Xenophobia- I don’t really understand this. People say that theu foreigners are a threat as they take jobs. Maybe this is true but I’ve had a lot to do with foreign Africans and many of them are actually highly skilled, trained and qualified individuals, comprising of doctors, lawyers, teachers, engineers… (the list goes on) in their own countries, yet they are reduced to busting tables, being carguards or gardenboys. You must think how bad life is in their respective countries if they are contend to be a lowly carguard in SA when they are a doctor in say the DRC. Have some empathy for them as well. In their country their qualification means next to nothing when everyone (or the vast majority of the populace) are starving. I’m not condoning them taking our peoples jobs but if our own people don’t use the oppotunities available then it is only obvious that others will… Our people seem to forget that these same people who they now victimise protected their farthers, mothers , grandparents etc when they need to escape the Apartheid goverment. These people harboured our fugitives (maybe unwillingly and grudgingly in some cases but nonethe less they did) and this is how we repay them??!!! Talk about a knife in the back and a kick in the stomach when they’re down!!!

ANC: Unfortunately I have no great love of the ANC and I don’t think they are doing enough to keep this country on its feet. To be fair they got the country when it was in a political mess after apartheid and so on, but they have done very little (for the most part) to better it or keep their promises. Most of our people starve while our goverment and cabinet ministers stuff their pockets with cash, jet all over the world on tax-payers money (money which should go toward bettering our country for everyone) and turn a blind eye to blatant corruption! Doesn’t it just reek of Zimbabwe to any of you???? I don’t know who would be better at governing this country, but if something isn’t done soon, our country will only fall into the same pit that has claimed the rest of Africa!!! SA has so much potential, we just don’t have anyone capable of exploiting that potential in a positive way…

Madiba and the night of the long knives: Many of you can laugh at such a notion, but ethnic cleansing has happened many times before in many different cultures (Hitler, Amin, Mau Se Tung, Yugoslavia, Chaka, Rwanda…the list is endless). However, no matter what any of you say, those that say a night of the long knives is coming are probably right, although it may not just be aimed at only whites. As we have seen with xenophobia, our people seem unkindly disposed towards all who are different. It will be about a balance of power- whoever is not in power will have to fear for their lives.

However it has to be said that all the leaders in this country have (at least publically) great respect for Mandela and who wouldn’t have… Therefore they will not attempt anything of this calibre while there is still air left in his lungs and a beating heart in his chest. After his death it will be a different story. I’m not saying it will be instantaneous either, but it will be subtle at first before people start realising what has been happening. The ANC counsillor’s comment is not the first that I have heard or heard of and I think that the threat is very real to everyone who is not part of the balance of power (which includes whites, indians, coloureds and any black tribes not in power). For those who doubt truth in Siener’s visions, just go look back in SA’s history and read parts of the book containing Sieners visions and you will see that many of the things happened just as he said (Koos De La Rey’ s assasination just as an example). Just as with Nostradamus before him, Siener saw the future. I just hope that people will not ingnore his warnings like they did Nostradamus.

Zuma: I’m sorry to all the Zuma supporters out there, but I neither like nor trust Zuma and don’t think he will make a particularlly good addition to SA in her current state, but that’s just me. Zuma is notoriously pro-Zulu culture (as he should be) and just as notoriously anti-white and (and I don’t care what anyone says) Xhosa (which is also only natural as the xhosa and zulu tribes have been bitter enemies since time in memorium). Therefore I don’t think it a particularly good thing to be either under his governance.

However, to be fair (since he is not actually president yet), he may well be a good Lord Protector of SA and her children, but then he may be worse than Mugabe, Amin, Hitler, Mousalini, Stalin and the rest combined. Only time will tell. (I realise it might be an overexaggeration, but I am a realist (albeit a fair one) and I refuse to labour under the cosy comfertable delusion that blanket’s our country- I don’t care who says what but things are NOT hunky-dory as some would have us believe).

I’m not a prophet of doom. I’m not saying these things because I want to stir up trouble, but there is a storm brewing and it does not bode well. I am a young, WHITE South African and I don’t care what the African nationalists say, but the colour of your skin has absolutely NOTHING to do with being an AFRICAN!!!! I’m as much an African as Thabo, Zuma, Mandela or any of you!!! My ancestory has nothing to do with it!!! I was born on THIS continent, not in Europe!!! That makes me an African and I am proud to be called so. I am proud to live in such a beautiful country and to be able to call it the place of my birth. I am proud of my country’s history on all fronts and throughout the ages because every last one fought a good battle, and if the blacks aren’t too busy feeling hard done by, they may remember that the BoereVolk went through much worse under British occupation. Yes Apartheid was bad, sad and inhumane, but we need to put it behinf us if we are ever truely to be free of it. There is an old Chinese proverb that states ‘Don’t look to the future for it hasn’t happened yet, don’t look to the past because it may destroy you, but look to today, for each is a gift- that’s why we call it the present’. I’m not saying we mustn’t try and learn from the past (ours’ and the worlds’) but we must stop focusing all our efforts on it and blaming everything that goes wrong in our lives and our country because of it. We must take what we need from the past to shape what happens today to ensure a better future for everyone in this country!!!

Your the first article was AWERSOME!

Siya
In relation to you question of “who will be the next enemy of choice”, you forgot to include Indians.

I am familiar with the rumour and Siener etc. I posted stuff in this regard on “Xenophobia excused or explained?” which I quote below.

