Survey: South Africans don’t trust foreigners of any origin
The extreme lack of trust that South Africans have in foreigners, be they from Africa or other countries, is an alarming trend.
This is one of the findings of a study released by the Inclusivity Society Institute of South Africa in April this year, which measured the level of social cohesion in South Africa. More than 3 000 South Africans were surveyed at the end of 2021.
The level of mistrust that South Africans have about African immigrants contributes to xenophobic conflict.
“This [alarming trend] is particularly important to take note of, given the sporadic incidents of xenophobia in the country. The lack of trust runs across most dimensions, be it race, gender, age, education, income, or political party. This was the fourth principal finding of the Inclusive Society Institute survey,” the report stated.
The report concluded that there is not enough trust in South Africa to sufficiently underpin social cohesion.
The chief executive of the Inclusivity Society of South Africa, Darly Swanepoel, says that the lack of social cohesion within the country is a breeding ground for violence.
“The mistrust can turn into active xenophobia, which in turn can lead to violence and a lack of social cohesion. Social cohesion has both a direct positive effect on gross domestic product, as well as an indirect effect, through the facilitation of better institutions, systems, or the ability to express and live out one’s freedoms.
“One may consider huge economic costs of inter-racial conflict (in
this case between locals and immigrants). Similarly, countries whose GDP was more strongly affected during economic crises, typically do not have cohesive societies,” he said.
According to the survey, the people who mistrusted African migrants were people without matric, matric certificate holders and higher education students.
People without matric made up 68% of those showing mistrust, those with matric, numbered 62%, and people with higher education, 59%.
Of those surveyed, 32% indicated trusting African immigrants over non-african immigrants.
The survey indicated that Kwazulu-natal has the highest number of people who do not trust African people from other countries.
The report stated that 79% of the people in the province distrust African immigrants followed closely by Mpumalanga at 73% and the Eastern Cape at 67%.
Of these South Africans who did not trust Africans from other countries, South Africans of Indian descent showed the lowest level of distrust, at 57.9%.
“The distrust was somewhat higher among the Indians, where only 43.92% indicated that they completely or somewhat trusted black South Africans. It should, however, be mentioned that the survey was undertaken at a time of unrest and tension between some Indian and black communities in Kwazulu-natal, the home of most Indian South Africans. This may have to a degree impacted the results.
“More alarming was the high level of distrust that the black South Africans have for their compatriots from the minority communities.
In this instance, only 41% of black [people] completely or somewhat trusted their white compatriots, which deepened to only 38.9% completely or somewhat trusting their coloured compatriots, and a mere 34.8% their fellow Indian South Africans,” reads the report.
Political party affiliation also played a role, according to the survey. Inkatha Freedom Party supporters and those of the Economic Freedom Fighters had the largest number of people who distrust African immigrants.
The IFP supporters amounted to roughly 80% and the EFF, 68%. But the IFP supporters seemed to trust African immigrants more than they did non-african immigrants, with 90% of the party’s supporters stating distrust.
Three years ago the department of justice put out a five-year National Action Plan to tackle racial discrimination, racism, xenophobia and related intolerance. The plan provides a framework for the interventions various sectors such as the government, civil society and the labour market must adopt to promote social cohesion.
Human Rights Watch criticised the plan, stating that it did not provide accountability for xenophobic crimes.