to delay the massive economic and social interventions that are needed to start making a difference on the ground, we do so at our peril. We know what the priorities are (housing and infrastructure, schools, hospitals, and the millions of new jobs needed to build and operationalise all these things). We have been exhorted to think “business unusual”. What is needed, besides condemning xenophobia, is an urgent concentration of minds and resources on launching the response that is needed – but urgently.

Wonder what readers think about this analysis?

Posted in: Uncategorized, xenophobia.

← Anti-xenophobic vigil in Cape Town
Xenophobic violence: why we (still) need ANC? →

43 Comments

  1. z says:
    May 22, 2008 at 17:08 pm

    I have been avidly following debates on the issue and made some of the same points on Michael Trapido’s blog where he argued against military involvement. Could more people’s lives not have been saved, had it been done sooner? Mobs also tend to grow. The sooner you identify and stop them the better, which argues for the need of resources.

    Our police service hardly copes with current case loads.

  2. Siya says:
    May 22, 2008 at 17:09 pm

    Pierre,

    “Wonder what readers think about this analysis?”. Come on Pierre. Don’t tell me you did not read our comments on this topic? We have already made this analysis on this blog. The similarities between Prof. Darcy Du Toit’s and my analysis are stricking. Is this not plagiarism? I am joking, of course.

    But its good to know he agrees with me. In turn I agree with him on the need to deploy the army.

  3. z says:
    May 22, 2008 at 17:25 pm

    Regarding his comments on the poor:

    What I would like to see is a debate regarding the poverty/crime link. It seems to me that it is almost unspokenly accepted as inevitable fact that poverty will lead to crime and/or violence in South Africa.

    Yet other examples show it is not so inevitable as many believe.

  4. Wessel van Rensburg says:
    May 22, 2008 at 20:35 pm

    I broadly agree with LHR in the sense that the army is trained to kill, to not arrest, And they don’t have local knowledge that police often have.

    Having said that Beeld reported on the shortages of equipment, vehicles etc that the police have this week. Also, the police don’t have that much person power.

    When people like Bishop Verryn comments that it seems to him the police can not cope and when some policemen say so themselves then this begs the question.

    When I was working on the Angolan War documentary that starts broadcasting in July on Kyknet (plug) we interviewed Adriaan Vlok.

    One of the significant things he said was the violence that started in September 84 (so called Swart September) and even more so in 1985 when the ANC at the Kabwe conference did a call on people to make the townships ungovernable.

    Vlok, looking puppy eyed said, we just could not cope, we needed the army. Using the army then had mixed results. In places like Mamelodi there is no question that it brought the levels of violence down dramatically and saved lives.

    The army was actually seen as less political that the police then. So this is a difficult call. But I would send the in in a supporting cacity to free the police up to work elsewhere.

  5. khosi says:
    May 22, 2008 at 20:49 pm

    I think that one factor that is always missed is that our government has been walking a very tight rope since 1994. On one scale is the the poverty that strangles many of us, on the other is the beneficiaries of apartheid not wanting to yield some of their privileges. The fact is that this country is rich enough to take care of all of us. However, the government is well aware that if it slightly forces the hand of the priviledged few, the country would be on a highway to Zimbabwe like situation. This more so because these guys inherited a bankrupt country – financial and morally.

    Now that the country is standing, the patience of the poverty striken seems to be running out, quickly. Du Toit is right, the attack on other Africans also has much to do with proximity. But even if all Africans from other countries left SA(god forbide), tension will just seamer more because the problem is not that there is so little to share, but that SO much is not being shared. For now the poor are fighting for the crumbs, at some point the bread is going to be the goal. Crime shows us that everyday. South Africans are not the poorest people in the world, but people are just getting tired of seeing opulance in the midst of their poverty.

    Then there is people like the HRC who jump in the bandwagon and want to convince us that South Africans are poorer now than they were in 1996. Bull. Somehow these monkeys have better capacity to measure us than Stats SA. Who are the houses being built for? Whos is the water being piped to? Who is being given access to electricity, health care, social grants etc. If these boswells can prove that the population has grown so much that it has out-stripped development, I will be most pleased. South Africa does not suffer from a lack of service delivery, the problem is that service delivery is not adequate in the context of our role as the place of refuge for Africans from other countries.

