BLAMING REFUGEES FOR OUR WOES IS JUST SCAPE-GOATING
Crime is crime whether it’s done by illegals or locals
THERE is a new political party on the block: The South African First party.
The name sounds very similar to a popular slogan chanted by some president who only after a few weeks in office has caused one storm after another, the biggest one being banning individuals from Muslim countries because, according to him, they are the cause of that country’s problems.
This new party, which has already said it will contest the 2019 elections, is campaigning on the ticket of driving foreigners out of the country and sealing its borders. According to the reasoning of the party’s founder, Mario Khumalo, foreigners are to blame for all the country’s ills. South Africans are suffering crime, poverty, unemployment and a poor quality of life as a direct consequence of foreigners in the country.
It is, however, ironic that Khumalo grew up in the US – a foreign country. Perhaps he’s taking a leaf out of Donald Trump’s book.
Together with a group calling itself Concerned Residents of Mamelodi, the party made the news for organising an anti-immigrant and anti-foreigner march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria.
Fortunately, their application for permission to protest was denied.
It would be easy for us enlightened people to dismiss this Khumalo character and his party outright because we understand that it is not only ridiculous and irresponsible but also wrong to paint an entire group of people with the same brush.
But there is something ominous in the scenes that have replicated themselves across the country and most recently played themselves out in Rosettenville, south of Johannesburg, and in the west of Pretoria. The mob action that led to the burning of the homes of foreign nationals, to the looting of their property and to their banishment confirms that too many people share this party’s sentiments.
This persecution of foreigners by mobs who attack them by day and night, looting their shops and setting their property alight, is accompanied by inflammatory rhetoric like “foreigners bring crime”, “foreigners are stealing our jobs”, “foreigners do not pay taxes”, “foreigners sell drugs” and so on. Since the outbreak of the largescale xenophobia-inspired violence that swept over the country in 2008, there have been numerous sporadic attacks on foreigners in communities across the country.
Instead of a decline in this antiforeigner attitude, the periodic violent outbursts against foreigners even in the country’s urban centres indicates that it is strengthening.
City of Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba has made no pretence of his disapproval of “illegal immigrants”, claiming that they are the cause of crime and decay in the city. Although escaping prosecution for hate speech, King Goodwill Zwelithini shocked the nation when he said in 2015 that foreigners needed to return to their countries.
Mashaba and King Zwelithini are surely not the only ones. Many community leaders too easily point the finger at foreigners when assessing the challenges facing their communities
“Mashaba made no pretence of his disapproval of illegal immigrants
All this is scape-goating. Foreigners are a pretty easy target when societies are struggling and failing to solve their problems.
Immigrants and refugees are a good distraction for people who do not want to engage in the deep thinking and hard work of dealing with the ills in their own families and neighbourhoods. They are looking for someone else to blame.
Leaders in communities and in prominent positions like municipalities and traditional leadership who repeat their myopic analysis of the problems that plague our society legitimise and lend credibility to these erroneous conclusions about the impact of immigration and the role of foreigners.
Why should foreigners take the fall for issues that are the competence of the country’s law enforcement and government of the day.
Crime is crime and must be addressed regardless of who perpetrates it. There is no statistical evidence to show that all or most crimes committed in this country are committed by foreigners. Reporting on crime that emphasises the nationalities of the perpetrators also helps to strengthen the narrow-minded scape-goating of immigrants and refugees.
It is not foreigners who communities should be persecuting. Citizens need to be spending their energy and effort in holding police and public officials to account for their failure to enforce the law.
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba warned last week that all leaders should refrain from speaking ill of immigrants and refugees. Premier David Makhura, in his state of the province address, this week reiterated the same. It is good and well for Gigaba and Makhura to admonish other leaders. But, as representatives of the government of the day, they are culpable to the suffering and insecurity that foreigners are subjected to.
The government is failing to deal decisively with border security, drug trafficking in and out of the country and drugs and crime in townships and poorer sections of the country’s urban centres. Mobs who think they are above the law now have the upper hand.
These weaknesses in government enforcement are also emboldening Khumalo and his South African First party to exploit anti-foreigner sentiments for political expedience.
“Foreigners are an easy target when societies fail to solve problems