South Africa's shameful, dangerous xenophobia
South Africa's shameful, dangerous xenophobiaBy Editor
Wednesday May 21, 2008 [04:00]
On the annual celebration of Africa Freedom Day on May 25, 2001, South African President Thabo Mbeki urged all South Africans to be vigilant against racism and xenophobia, and warned that otherwise it would undermine South Africa’s young democracy.
And on September 1, 2001, a world conference against racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance was held in Durban, South Africa. Addressing this conference leader of the Cuban Revolution Dr Fidel Castro said: “Racism, racial discrimination and xenophobia are not natural, instinctive reactions of human beings, but rather are social, cultural and political phenomena born directly of wars, military conquests, slavery and individual or collective exploitation of the weakest by the most powerful throughout the history of human societies.”
Fidel also added that: “I have only three short questions, based on realities that cannot be ignored. The capitalist, developed and wealthy countries today participate in an imperialist system born of capitalism itself and in an economic order that is imposed on the world, based on the philosophy of selfishness and brutal competition between men, nations and groups of nations, and which is completely indifferent to any feelings of solidarity or honest international cooperation.
They live under the misleading, irresponsible and hallucinatory atmosphere of consumer societies. Regardless of the sincerity of their blind faith in such a system and the convictions of their most serious leaders, I wonder: Will they be able to understand the grave problems of today’s world, which in its incoherent and uneven development, is ruled by blind laws, the huge power and the interests of ever-growing, increasingly uncontrollable and independent transnational corporations? Will they come to understand the impending universal chaos and rebellion? And, even if they wanted to, could they put an end to racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and other related forms of intolerance, given that this is precisely what they represent?”
President Mbeki blamed the levels of xenophobia on the lack of knowledge about the continent of Africa, international isolation and the focus on Europe during apartheid, and the mass media for not reporting the continent in a balanced way.
President Mbeki called for improved teaching about Africa in schools and institutions of higher learning, not only in history and geography but also in subjects about culture, language and current political and socioeconomic activity.
President Mbeki's address was fairly consistent with the ANC's public approach towards xenophobia, which ascribed the problem to the effect of globalisation, South Africa's history of international exclusion or relative economic deprivation.
Seven years later, as we prepare to celebrate Africa Freedom Day once again, we witness the disgraceful incidents in Alexandra and Diepsloot.
Clearly, South Africa has failed to effectively address the rising tide of xenophobia.
Although the government has, in recent years, begun to recognise the magnitude of the problem of xenophobia and the need to tackle it in order to prevent it from undermining their young democracy, politicians have frequently expressed xenophobic views and have been allowed to present them as the views of not only their departments, but even of the government itself.
Perhaps most notorious in this respect, was the previous Home Affairs Minister, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who described the influx of “illegal immigrants” as his “biggest headache” and, in his introductory speech to parliament, explicitly stated that “aliens pouring into South Africa” would hamper economic growth.
Contemporary statements from ANC spokespersons have intimated that human rights are largely inapplicable to foreigners in general, and migrants in particular; for example, ANC MP Desmond Lockey said: “There are very few countries in the world which would extend human rights to non-citizens.”
However, xenophobic sentiments are not confined to the ruling party and criticisms against immigrants have spanned the political spectrum. In the run-up to the 1999 elections, for example, a range of political parties used anti-immigration discourse to attract votes.
In an unlikely show of alliance politics, the Pan African Congress (PAC) and Freedom Alliance (FA), as well as the New National Party (NNP) and the United Democratic Movement (UDM), raised the spectre of the negative impact that foreigners are assumed to have on South Africa's economy and society.
The election manifestos of the UDM and the FA explicitly advocated stricter immigration controls. Images of the NNP's Marthinus van Schalkwyk walking along South Africa’s borders and promising to seal them against illegal immigrants were flashed across our television screens.
Clearly immigrants are not only stereotyped in the media; they are branded as potential criminals, drug smugglers and murderers by politicians, and unreliable figures are bandied around parliament.
The government has also been criticised for its legislation and its focus on reducing the number of immigrants through repressive measures. The Immigration Act 2002, for example, gave police and immigration officers the power to stop anyone and ask them to prove their immigration status.
The 1999 White Paper also contained provisions for a “community enforcement policy” of the detection, apprehension and deportation of undocumented migrants, which could be construed as representing a form of state-sanctioned xenophobia; however this section was dropped by the time the bill was re-submitted for comment in 2002.