    Such incitments (HRC ill-cooked statement) make people even more desperate and therefor more angry at their situation.

    We desperately need to find a way out of this. Funny thing is ,in 1998 the then Deputy President, delivered a speech notoriously knows as the ‘The two nations speech’. He was crucified for sowing ‘divisions amongst the rainbow nation’. In that speech he asked ‘What happens to a dream deferred?’ and he also provided an answer.

  6. khosi says:
    May 22, 2008 at 20:58 pm

    I see no reason why an army that has been doing peace-keeping across our continent, would suddenly feel the need to just ‘kill’. I think the reason many are uncomfortable with having the army on our streets is that it would remind us of things we’d rather forget.

    Life does not always work-out that way.

  7. Wessel van Rensburg says:
    May 22, 2008 at 21:20 pm

    Khosi, I know you don’t want to speak to me, but I’d like to respond to you. I think most wealthy whites would rather pay much higher taxes if this solved our social ills, than live in a semi-detached house in Slough UK.

    Secondly, as Ferial Haffajee argues, South Africa’s social grant system is now actually very extensive compared to other developmental state’s. Even rivaling that darling of the left Hugo Chavez.

    The policies are not the problem. It’s the implementation and the execution which are at fault. The ANC does not have the capacity to govern. Not it never will have. It does not now and its loosing what it had. Their is zip skills transfer.

    It’s a supreme irony (or tragedy rather) that without the Nats’s bureaucracy a better life for all is a dream.

    It’s not dissimilar to where Donald Rumsveldt decided to get rid of the Bathist bureaucracy in Iraq, the government descended into chaos. After all, if you poor and in the township, you don’t care about the colour of the skin of the town clerk, as along as you are serviced.

  8. khosi says:
    May 22, 2008 at 21:58 pm

    Wessel, i will engage you.

    The executive and politians are, in general, doing a splendid job. The problem is that the public service is not run by politians but by public service officials. Public service is an extremely complex business. It is not easy, I know from experience.

    One recent example. I am now convinced that Eskom did not run out of generation capacity yet. The average age of an engineer at Eskom is 30 years and line managers are not any better. By dusting of old white papers, the government shielded us from the fact that someone did not order coal at Eskom and that their inexperienced engineers are not able to cope with the shortages. But I would rather have no lights for two hours everyday than shelve affirmative action. Because for me as an African I am tired of being held hostage by people who threaten to take their skills elsewhere just because they are not happy with losing priviledge. And I commend Eskom for their AA policies.

    Very soon there will be enough black capacity and experience to effectively run the public service in this country and that is thanks to AA.

    The point I am driving at is that is does matter a lot to the receiptient of the service what color a town clerk is. Otherwise stereotypes continue being entrenched. There is a big difference between inexperience and being incapable.

  9. Joe says:
    May 22, 2008 at 22:47 pm

    Nice (but?) acedemic argument applied against established world democracies.

    The man / woman in the street does not care whether it is the police or the army that solves the problem – just solve the problem and stop the killing.

    Damn, if countries like France can have the Gendarmes (army) walking around together with the national police so can fledgling democracies like SA. Same applies to many European countries.

    Stop the killing and have the argument later.

    Oh – and Khozi – you say:

    Because for me as an African I am tired of being held hostage by people who threaten to take their skills elsewhere just because they are not happy with losing priviledge. And I commend Eskom for their AA policies.

    You are right but wouldn’t it be much better if there was a more optimal “solution”? It would be great if management had (had had) a plan?

  10. TebzaTheMan says:
    May 22, 2008 at 23:35 pm

    Can somebody explain to me why do the police continue to use rubber bullets against these mobs? These people are not out to protest but are clearly out to destroy and murder and surely deserve to be shot on site. This will send a clear message to those who also want to get involved in murdering foreigners and looting, and hence prevent the spread to other areas. Will the declaration of State of Emergency enable the police to use live ammunition? I sure hope so.

  11. Wessel van Rensburg says:
    May 23, 2008 at 3:00 am

    TebzaTheMan, I have to agree with you. Sorry for comparing this to the UK, but it is instructive. The UK police are in my opnion the best police force I have in action in the world.

    Approachable, friendly, very professional. They don’t even carry guns (normally).

    If however it was known that there were gangs with dangerous weapons marauding & looking for foreigners to kill, the fire arms unit will be out in no time. They would give one order, to lay down your weapons.

