THE FURORE OVER FOREIGNERS: TWO VIEWS Our people have real concerns
The South African government should not brand legitimate community problems as xenophobia, argues Sibusiso Magwaza
IT is amazing how quickly the narrative changes when poor and marginalised black South Africans raise the issue of crimes committed by the foreign nationals in their communities.
In our country’s major metropolitan centres, foreign nationals and locals have clashed over crime, drugs, prostitution and even human trafficking.
Without any investigation being carried out, these incidents are classified as xenophobic, with locals often ending up being branded as lazy and foreign nationals described as hard-working.
The concerns raised by locals in their communities highlight everyday struggles and suffering which are well known but not addressed by the authorities.
Every time a conflict erupts between foreign nationals and locals, the government acts as if it is the first time such incidents have happened.
Whatever pronouncements are made during these incidents become pure public relations, reflecting little intention to resolve the real issues.
Competition for scarce resources is always at the centre of these conflicts, but matters become more intriguing when government representatives and ministers name and blame those who are trying to raise issues.
Sporadic confrontations of this nature in South Africa are well documented.
A number of commissions have been set up to investigate the source of these disturbances, yet little or no evidence is available to suggest that the necessary steps are being taken to prevent similar conflicts from happening again.
South Africa has an alarming unemployment rate of 26.5%, one of the highest in the world.
The slowdown in our economy, coupled with the inability of our education system to provide scarce skills, results in a state of misery where unemployment, especially among young people, rises every year.
This creates a crisis in labour markets which results in unfair competition and exploitation.
The number of illegal immigrants is, of course, hard to pin down, but it is very high.
While many foreign nationals who enter the country claim to be refugees seeking asylum, the biggest proportion are economic migrants.
They find work in agriculture, including sugar-cane and cotton plantations, and in restaurants. Many of them are street hawkers in the major cities.
This situation is a serious security threat.
Our government is reluctant to offend neighbouring countries that sheltered those who fled South Africa during apartheid, but resentment is rising against illegals who sometimes receive the state benefits that locals still yearn for. This is a time bomb. It is common knowledge that locals in townships, villages and urban areas hold foreign nationals responsible for the astronomical unemployment rate, homelessness and many other social problems.
The government must process the recent incidents in Rosettenville, Mamelodi and Atteridgeville — including the burning down of the houses of foreign nationals, especially Nigerians — and come up with a long-term strategy.
Locals are raising legitimate concerns that the government must at least investigate, rather than dismissing them outright as xenophobic.
Crimes committed by some foreign nationals include drug dealing, prostitution, human trafficking, hijacking and burglary.
The inability of law enforcement agencies to act fast, and at times their collusion with foreign nationals, results in collective anger and frustration.
People then take the law into their own hands.
Basically, these incidents are due to the government’s inability to control our porous borders and protect South African citizens.
Many organisations, including the Nelson Mandela Foundation, have criticised the Mamelodi march against illegal immigrants, and are of the view that it should not have been allowed to take place.
But these organisations operate from the posh air-conditioned suburbs and have not familiarised themselves with the predicament faced by locals.
For them it’s about public relations and how the international world views our country, as opposed to the harsh realities faced by the poor and the working class.
This march was a legitimate and legal means to voice dissatisfaction, an attempt to prompt the government to do something.
The government must have been very worried about how quickly the first clashes between locals and foreign nationals, in 2008, spread to four provinces, including KwaZuluNatal.
Pre-emptive intelligence gather- ing and plans to counter these incidents must be rolled out without delay. But importantly, all levels of government must roll up their sleeves to deal with the socioeconomic situation of the poor and marginalised.
Through careless statements, the government has belittled the legitimate concerns of the community, appearing to have sided with the foreign nationals who are accused of running drug dens, brothels and the like.
It is mainly poor people in townships who are at the coalface of the unfair competition and general lawlessness in Hillbrow, Marabastad, Point and Russell roads in Durban, the Johannesburg inner city and many other places that have become no-go areas.
Yet their collective actions to raise issues with the government are deemed to be xenophobic.
I have never heard an apology from our government for the fact that each year thousands of our people are murdered, houses are burgled and property is vandalised.
I suspect that our government reserves its apologies only for when foreign nationals are attacked.
The government should ask for help and spend billions of rands on preventing violence, not by employing more police but by taking advice from other societies and experts.
We can talk and criticise violence and call it different names, including xenophobia, but it will never stop unless the government heeds the pleas of ordinary people and controls access through our borders and protects our sovereignty.
A number of sectors in the country have become the exclusive preserve of foreign nationals, including illegal immigrants.
These include salons, the hospitality industry, building and construction, and now street hawking.
It is puzzling that the majority of foreign nationals are thought to be bringing skills that locals don’t have; they compete for the very same unskilled jobs that South Africans want.
The government must not forget that its first and foremost responsibility is towards South Africans.
Harsh condemnations of and statements about the violence must be reserved until it has been determined who the perpetrators are.
I would like to see our government taking decisive action on this matter and doing its best in cities and towns to improve the conditions of the poor and the working class, because it is mainly in the areas where they live that confrontations with foreign nationals take place.
Magwaza, a presenter and political analyst at Vibe FM, is a former deputy director and speechwriter in the office of the premier of KwaZulu-Natal MOCKERY OF OUR ANTHEM: Foreign nationals at Point in Durban armed themselves in fear of attacks by locals
This march was a legitimate and legal means . . . to prompt the government to do something