Significantly, while the bill was replete with clear and explicit law enforcement measures to reduce immigration, conspicuous in their absence were specific strategies to prevent xenophobia or to protect and promote the rights of foreigners.
Possibly the most contentious piece of legislation is the 1991 Aliens Control Act, amended in 1995 and 1996. It has been described as “an archaic piece of apartheid legislation, at odds with international human rights norms and the new South African constitution”.
The act has its roots in the 1937 Aliens Act, which was intended to exclude German Jews fleeing Nazi persecution from coming to South Africa, and has led to the term “alien” becoming synonymous with unwanted immigrant.
Subsequent amendments of the act were almost invariably designed to increase the repressive power of officials, to place greater control on people’s mobility, to circumscribe the legal rights of aliens and to extend the range of people to which the act applied.
The term “alien” is unfortunate as it suggests that migrants do not belong, but also implies difference, strangeness and “otherness”.
The government must do more to combat not only xenophobia as a general concept, but also the specific negative attitudes directed towards other SADC countries.
At present, it could even be accused of contributing to such attitudes as immigration authorities have been known to introduce tougher entry procedures (for example higher visa application fees, restriction of multiple entry visas, requirements to show bank statements and other documentation) for citizens of certain countries such as Mozambique and Zimbabwe.
Such restrictions may instead result in more border jumpers among those denied formal entry, in more employers securing the cheap labour of such undocumented or illegal border jumpers and in greater exploitation and impunity by employers.
The government has, on occasion, explicitly stated that foreigners have a definite potential to contribute to the local economy and, in some cases, the use of foreign labour may not only be positive but also necessary.
All that remains is for this attitude to be translated into legislation and to allow it to permeate the public consciousness.
A further option for the government would be to bestow a kind of legitimacy on immigrants as it did in September 1996, with a one-off indemnity that gave citizenship rights to undocumented migrants from SADC countries who could prove they had lived in South Africa for longer than five years, had a job, or had married a SA citizen and had no criminal record.
The government is also bound, legally and morally, to a number of international conventions and treaties.
What can South Africa do? First and foremost, it must be made clear that the primary challenge the government faces is an educational one, as it is unable to focus on any one group in society.
It has a duty to provide citizens with vicarious knowledge of migrants, immigrants and refugees as people through the media. It would also be helpful to encourage a greater sense of continentalism and internationalism through the media and through the public pronouncements of opinion-makers.
This can be achieved by working with schools, colleges and universities to include issues such as citizenship and xenophobia in their curricula, and to stress the positive impact that immigration can have on our economy and society, by using examples from countries such as the UK and Switzerland. The media must also play a vital role.
As for specific government policy, it is obvious the government has to go beyond detecting, detaining and deporting migrants in order to tackle crime, disease and joblessness. These issues need to be treated completely separately from that of migration.
One important aspect of xenophobia is the virtual absence of any sense of solidarity with other countries in SADC; the government must work with other SADC countries to improve, or even create, a real sense of regional consciousness among citizens and policy makers.
Finally, police and immigration officers must be trained and sensitised about human rights and, in particular, the rights of foreigners and refugees to enjoy freedom from discrimination and full protection from the SA Police Service.
Corruption should also be tackled within the police service and officers should be punished severely for any abuse of foreigners or the immigration system as a whole.
This approach should be expanded to the criminal justice system as a whole, where citizens should be punished to the full extent of the law for racially motivated crimes and attacks on foreigners.
These attacks on non-South Africans are a cause of real shame and concern. There are many South Africans working on the copper mines in Zambia and we don’t want them to be subjected to any discrimination on account of them not being Zambians or on race. We hope this won’t happen in any other SADC country in a way of revenge against any South African.
We call on all South Africans of goodwill to make a firm stand against these attacks and treat them as hate crimes. Such acts can only take society backwards and open the wounds of racism and intolerance against which so many South Africans fought. These thugs, who out of envy, attack foreigners who have the skills and industry to get jobs must be squarely condemned and denounced.
We are deeply concerned about the extent of the humanitarian crisis that is developing across Gauteng as a result of violent attacks on foreign nationals.
Xenophobia must be strongly condemned because it is grossly inhuman to harass and attack fellow African brothers and sisters. And these are not the only foreigners in that country. There are many other foreigners from Asia, Europe and America in South Africa. But they are not being subjected to similar inhuman and barbaric treatment. Why?
Labels: SOUTH AFRICA, XENOPHOBIA
posted by MrK @ 3:33 AM
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