    If you don’t you will be shot. The result? When there’s riots in the UK people rarely have dangerous weapons, and they rarely attack other people. The police yes, you can have a riot against them, chuck stones at them and you’ll be ok, they allow that, smashing property, thats ok as well, they just arrest you and you might get a klap.

    But if you put the public in danger, you have a problem.

    All our police do is to protect foreigners if they find them in time. Theres already many reports of the police showing up hours after the fact.

  12. Wessel van Rensburg says:
    May 23, 2008 at 3:22 am

    That should have read “I have seen in action in the world”

    Khosi, I think we actually agree. It would only be the most intransigent white that can’t see the point of affirmative action. The same goes for land distribution.

    I’m sorry but 2 hours without electricity is just not acceptable. Who would want to set up a business in a country like that?

    And I wish the same emphasis were used in public discourse about achievement, hard work and merit than on entitlement. Rhoda Kadalie said this yesterday:

    “This one-sided portrayal of victimisation perpetuates and feeds into the “woundedness” of black people and breeds an entitlement often lacking in refugees and immigrants. It breeds an ethos in victims that they can never be wrong and, given the circumstances, are “owed” a livelihood. And when refugees and foreigners leave their countries for whatever reasons and come here and make it, it challenges the victim status quo. The lesson these outsiders teach us — not to depend on the government and not to expect handouts — goes against the inclination of those done hard by to find a solution to deprivation.”

    Scrap affirmative action wholesale? No. But we have to make it work.

    We have to keep our eye on the ball or we’ll loose the game. The ball is a successful country and a state the cares for all its citizens and makes sure there is a better life for all.

    You know (sorry for another Afrikaner example – I sound like a grammafoon plaat) that it took the Afrikaners ages to get out of poverty. In the 30’s more than a third were living below the poverty line. Compare with today, on the measure of less than $1 a day, 4 million South Africans live in extreme poverty.

    Come 1994, the average income of Afrikaners were 70% of English speaking whites’s income. Rome, was not built in a day. And if one is not careful you could destroy the very foundations.

  13. khosi says:
    May 23, 2008 at 7:35 am

    Here the speech I quoted, earlier

    http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/1998/mbek0529.htm

    And the responses -
    http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/1998/mbek0603.htm

  14. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 8:42 am

    Good posts Wessel. I agree. The latest news has it that Somalis, Mocambicans and Zimbabweans living near Cape Town now had to flee for their dear lives. How does this kind of xeno-hatred spill over from Gauteng to Mpumalanga and even Cape Town? Can it be true that there is a destabilizing ‘third’ force at work to undo everything this country has strived for the past decade or two?

  15. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 8:45 am

    Just to provide the link of the newsreel referred to above http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Xenophobia/0,,2-7-2382_2327775,00.html

  16. Wessel van Rensburg says:
    May 23, 2008 at 10:20 am

    Third force? Mr Mouse have you heard of the radio?

    The places where this violence erupted in the Cape has seen many killings before.

  17. khosi says:
    May 23, 2008 at 10:31 am

    Eish

  18. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 10:50 am

    Eish, indeed.

  19. Wessel van Rensburg says:
    May 23, 2008 at 11:03 am

    I emailed Jacob van Garderen the director of LHR with this link and he sent this back. Unfortunately it’s in Afrikaans. He says he’s worried about the weekend, and that the initial comment was made by LHR because they were apprehensive that people were not thinking of the implications about involving the army and concerns of ill discipline in the army we’ve had recently.

    If need be then they have to be deployed he says. More importantly he says there needs to be prosecutions of organisers and perpetrators so this can act as a deterrent. Something like that.

    “Ek is maar bekommerd oor die naweek en die moontlikheid vir meer geweld oor die naweek.

    Ek’s bly ons kritiek oor die weermag se ontplooing het n bietjie reaksie uitgelok. My kommer was aanvanklik dat die weermag se betrokkenheid as normaal aanvaar word sonder om oor die moontlike gevolge te dink. Die militarisering van die situasie is problematies en behoort met meer omsigtigheid ondersoek te word.

    Dit is waar dat die Verdedigingswet en Grondwet die ontplooing as ‘n laaste uitweg toelaat. Aanvanklik het ek gehoop dat die polisie met hul 140 000 lede 30 000 addisionele reserviste genoeg sou wees om die probleem op te los.

