Maravi

(HERALD) Who are next victims of xenophobia?

Who are next victims of xenophobia?
By Itayi Garande

THE current xenophobic attacks in South Africa are a bad reminder on the history of the country and the nature in which they are being carried out is very disturbing. Young South Africans, between 16-25 years are killing "foreigners", including Mozambicans, Zimbabweans, Nigerians and many others, using methods said to have been employed by military men in the Rhodesian security forces and also employed during the apartheid era.

One of the methods we saw used by these young people was "necklacing" (that is, the burning to death of selected individuals, with the aid of inflammable liquid and/or vehicle tyres).

According to film maker and presenter (then reporting for the South African Broadcasting Corporation) Max du Preez:

"Between September 1984 and August 1989, 771 people were ‘necklaced’ or doused with fuel and burnt to death. The myth perpetuated by the state then was that this was an example of African brutality. The truth we know now, is that this repulsive form of killing was first started by white Rhodesian security forces in the 1970s and then brought to South Africa by the security police . . ."

However, in 1997 SABC was found guilty of contravening the Broadcasting Code by the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa for publishing that statement.

This was after a complaint by the Flame Lily Foundation — "a non-profit organisation . . . run for Rhodesians by Rhodesians", according to its website.

Du Preez’s statement was made after footage of a woman being burnt, stoned and kicked to death by a mob in South Africa was shown on SABC.

What is surprising is that the same method talked about then is now being used — 11 years later — by young people who were barely adults in 1984-89.

This method has been in existence for a long time in South Africa. The practice was employed during disturbances in South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s, and was used against alleged criminals by "people’s courts" established in black townships as a means of circumventing the apartheid judicial system.

"Necklacing" was also used to punish members of the black community who were perceived to be collaborators of the apartheid regime. These included black policemen, town councillors and others, as well as their relatives and associates. The practice was frequently carried out in the name of the African National Congress, although the ANC officially condemned the practice.

At the last ANC congress we saw their youths drunk, aggressive and openly displaying firearms and read about the sexual harassment that went on.

We saw the young thugs heckle Mosioua Lekota, South Africa’s Minister of Defence, who was jailed at Robben Island Prison for challenging apartheid.

The linking of the current problems in South Africa should be done cautiously. These youths are not only manipulated by "dark forces", but are also impatient with the current pace at which wealth is being distributed in an "independent" South Africa.

The pictures we see in South Africa today are not new.

What is new are the targets.

In 1985, we saw the pictures of Maki Skosana — "Her body had been scorched by fire and some broken pieces of glass had been inserted into her vagina," according to an investigating committee.

"After having seen so many ‘necklacings’ on the news, it occurs to me that either many others were being performed (off camera as it were) and this was just the tip of the iceberg, or that the presence of the camera completed the last requirement, and acted as a catalyst in this terrible reaction," said photojournalist Kevin Carter in the mid-1980s.

Carter — "one of the integrands of a group called the Bang-Bang Club, a group of four friends, photojournalists that dedicated themselves to exposing to the eyes of the world the brutal regime of South African apartheid" — later committed suicide two months after he received a Pulitzer Prize for Feature Photography for a "necklacing" photograph.

He was 33 years old and left a goodbye note:

"I am depressed . . . without phone . . . money for rent . . . money for child support . . . money for debts . . . money! . . . I am haunted by the vivid memories of killings & corpses & anger & pain . . . of starving or wounded children, of trigger-happy madmen, often police, of killer executioners . . . I have gone to join Ken if I am that lucky."

Ken Oosterbroek was his friend and member of the Bang-Bang Club who was shot while covering a firefight outside Johannesburg. So the violence in South Africa is not new. The players are many; the agendas are multifarious; and the outcomes are unpredictable.

Those who send us the images help spread consciousness, but should do more than that. They should report as accurately and responsibly as possible.

In their pursuit of the best image, they should protect themselves and the community they wish to inform; and make sure that they do not perpetuate and encourage more violence.

There is a new moral dilemma in media today. For example, how far should one go to pursue images like the ones we are inundated with daily? When should journalists put aside their impartiality and get involved in reducing the violence, or protecting victims of violence?

Should a journalist continue filming a burning man?

Should a journalist apportion blame?

And when should a journalist’s assessment of the problem start?

These are the questions we should be asking when tackling xenophobic attacks in South Africa, which are not a new phenomenon but whose victims keep changing.

Who are the next victims?

This is a pertinent question when we see "necklacing" and violence permeating popular culture and our everyday politics; and when we are unsure or do not care to find out the crux of the problem.

In an episode of the Canadian/South African sci-fi series Charlie Jade, executives from Vexcor threaten Charlie’s friend Karl with necklacing if he does not give them information. Incidentally, this scene takes place in Cape Town. In the opening scene of the film "Bopha", an African traitor is "necklaced" by a mob of other Africans.

In the movie "Tears of the Sun", Bruce Willis’ sniper shoots a man who is in the process of "necklacing" a man in the name of ethnic cleansing. He is referred to as "the Zippo man" because of the "Zippo" lighter he was brandishing.

When opposition leaders say, "I have argued for years that the greatest threat of the crisis in Zimbabwe was not here (Zimbabwe), but in South Africa where despite the disparity in size, we are capable of destabilising that country very effectively," should we then say an age-old problem has been created by newcomers? — www.talkzimbabwe.com

itayi@talkzimbabwe.com

Labels: SOUTH AFRICA, XENOPHOBIA

posted by MrK @ 8:17 AM