I am especially interested in what our black brothers can contribute in this regard, since here is two incidents of black people bring it up. One with killing whites, the other with Xenophobia. Were it not for these, I would hardly have given a moment’s notice to the right wing conspiracy theorists.

Xenophobia excused or explained?:
Comment: z // May 18, 2008 at 8:56 pm

“5. There is a further issue I would like to bring up in this context, since I don’t know where to bring this up, and it is related.

http://www.thoughtleader.co.za/mandelarhodesscholars/2008/05/15/on-makwerekwere/

This article is also about this issue. But one point I found very strange and have gotten no response from the author. I was hoping to get some perspective especially from my African brothers/sisters on this blog.

“South Africans need to understand that black African foreigners are not to be feared, treated as sub–human or purged. Failing that, I feel on the passing of Tatu Mandela we may experience a purge transient, which would have the world disgusted and may permanently scar us.”

What is the significance of Mandela’s passing? What is the logic behind it? (I only have some guesses) And how prevalent is it? Why would Mandela’s passing make the plight of foreigners worse? Where does it come from?

In 1997 there was this infamous incident:

http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=13&art_id=arch63833be7ee312f02f

“Cape Town An ANC councillor, caught driving down the wrong way on the N1, allegedly threatened arresting officers with the remark: “When Mandela dies we will kill you whites like flies.”

Mzukisi Gaba, an executive committee member with the Cape metropolitan council, was arrested at 2.50am yesterday near the Koeberg interchange. ”

Of course some in the Afrikaner community have been frenzied about this, with lots of rumours.

I just found it very surprising that the author of that article brought it up in this context.

Of course if that does happen then the world will suddenly sit up and take notice and call for all kinds of things to happen. The world seems desensitized to so called black-on-black violence.”

http://www.capetown.gov.za/en/Pages/HOWTOASSISTTHEVICTIMSOFXENOPHOBICVIOLENCEINCAPETOWN.aspx

Just sad when there is no trust relationship with our police service.

1. Sensationalism:
I agree with Khosi that it is sensationalist to say the government is not functioning. You can talk of levels of efficiency, but there is no need to overstate. You can say home affairs is in a dire situation, with corruption rife and lots of backlogs, but you are still able to get a passport, no?

2. The balanced article from the mail and guardian:
Though he makes many good points in the article, he does oversimplify the causitive factors. He starts with: “Africans on the continent have never liked one another”

Note the “never”. But then the only causitive factor mentioned is the scramble for Africa, kind of contradicting his “never”. Though few could argue against the fact that it has been a major contributing factor, it is rather simplistic. All over the world similar sentiments are found to differing degrees and it wasn’t all caused by colonialism. Some rhetoric in this regard seems to imply that Africa was one big happy family before the colonials came (in terms of inter tribal relations). My statement might seem overstated, but it is the impression created by some. There were many conflicts in Africa, just as the rest of the world.

“internalised the differences the Europeans foisted on them”
What does that mean? How do you go about proving or disproving such a statement? It is one of those which have the ring of truth, but you can’t pin it down to really see if it is indeed so.

“a free Africa remains acutely conscious of the boundaries that the colonial powers drew. Across the continent and, long after independence, these differences are replicated.”

This is also an oversimplification. It implies that differences would be nationalist in origin or tribalist as per tribal “preferences” by the colonials (advancing one tribe ahead of another).

I have a current example to disprove this assertion: Though our boundaries are such that Shangaans, are in SA and Mozambique, it did not hinder Xenophobes from telling all Shangaans to go. It wasn’t the colonial boundary motivating it, but indeed the tribal/cultural sentiments. It was also not an example of a certain tribe who was more privileged by colonial powers as with the Hutu/Tutsi situation in Rwanda.

I did find it a refreshingly different read, but wouldn’t give it any awards for scholarship.

2. Cosatu, SACP:
In contrast to Wessel, Cosatu and the SACP are worrying me. They are speaking up on many of the “right” issues, but they do not let an opportunity go by to blame it on the government’s policies.

They rally against Xenophobia, but focus on blaming government policies (compare with mine worker’s union, focusing on protection of foreigners). This can easily be construed as electioneering. It seemed like they were more focused on winning the people over to “their” side than really addressing the crisis.

I don’t know what the current status of Cosatu’s request for NEC representation is, but in a mail and guardian article Gwede Mantashe was warning Cosatu that they will not get the requested representation and saying they will stick to current inflation targeting, budget surpluses, etc.

Don’t discount the possibility of them going at it on their own in the next elections. They have been flexing their muscles a lot the last few months and if they don’t feel they have enough power to change economic policies, they might just go on their own. Whatever your view on capitalism/socialism, there are many an example of failed socialist states in Africa.

3. Mbeki step down:
One thing is for sure, if Mbeki were to step down now and even call elections as some request, we would be an a more dire situation. We don’t need him to step down, but to step up. But if neither happens, step down is the worst option in this crisis, as I see things now.

4. Land distribution:
Siya, just a note regarding the land distribution. I have a friend working as an agricultural consultant and he is currently working with one of the few successful empowerment projects (outperforming commercial farmers). There is a lot more to this than unwilling farmers and expensive farms. There are numerous farms being advertised at good prices but not bought. A recent study indicated government administration failure as more likely cause for the lack of progress in distribution. It indicated that since 2004, farm prices have gone up by just over 1% per year. Compare that to other property prices!

5. “When Mandela dies”:
I still have no clue about that one. Any ideas where this comes from and how widely spread it is?

ps. Got spare cash. Drop some nappies, baby food, bottles etc at your nearest refugee center (or phone), ask the police where but rather drop it off at the center itself.