    Ek dink nie ons weermag beskik oor die nodige vaardighede en toerusting om stedelike polisiering te doen nie. Ek is ook bekommerd oor onlangse berigte oor die gebrekkige dissipline in die weermag. Buffels vol soldate met R4 gewere herinner n mens aan die 80’s en dit kan moontlik die teenoorgestelde uitwerking op die situasie hê.

    Aan die anderkant, miskien is die situasie besig om hande uit te ruk. Miskien het die polisie te min lede en toerusting. As dit die geval kan die weermag ontplooi word, maar onder die volgende voorwaarde dat hulle betrokkenheid beperk word tot logistieke ondersteuning vir die polisie en dat hulle optree onder die gesag en beheer van die polisie.

    Dis net so belangrik dat die aanvallers, veral die wat mense aanhits en deel was van die peplanning van sulke aanvalle, strafregtelik en in die openbaar vervolg word. Hopelik sal dit die wetteloosheid (impunity) en toekomstige aanvalle beperk.”

  20. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 11:04 am

    1976 – JB Vorster: “It is political agitators at work.”
    1993-94 – Different political factions: “A third force is blowing hatred amongst Zulus and Xhosas to destabilize a peaceful transition.”
    2008 – Manala Manzini and Ronnie Kasrils: “The recent wave of so-called xenophobic violence has been deliberately unleashed ahead of next year’s general election.”
    At all three occasions have the military been called in to assist the police to try and stop the violence. Happenings such as these are not only destabilizing internally, but hold serious consequences for SA internationally. The special report of News 24 on this issue provides for some abhorrent reading.
    http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/Xenophobia/Home/0,,2-7-2382,00.html

  21. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 11:10 am

    Wessel, ‘wetteloosheid’ should be trasnlated as ‘lawlessnes’, because ‘impunity’ is translated into Afrikaans as ’straffeloosheid’. Otherwise, the remarks by the director of LHR are very thoughtful and supportable.

  22. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 11:14 am

    Sorry my keyboard is so stubborn and I don’t have time to run my spell-checker every time. But I’m sure you will understand what I was trying to say and I am not going to correct everything wrongly spelt, as I am engaged in a few (multilingual) blogs at the same time.

  23. z says:
    May 23, 2008 at 11:17 am

    Perspective from a Zimbabwean:
    http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=339877&area=/insight/insight__comment_and_analysis/

    Comments anyone?

    Khosi, what do you think of his perspective on building black capacity, if you have time to read it?

  24. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 11:40 am

    Z, quite a piece of journalism. Pity however that the author decided not to focus on the current situation in Zim, which is the real reason for the presence of most Zimbabweans in SA; but, on how forreigners should be treated, a good piece of journalsim.

  25. z says:
    May 23, 2008 at 11:45 am

    I think he needed to avoid the current situation in Zim to be able to focus on what he believes they “did right” before things went wrong there.

  26. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 11:55 am

    I agree – that’s why I say a good piece of journalism

  27. z says:
    May 23, 2008 at 12:01 pm

    I’m really worried about this weekend in CT, especially for my Kenyan friend and his friends.

  28. z says:
    May 23, 2008 at 12:17 pm

    An addition to the police/military debate. Some argue that police capacity for such situations was reduced by restructuring in 2006.

    http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=339894&area=/insight/insight__national/

  29. khosi says:
    May 23, 2008 at 12:37 pm

    The context in which Zimbabwe had to transform is totally different from ours. We should not forget that at the time of Zimbabwe’s independence, the word GLOBALISATION was not as pertinent as when we started and as we transformed. Because the world is now smaller, the challenge to us is that skill becomes an exceptionally illusive asset. We cannot retain skill as well as Zimbabweans could at the time of their transformation. We lose experienced nurses, doctors, teachers, engineers on a daily basis. Yes, partly because of social issues, but mostly because of better economic opportunities for the individual themselves.

