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SA on alert for xenophobic violence

DONNA BRYSON | PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA - Jul 25 2009 07:42

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Some of the shack dwellers of Jeffsville recently had an idea: Why not stage a march to demand government housing some had been awaiting for 18 years?

Community leader Ernest Tshavhuyo, though, feared an angry march could mean trouble in the Pretoria-area squatter camp.

Protests scattered across South Africa in 2008 began as demonstrations against lack of change for the poorest of the poor, but soon foreigners were being attacked in shack settlements and other desperate communities, leaving 70 people dead by the time the violence ended several weeks later. At least two people in Jeffsville were killed.

Now, as a new round of protests have sprung, South Africans are worried about how to avoid a repeat of the horrific violence.

They might learn from people like Tshavhuyo.

The 43-year-old former factory worker persuaded his neighbours to stay home and give him three weeks to set up a meeting with Pretoria, at which he and a small group from Jeffsville would present their concerns peacefully.

"We said, `What is the purpose of marching?"' Tshavhuyo said in an interview on Friday, describing the community meeting the day before.

"Our community needs education. Some, they don't even know the meaning of democracy."

The most recent unrest has included protests that deteriorated into rioting in eastern South Africa, with foreigners' businesses looted and police firing rubber bullets. In another protest in Durban, protesters complaining of high food prices invaded supermarkets and ate food from the shelves.

CONTINUES BELOW

The incidents have the ANC-led government under pressure. In an editorial this week, the the Times called new protests "disturbing warnings that a full-scale outbreak of xenophobic violence is not far away".

The ANC is desperate to avoid the kind of violence that hit last year, when images broadcast around the world -- including some from Jeffsville of residents burning shacks where Zimbabweans, Malawians, Somalis and other foreigners had lived and worked -- exposed deep anti-foreigner sentiment in South Africa.

Zuma's party released a statement on Thursday promising "to listen and find solutions to people's concerns" and condemning looting and attacks on foreigners "under the guise of `service delivery protests"' against the government.

If Jeffsville is any model, such pronouncements and promises won't be enough. In this squatter camp, it took commitment from people like Tshavhuyo to bring calm last year, and he and his colleagues say they have to be constantly on alert.

Tshavhuyo said soon after last year's violence erupted, he sat with like-minded neighbours in the bare shed that is the headquarters of the camp's community organisation. They wrote a letter to a city official asking for help. Within days, a meeting had been arranged at which the attacks on foreigners were denounced and, Tshavhuyo said, those who had led the violence backed down after seeing the community was against them.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation, Mandela's headquarters since he retired from politics in 1999, had been looking for ways to address the anti-foreigner violence. Impressed with Jeffsville's efforts, the foundation helped organise another community meeting in June, at which Tshavhuyo, who has been unemployed for six years, rose to
offer an apology to foreigners on behalf of the settlement's South Africans.

"We are responsible as citizens to make sure we behave in a way that promotes peace," said Mothomang Diaho of the Nelson Mandela Foundation. "There needs to be a lot of self-reflection."

South Africans know wariness of foreigners is common around the world, but worry their xenophobia is particularly virulent, perhaps a result of the isolation created by apartheid, or because the institutionalised racism of the past has left even black South Africans suspicious of black foreigners.

"The healing, it needs to take place among ourselves," said Tshavhuyo, who apologised in public again on Mandela's birthday July 18, when a reconciliation ceremony was held under a tent on a sports ground on the edge of Jeffsville.

Abdul Hassam, a native of Somalia who owns several small shops in Jeffsville, slaughtered a cow for the ceremony, to show he had accepted Tshavhuyo's apology.

Friday, Tshavhuyo and Hassam greeted each other with a warm, complicated handshake. Hassam, heads of the Somali Association of
South Africa, said some of his countrymen left the country following last year's violence. He considered leaving as well, but instead has rebuilt his Jeffsville businesses and devoted himself to reconciliation.

"We are very grateful to the community of Jeffsville -- they have stood by us," said Hassam, (42) who fled his war-ravaged homeland 11 years ago. "We are trying our best to see to it there are no more attacks on foreigners." - Sapa-AP

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Comments

The reason that the people are picking on jonny foreigner is because the police didn't do diddly when the problem came round the first time. The stock the people - OUR PEOPLE - looted from the Somalian shopkeepers has finally run out. It should come as no surprise that Mr Foreign Shop Owner is a target again.... only this time the people are shouting "service delivery now!" rather than "kwerekwere out!" What a curious country.

