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.