    We are now losing some of our workforce to AIDS and Zimbabweans did not have to deal with this phenomenon during its formative years. The thing is, for us we sort of had to deal with the skills issue on almost an artificial level because skills succession is hard to achieve, given the slippery nature of skill itself. I think the governments focus on FET’s has been a correct one, but we need to do more innovation and research work. On the soft and managerial skills, I think we still have work to do because those are the skills that create opportunities for FET graduates. I see the benefits of the agricultural revolution that the new ANC president spoke of in Polokwane and I see that it gaining general acceptance in government. But I think we need to go more to the innovation side of things because if we can design and build products and service the world, we will start addressing many issues that relate to skills capacity, especial at public sector level.
    The unfortunate thing is that we do not seem to have tertiary education bedded down to suit the South African context, as yet. Some would yet argue that our primary and secondary education is less than adequate. But that is a story for another day.

    What I am trying to say is that it’s not that government is getting things totally wrong, in fact this government has served us pretty well. However, I think government has failed to soundly skate the shifting and slippery demands of a smaller world. That failure is not through the lack of trying or care in the part of leadership, but leadership has been developing capacity to deal with these problems. I now really believe that the country has enough grip on the social challenges and what needs to happen in addressing those. The government that takes over will really have to mess up to fail to address our current challenges.

    Given our past and when one gets sober about our reality, it’s amazing that it took so long for strains to be apparent. So I say, we will overcome our problems. I say this because we are overcoming our problems.

  30. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 12:49 pm

    Yes. Another contributing factor is that this restructuring took place more or less the same time as the disbanding of the Comandos (esentially militarist – but acting under command and instruction of SAPS, without the blessing of the Presidency as’t were, but as a heritage of the previous regime) in rural towns, where they had an important role to play in assisting the police to help protect the community against crime – And they did very well, because they were not only trained as militarists; and, they worked closely with the SAPD in many facets, especially crime-prevention patrols and road-blocks, even after 1994. There were never really incidents where one could say that the government was now acting against its citizens with the military in the sense that LHR is now fearing would happen if the miltary is used to curb xeno-violence. And the fact that it has now gone country wide, with Malawi already taking official steps to evacuate its citizens from SA, really begs the question whether the military should not have been called in long ago. As long as the military units operate under the command and instruction of SAPS, I can see no real problem.

  31. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 12:51 pm

    Sorry, the last post was to be addressed to Z

  32. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 13:04 pm

    Khosi, a good post which makes a lot of sense, except for the following: “That failure is not through the lack of trying or care in the part of leadership, but leadership has been developing capacity to deal with these problems. I now really believe that the country has enough grip on the social challenges and what needs to happen in addressing those.” There isn’t really any evidence to bolster such a belief at present.

  33. z says:
    May 23, 2008 at 15:33 pm

    Instigatability:
    How receptive have people been to participate? Or how instigatable are they? Or rather how easy is it to organise these kind of events? Will knowing these answers help us to prepare better for the future?

    Let’s say this does not solve the complainants problems in the manner they hoped it would, then who will it be directed at next? Tribal clashes, racial clashes? What will be sufficient provocation for ethnic or racial violence against the perceived economic elite? How long before we get there?

    So basically I am amazed at the apparent ease with which these events have spread, third force or not. And wonder how easy it would be for ruthless people to capitalise on this receptiveness to further some agenda or maybe just some community members to say enough is enough. Yes the xenophobia has a history, but so does white/black, Xhosa/Zulu, poor/rich, etc. Where are the limits? Are there any?

    On a different note Ugandans are having a talk about it on the radio and have space for comments. See especially the post by kuloba Robert as he takes a big swipe at SA:
    http://www.newvision.co.ug/B/D/603/2

  34. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 15:56 pm

    I have heard many claims, most with lots of merit, but the current (illegal) Zim government’s claim that it will assist the more than three million Zim immigrants (or rather, refugees) to return to Zim to shield them from the current Xenophobic violence in SA is really funny. http://www.news24.com/News24/Africa/Zimbabwe/0,,2-11-1662_2328013,00.html
    Quite frankly, I dont know which is worse, “die duiwel” (Zim) or “die diep blou see” (SA) between whose extremes the poor Zim refugees have now been caught. Perhaps they should be assisted in Botswana or Mozambique; but, they should first be allowed to go and make their mark for freedom on 27th of June inside Zim (and I believe the UN should send a special envoy to oversee that); and, only if their freedom has been achieved and proclaimed, will they be better off if they return to Zim.