Marius de Kock on July 25, 2009, 9:33 am

good point about the racism against other africans, maybe this is the point where we put an end to affirmtive action and declare that prejudice is bad no matter what, the fact that SA is crawling with foreigners is only testament what a great job the government has been doing over the last 20 years, it was such a great job that people are seeing south africa as the land of opportunity. congrats ANC.

thabo Rolihlahla on July 25, 2009, 12:04 pm

Try as RSA might to pour incense over the foreigner hatred, the truth is, the country will burn. As a foreigner myself (or rather used to be), there were tens of times I was offered the RSA passport and ID (which I didnt take)! Truth be told:
(1) South Africans have gotten a raw deal from the end of apartheid.
(2) The massive number of foreigners into RSA exerts pressure of the economic and health services systems.
(3) Educated foreigners are 'fortunate' to find themselves working good jobs (as my experience is, most white bosses prefer black foreigners to black locals).....-whatever the reason!
(4) Local women praise relationships with foreign men (Don't discount this; it's an important factor)! RSA girls used to tell me their men are violent and don't know how to treat women, whatever that meant! (Perhaps it was my salary slip making them say that)!
(5) Rising unemployment among black populations (coupled with poor service delivery).

The foregoing factors create jealousy which breeds hatred...Black South Africans continuing to struggle when 'foreigners' easily find ways of integrating themselves within the post-apartheid economy...In England here, when unemployment was rising, local workers rose up, protesting against an 'influx' of Portuguese labour!

Unless the government tightens the borders and the procedures for getting South African identity documents, as well as improve service delivery, I will never blame my local South African brothers for instigating xenophobic attacks! I have felt the same way seeing Zimbabweans with my country's passport! Having said that, Xhosa women are hot!!

Fidel Castro on July 25, 2009, 4:44 pm

are we going to start checking the shape of peoples' heads now!?! wtf!?!

where i stay in jozi there are so many zimbabweans that i'm actually starting to pick up shona! what's up with that.

why don't we start by kicking out the nigerian coke dealers in jhb. we all know where they are...yet somehow the police don't???

Skhokho 2010 on July 25, 2009, 4:57 pm

oh fidel, i agree with you, xhosa women are hot!

Skhokho 2010 on July 25, 2009, 5:04 pm

No,they know what democracy is...toyitoyi style.

ANC motto; if you keep them uneducated,homeless and jobless, they shall blindly keep following and voting.

Evans Mazi on July 26, 2009, 8:09 am

We might blame the government in any way that we can but the evil that is rampant in SA is illiteracy. As long as people cannot read and write getting a decent job will always be an issue. Spoon feeding has also become a norm with people getting rdp houses. The real focus is supposed to be free education. Bob might have destroyed whatever there was in Zim, but he did an excellent job educating that nation. Nor wonder Zimbabweans are all over the globe.

Mikhael Gorbachev on July 27, 2009, 7:56 am

Our kind of democracy realy amuses me: no matter what let's keep voting for the same party that doesn't deliver on it's promises, and then 3 months later riot to show our dissatisfaction with that same party. ?????????????????

Mike Rotch on July 27, 2009, 9:56 am

Mikhael G, I agree with you.. My fellow blacks are being spoilt by the gov, they now don't wanna make means for a leaving but open their mouth wide that the gov must come and give them food,housing, anything but education. My bro's and sist, break & burn the property that will helpthem to show there dissatisfaction. the truth is gov is not God, everybody has to do his bit.
We took off the bad apartheit gov, why not use the same skills to better our country? we can do it.

Yena Gape on July 27, 2009, 11:55 am

Fidel Castro on July 25, 2009, 4:44 pm

As a foreigner myself (or rather used to be), there were tens of times I was offered the RSA passport and ID (which I didnt take)!

I have felt the same way seeing Zimbabweans with my country's passport!

Just as a matter of curiosity - what passport are you traveling on - and why are you so much against Zimbabweans?

Jay Vincento on July 30, 2009, 1:52 am

As a South African who has grown up in the US, I've experienced resentment and hostility against Africans from Black Americans for decades. They are resentful of Africans performing better academically in schools, outperforming them in the workplace, and generally speaking a better English then they who speak their ghetto english, so yes hostilities against foreigners is everywhere. I would feel threatened to by outsiders coming and taking away the good paying jobs. If I came and worked at home now ppl would think I got the job cause I'm from overseas.

Bongi Sithole on December 11, 2009, 12:35 am

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SA on alert for xenophobic violence

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