New MP brushes off racial attack
Xiaomei Havard is unfazed by the ‘xenophobic’ social media uproar that accompanied her recent appointment as an ANC MP.
Soon after the China-born naturalised South African citizen was announced as a replacement MP for late minister in the presidency Jackson Mthembu, the ANC received a backlash on social media, including from some ANC members.
Another controversy that followed Havard are reports of her criminal record. Her team sought to downplay the matter this week but Sunday World reported earlier this month that she was found guilty of fraud and sentenced to three months in jail or a R5,000 fine back in 2011. SAPS spokesman Vish Naidoo confirmed the conviction yesterday.
Havard said criticism of her Chinese origins had not come as a surprise to her.
“I accepted the fact that some South Africans reacted with hate to the news that I had been appointed as a new MP. That is normal. [I am] not surprised. Actually, many South African people have a race prejudice problem. They have accepted other minority people from India, America, Europe, but they do not accept a yellow face from Asia.
“They do not know me very well, they do not know how hard-working a person I am, that is why they are hating this appointment. I do not feel any anger about this. Time will give the answer, they will accept me soon.”
Havard said the uproar was fuelled by some South Africans who were xenophobic. “I think South Africans are xenophobic, very much.”
She said because the country had been isolated before 1994, and despite being a democratic state for more than 25 years, the majority of people “only accept European and American culture, but discriminate against Asian culture”. But it does not worry her.
“It does not bother me at all that some South Africans don’t feel that I am South African enough to be an ANC MP. I have a good, easy-going personality ... I have done a lot of work for the ANC at branch and community level, so my record speaks volumes.”
Havard was naturalised as a citizen after she married a South African, who has since died. Born in Nanyang, in China’s Henan province, the 55-year-old grew up and attended local schools in her rural village.
The daughter of retired teachers, she had dreams of one day becoming a medical doctor. She came to SA after receiving an offer to study for a doctorate in computer science in 1994. She says she has never looked back.
“I moved to South Africa the following year, and since then I have been involved in community development programmes,” she said.
“I first fell in love with politics in 2004. I have a friend who mentored me in politics and introduced me to some ANC icons such as Nelson Mandela, Albertina Sisulu, and others.
“They were all very impressed with my youth development programmes and encouraged me to join the ANC at branch level.
“I then became very active in organising party events and other big functions, such as campaigning for elections. Another influential person was my late husband, a British South African.
“Even though he was not a comrade, he introduced a lot of political figures to me and supported my choice of a political home.”
Havard belongs to the ANC’s ward 99 Albertina Sisulu branch in Randburg, Johannesburg, whose chair, Nhlanhla Bopape, said she was a generous party activist who donated to various party community programmes.
“She is a businesswoman who assisted a lot in term of resources … she would distribute blankets and food parcels. At one stage she was co-opted to the branch executive committee as a treasurer.”
Even though her name was on the parliamentary list, Havard said her appointment as an MP was a surprise. She was driving when she got a call informing her of the appointment.
“It came as a big surprise. I was in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape for some community development projects. When I was told I was to be sworn in the next day and must be in Cape Town that same day, I was shocked, and didn’t expect [it to happen] so quickly,” she said.