Ugly protests target people from Africa
Foreigners stand up to locals
“WHAT jobs are we stealing? We're creating our own small businesses, which they [South Africans] can also do but they don’t.”
A fuming Sulaman Kiyemba, a Ugandan national, expressed this view during a heated standoff between besieged foreigners and a throng of South Africans protesters.
The ugly scene played out on Friday near the Marabastad home affairs asylum offices in Pretoria.
A number of foreigners, largely Somali refugees, reside and do business in the vicinity.
Before firing rubber bullets and forcing everyone to scatter, police stood between groups of South Africans and foreign nationals.
In a standoff that could have had casualties had police not intervened, both sides stood ready to fight.
“You know nothing about war, we’ve experienced war,” one foreign national carrying stones shouted.
South Africans baying for the blood of foreign nationals wore balaclavas and carried stones and sticks. The group marched from Atteridgeville, west of the capital, to join residents from Mamelodi, east of Pretoria, for the anti-immigrant march.
Rioting locals blamed people from other African countries for their unemployment. Nigerian nationals in particular are accused of causing crime to spiral out of control.
Kiyemba, who sells clothes, rejected the claim that foreigners were taking jobs away from South Africans.
“Go to any Shoprite or Pick n Pay, you won’t find Ugandans, Somalis or Nigerians working there,” he said.
Many foreigners are running their own businesses, Kiyemba added.
“No one is stopping South Africans from opening their businesses too.”
Mohamed Kafi, from war-torn Somalia, said his countrymen were making ends meet by operating small businesses.
“If they are unemployed, it doesn’t mean that we’re taking their jobs,” said Kafi.
The unemployment rate in SA has jumped to 26.5%, according to data from Statistics SA. Black citizens make up 40% of the unemployed while 29% are coloureds.
At 59%, unemployment is highest among those without matric. It is 27% among those with matric and only 7% among those with tertiary qualifications.
Makgoka Lekganyane, a coordinator of the march, blamed foreigners for the unemployment of locals.
“Our issue is unemployment; it is 36% when you include discouraged job-seekers,” he said.
“These people move from their countries and come to SA. Where must our people run to?
“Look at the trucks driving in Joburg, they are driven by foreign nationals. It’s disempowerment. They are trying to make us slaves.”
Professor Loren Landau, director of the African Centre for Migration at Wits University, said foreigners were merely scapegoats for a critical shortage of jobs in the country.
“While the presence of foreigners clearly introduces competition within some markets, the numbers of foreigners are too small to have a massive impact on employment rates,” said Landau.
“Moreover there is fairly strong evidence that foreigners of all skill levels help to promote trade and business within the country.”