Lash of dragon’s tail stings

XENOPHOBIA specifically and racism generically are not like a headache that will go away after medication, but like Russian roulette – it can visit any minority group if not robustly tackled and treated.

To be categorised as a minority in South Africa is like playing a constant game of tag. The solution is obviously for minorities to cohere with the majority indigenous people of South Africa.

Being stigmatised as a minority is to be relegated to a precarious existence of uncertainty and struggle to avoid becoming “it” and to have your humanity stripped away, replaced with a toxic brand of stereotypes embodying the fears and volcanic prejudice that the majority harbour for whatever reason.

In the US there was the lash of the dragon’s tail after 911, which saw members of a specific minority group waking up one day to find themselves the new face of America’s enemy.

In South Africa there are many factors, the enduring one being the economic meltdown and a predatory elite who unleashed bouts of xenophobia.

The prescription is for us, as South Africans, to stand firm against any form of racism. We must be more aware of our history and seek to build bridges with each other, to find and achieve freedom and equality.

We need to be bold, to harness our collective experiences and our skills to empower, and to fight for a better and more productive South Africa.

This is how we honour that part of the preamble to our constitution that enshrines that South Africa belongs to all who live – and, I will proclaim, work – in it. Saber Ahmed Jazbhay