A country without leadership

Last year I voiced my concerns about the widening divide between the Haves and Have-Nots and have continued to do. A South African reminded me about other countries like the UK that have their divides. I pointed out that the poor in the UK are not in the majority and have the advantage of a benefit system that in the main helps to feed and put a roof over the heads of those who are truly on their knees. The words of an English friend voices the concerns of many in South Africa and sends a sobering thought ......"who next - us"?

Laura Miti wrote in the Dispatch Online today....."what is perhaps most frightening about the events of the last two weeks, is that these violent acts showed that neither the leaders of the country, nor the ANC have any real authority over the majority of poor people congregated in the country’s townships.

The SABC showed Zuma, who is usually known to “connect” with ordinary people, being told by members of the crowd he was addressing, that nothing he could say would convince them that they were wrong in venting their anger on foreigners.

Without question, the situation is now perilous for any foreigners in the country.

But it should be even more worrisome for South African citizens – the point being that nobody can deny that the poor majority in South Africa has good reason to be angry.

Fourteen years after democracy, many people are still living in absolute squalor. Into these conditions came millions (many illegally) who were fleeing terror in their own countries to seek a new life in South Africa. This time around the poor masses chose to vent their anger on the foreigners, who they accuse of benefiting from the country’s freedom at their expense.

But the critical question is who, had there had been no foreigners, would they have vented their violent anger on?

In the last few years we have seen an increase in the anger and violence simmering just below the surface among South Africa’s poor – while the government stood by and watched. There have been random acts of anarchy such as those in which commuters burnt trains because they were behind schedule. There have been riots over lack of service delivery and when some townships’ boundaries were shifted.

Now we have the violence perpetrated against foreigners.

It is easy for those of us who were not directly affected by these outbursts, to imagine that this won’t in fact be the case in the future. One has to ask, what will prevent a situation where the next target becomes the “rich” people in suburbs – the whites or those blacks perceived to have benefited since 1994? Citizens should be asking themselves why there is such deep anger and a propensity for violence in this country.

I think it is time for collective introspection. When this violence quietens down, it would be disastrous to forget about it and get on with our lives – the next outburst could well bring South Africa to its knees." Full article: http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=206178

Tutu told you so, Mr President

Four years ago, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu caused a spluttering avalanche of indignation when he expressed fears about the situation developing in South Africa as a result of growing gaps between the rich and the poor.

"Are we not building up much resentment that we may rue later?" Tutu asked in the 2004 annual Nelson Mandela Memorial lecture. "Many, too many, of our people live in gruelling, demeaning, dehumanising poverty. We are sitting on a powder keg."

The big bang may have just happened. It took just two weeks to kill nearly 50 people, displace 15 000 others, and get images of their burning, bloodied and terrified victims into the international spotlight.

In a previous post I mentioned about the 'foreigners' working for the charities and many others and their fear or reprisals. The unease permeates across the whole spectrum of being a 'foreigner' in the 'Rainbow Nation'. An English friend who came to live in Knysna with her husband 5 years ago wrote..."This xenophobia business is very scary - who next - us?" Their gardener John, a Malawian, has taken refuge with ten others, in Rheenendaal, a township 17kms outside Knysna. They were chased out of their location, had their houses broken into and their belongings stolen. He has started his journey to return to Malawi. He would rather die in his own country.

Xenophobia in South Africa

Here in Knysna of all places we feel safe! Well, at least for now according to the sceptics who have always consistently said, what would happen in Zimbabwe would happen here.

In a conversation with my contact at a well known and important charity in Knysna yesterday, I was told that people had died when trouble had flared in the township when about 100 foreigners sought refuge at the police station after five Somali shops in the Wit Location informal settlement were looted. 'Foreigners' had reported that structures were set alight and threats made by a group of marchers earlier in the day. Friends reported hearing gunshots in the location. My contact said they were being housed in the church and food was being provided.

A local Malawian who teaches wrote the following to me: "In the Locations it's not safe right now and I'm in town. I fear for my safety as well as the car. Yesterday the locals were looting shops and houses owned by foreigners throughout the night. We couldn't sleep"

The charities do such good work in the community, many against the odds of the stigma they portray and represents. Ironically, I gather that one of the charities is not run by a South African but by a Kenyan. If it was me I would be asking myself who am I doing all this for? Should these 'foreigners' decide to leave and go back to her own country - what then for the many charities and for those they help who affected by poverty, homelessness and HIV/AIDS? The statistics would show that those who are driving out the foreigners, no doubt have friends or relatives affected by the scourge of the virus!

But it is not Xenophobia that created this monster. Yes, the Zimbabweans have flooded in because of Mbeki's 'quiet diplomacy' towards our neighbouring Zimbabwe. But if there were no Zimbabweans in South Africa, it would be another thing that would spark an uprising. The foreigners are just a scapegoat for the underlying reasons. Many of the 'foreigners' have had a better education and therefore a better ability to get work however menial. Mbeki and the ANC must take some of the blame, but so must the government of the past, where the majority of the population were deprived of education. This is a price South Africans should deeply regret. Of course there is no excuse for the violence meted out to other human beings. The explanation by some is that it is a criminal element - who else would behave this way, but the underlying poor educational foundations of the past and into the present are still the reason this is happening.

The positive situation, is that many South Africans are voicing their concerns in the papers and on the radio. All have an opinion but no one condones what is happening. So many want to see an end to this hurt.

Xenophobia in South Africa and the UK

Xenophobia has steadily become one of the major social ills threatening the stability of our South Africa

They nicknamed it Gomorrah. But little did those who gave Alexandra township this name know that one day it would turn into a real Gomorrah for foreigners.

Two dead, about 40 injured and scores of others forced to flee the burning shacks they call home.

it is the wrath of fellow men and women who blame post- apartheid South Africa’s perennial problems — unemployment and crime — on the presence of foreign Africans in the country.

Thumi Ntswane spoke for everyone who had participated in the orgy of violence when he told The Times newspaper (SA) that: “We are not trying to kill anyone but rather solving the problems of our own country. The government is not doing anything about this, so I support what the mob is doing.”

Of course this is Outrageous!

But Alexandra is not the only poor working-class area to have been hit by this xenophobic madness. In recent weeks, innocent people have been attacked in Diepsloot and Atteridgeville. Their only “crime” was that they were not born in South Africa.

It is the Haves and the Have-Nots that so many, including Desmond Tuto warned about. The foreigners 'have' the jobs and the poor of this country who 'have not'.

Of course South Africa is not alone in undergoing a more open showing of anger toward foreigners. In the UK this seems to be the same story. In this case though, it is not entirely prompted by poverty. Now even the white middle classes, so often silent in the past are beginning to show signs of anger towards those who they believe are taking away their hard earned rights to free services they worked so hard for. The usual complaints against the efficiency of the NHS, Education and Employment, are now being replaced by a more personal and critical view of dwindling services being stolen away by 'foreigners'. These foreigners are seen as the 'Haves', whilst others who have never experienced severe poverty feel they are now the 'Have-Nots'.
What was once a rare Zenophobic email joke a few years back, now pops into my junk mail folder on a increasingly regular basis.

The situation will not change whilst the situation of those feeling they are the 'have not' s in our society continues.