Political will needed to end SA xenophobia

This would involve erasing anti-migrant sentiments from politicians and government officials speeches while the media, which has a responsibility to shape public opinion and expose official wrongdoing in such instances, should stop peddling hate speech to help halt rising xenophobic attitudes.

Some surveys on xenophobia have shown that South Africa exhibits levels of intolerance and hostility to outsiders unlike virtually anything seen in other parts of the world. In stark contrast to people in other countries, South Africans are the least open to outsiders and want the greatest restrictions on immigration.

Emmanuel Maravanyika, a criminologist attached to the Criminology Centre at the University of Cape Town said the xenophobic violence that swept across South Africa in 2008 and more recently in De Doorns in the Western Cape, was rooted in deeper social and economic problems afflicting broader society that were left unattained for a considerable period.

Stealing our jobs

In a thesis entitled The Bloody Rainbow Nation: A Critical Analysis of Legislation and Policies Within South Africa in responding to Xenophobia, Maravanyika said that while xenophobia was common in southern Africa, in South Africa it had been set apart by the internecine violence last year that left about 62 people dead; although 21 of those killed were South African citizens mistaken for foreigners.

An estimated 1000 Zimbabwean migrant farm workers are currently camped in a rugby field in the wine lands of De Doorns after they were forced out of their homes last October by bands of South Africans who accused them of stealing their jobs and lowering wages in the area.

The Zimbabweans have strenuously denied these charges and instead accuse the ANC leadership in De Doorns of fanning the attacks to appease the local voters who were unhappy with the sudden growth of the migrant population in the locality.

Maravanyika said that, In essence, xenophobia has underlying causes which need to be addressed, and the various acts of xenophobia are the manifestations of a larger problem in government, the media and broader society.

In his thesis for a master of philosophy in criminal justice, Maravanyika wrote: One would not be over-critical in assessing that in general the underlying causes of the xenophobia attacks actually had nothing to do with foreign nationals, and that they were victims of a social process within a political and economic setting of poverty, unemployment and disenfranchisement.

This would explain firstly why the attacks were not foreseen in the manner in which they erupted, and secondly why the attacks stopped as suddenly as they had begun. A bigger agenda is therefore on the cards

Maravanyikas sentiments echo the results of a 2006 survey conducted in South Africa by the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP) on xenophobia. The Xenophobia Survey showed that South Africa exhibits levels of intolerance and hostility to outsiders unlike virtually anything seen in other parts of the world.

Media and xenophobia

SAMP found that a large amount of newspaper coverage of migration issues in South Africa was anti-immigration and non-analytical. The South African press continued the perpetuation of negative stereotypes of migrants as job stealers, criminals a human tsunami, illegal immigrants, or border jumpers. Also, African migrants were perceived to be responsible for spreading diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

The most obvious, and perhaps most likely, reason for the persistence of xenophobia in the South African press is the widespread existence of xenophobia in the country. In other words, media coverage simply reflects the reality on the ground in the country, either through journalists reproducing their own images and ideas of migrants and migration and/or by editors providing space for articles, letters and opinion pieces that they feel reflect public consensus on the issue.

Whether the xenophobic press is merely a reflection of public sentiment or stems from xenophobia within the press itself is ultimately impossible to decide, the survey concluded.

Although there has been a discernible shift in press attitudes towards migrants, the openly xenophobic mind-set of some South African political representatives and officials has found its way into the press, particularly scandal seeking tabloids.

In an attempt to perpetuate the notion that there was no political crisis in Zimbabwe, the Mbeki administration suggested that Zimbabweans in South Africa were all voluntary economic migrants. Mbeki referred to the Zimbabweans as an inflow of illegal people and not real refugees.

Zimbabweans continue to stream into South Africa to escape the deteriorating political and economic conditions at home. The vulnerability of the estimated 1.2 million to 3 million Zimbabweans living in South Africa, who likely constitute South Africas largest community of foreign migrants, is exacerbated by their frequent lack of legal status.

Most horrendous murders

While the government under Jacob Zuma has made sweeping political and legal changes including a moratorium on deportation of Zimbabweans, his deputy Kgalema Mothlanthe recently angered human rights organization when he labeled migrants as murderers.

Some of the most brutal farm murders are committed by foreign nationals, who were brutally exploited and made to toil without any remuneration, Motlanthe said. The day when they demand remuneration, they are reported (by farmers) to the law enforcement units and are duly arrested and are sent back to their countries of origin. Of course, they come back and they go back and commit the most horrendous murders, he said.

Ben Marais, president of farmers union, TAU SA, sharply disagreed with him. Based on the information in TAU SAs data base (which includes a detailed list of farm attacks and farm murders), no such information reflects the accusation contained in the deputy president’s statement.

Marais added: It remains the belief of TAU SA that the deputy presidents statement could incite further violence in retribution for perceived maltreatment of employees, that it advocates hatred of a specific racial and economic group and that it constitutes incitement to do harm. As such it reflects insensitivity and bigotry…

An international rights organisation, Human Rights Watch last year reported that South African police often assaulted and extorted money from Zimbabwean migrants in violation of South African law and international human rights law.

Maravanyika said abuses could be resolved quickly if there was a political will to do so. The various acts of discrimination against non-nationals occur in a society that has laws that can (be used to) prevent them from occurring, or at least that can reduce the instances in which they happen.