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.