  35. khosi says:
    May 23, 2008 at 17:04 pm

    z,

    I think people like kuloba Roberts should not be paid much mind. Of course, envy will play a part in his rantings. He forgets one simply thing and that South Africa belongs to all who live in it. We have our problems but to say that we are poorer than other Africans is just incorrect. If we are so poor, why do we have so many people from the rest of the continent here? What he does not know is that most of the people who live in squatter camps are migrants who otherwise have well maintained living structures elsewhere in the country. They are where they are in search of better opportunities because they believe that they can make a better life for themselves and their families.

    It would also be foolish for fellow Africans to forget the very positive contribution our country has and continues to dispatch in the whole continent. We are the ones who finance and champion Africa’s development programs. I can count countless things our country does for the continent. We house more than 5 million of Africans from other countries, more than 10% percent of our population. What other country in the world would allow for that to even start happening? Our president is demonized every day for taking on the Africa project and we have twice voted him into power because even the poor amongst us buy into the Africa project.

    Yes something went wrong, but that cannot erase the good we are so far as our continent is concerned. Anyone who thinks they can pass judgement on us should just let us be and we will resolve our issues.

    That said, I think that government has now been given a license to be more radical in its approach to wealth redistribution. Remember the ‘Two nations’ speech!

  36. Siya says:
    May 23, 2008 at 17:15 pm

    Z,

    Talk about a swipe! Both the Zimbabwean and Ugandan perspectives on the immigrant attacks convey their frustration. Some of the things which come out are quite unfortunate. Some of the stuff very provocative (especially the Ugandan perspectives) to ordinary and middle class black South Africans alike. I am itching to respond – as Khosi has done – and show how general and inaccurate some of the points are, from the underlying causes of the attacks, to the state of our (black) education (progress made in this area), SA black entrepreneurial spirit, skills problem, to our infrastructure and the future of SA economy, to perceptions on SA companies operating in Africa. But I have decided against it. I think we should simply echo the many calls made to condemn the attacks on immigrants, and for those of us who can lend a helping hand to the victims, to do so.

  37. Anonymouse says:
    May 23, 2008 at 17:36 pm

    Well said, Siya

  38. Mqo says:
    May 23, 2008 at 20:46 pm

    Hear, hear, hear, Khosi, all but your last article were enlightening, Wow. I would have like to very much comment on the last article but, admittedly am afraid of your response considering the one you meted out to me in my last post :)

  39. khosi says:
    May 23, 2008 at 21:29 pm

    Mqo,

    Lets hear your voice.

  40. Wessel van Rensburg says:
    May 24, 2008 at 7:41 am

    z – “So basically I am amazed at the apparent ease with which these events have spread, third force or not.”

    People keep on repeating this?! Why? It’s obvious.

    These attacks have been going on for ages. Remember that 40 Somalis were killed in October 2006. As far as I know only the Mail and Guardian covered this. And I blogged about it. Neither publications have nation wide reach.

    Since then we’ve had more immigration, and food prices have gone up.

    What is also different this time, is that the first two deaths happened in Alex, a 20 minute jog from Sandton. So what happened? Marauding gangs got day in day out coverage in print and radio and tv.

    So what do the public learn? Your unlikely to be stopped, if you want somebodies house and they happen to be a foreigner. Or if you hate their guts.

    Also, now when a Mozambican gets shot in Soweto, the press will assume its xenophobic. This is now on the news agenda. While it was completely off the radar before.

    Don’t underestimate the analytical skill of the public.

  41. z says:
    May 24, 2008 at 15:42 pm

    Wessel

    Despite knowing of the incident you mentioned (and having read pieces on your blog before) and others, I am still amazed at how quickly and easily it spread and I don’t find the arguments as to why, so simple, why “this” time it spread as far. I am not yet convinced of the inevitability of the reasoning.

    Another possible source of their confidence:

    http://mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=339969&area=/insight/insight__national/

    It would not surprise me if what they allege about Zuma is true. After all he does tell every audience what they want to hear.

  42. mpho says:
    May 22, 2010 at 21:50 pm

    my name is mpho and im doing a research project on xenophobic attack in S.A. im struggling to find out what the constitution say about this and im hoping any one of you can help.if you think you have some info about this please help me by sending it to mpho.muk@webmail.co.za .i would really appreciate your help

  43. pauline says:
    June 7, 2010 at 19:56 pm

    i am sooooo scared of the break out of the xenophobic attacks i dont sleep at night thinking about my kids who are with me here in south africa.

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