There have been a number of comments and criticisms about the xenophobic attacks on legal, or illegal immigrants, and or refugees within the greater Johannesburg area. There have been numerous commentators and politicians that have condemned these attacks. Quite rightly so.
Some of the comments that have been made, have labelled these acts as purely criminal acts, based on general lawlessness and have framed these acts in terms of normal criminality that pervades South African society in general and Gauteng in particular. This is very concerning, and although I would agree that they are criminal acts, but framing them as merely criminal acts removes or negates the seriousness of these acts. In Bosnia and Rwanda murder, rape and looting were a means of ethnic cleansing and removal of people from specific areas. We cannot equate what has happened to immigrants, whether legal or illegal or refugees as part of the normal crime situation. These criminal acts are abnormal acts, and have the same results as ethnic cleansing that occurred elsewhere in the world and on the African continent. Criminality may have been the trigger that has set off this widespread violence, but they have taken an ethnic turn, where areas have become ethnically cleansed through the forced removal of non-South Africans.
Many high profile politicians rushed to condemn these attacks. Others went on some sort of denial that seems to pervade our society now days, by saying that South Africans are not xenophobic. However there are polls and reports that indicate that South Africans are generally more xenophobic than other countries. There is clearly a contradiction and it seems as if politicians have lost contact once again with what is actually happening on the ground at grass roots level. Some leading politicians have pointed out that many countries have hosted exiles that left South Africa because of the oppressive apartheid regime. These statements, in my mind have only added fuel to the fire, because many, many more people stayed in South Africa, or were unable to leave the country and go into exile. Vicious battles and oppressive measures took place within South Africa`s borders and a large majority of South Africans were suffering, while the exiles did not suffer these sufferings. Furthermore, South Africa was the skunk of the international community and there was broad support to the exiles. South Africa is currently not doing very much in dealing with the dictator further North. The quite diplomacy as a means of repayment for past support in the liberation from apartheid has not assisted and does not bring about any solution to the current problems, in fact it seems that is it currently increasing the severity of the problem. Yes South Africa has a debt to pay to other African countries, for the assistance that they provided and the hospitality that they provided our exiles, we should be reciprocating it, however the question does come to the fore, how much integration and how much competition was there between our exiles and their hosts? Furthermore, using the argument does not diffuse the tensions, and does seem to be elitist, since it was only a relatively small group who were able to escape the oppression and abuse of the past. In my mind these pronouncements regarding previous hospitality experienced by exiles and the implied debt that has to be paid can only frustrate and anger local communities.
Although the political leadership has condemned these attacks, other commentators and opinion makers have also condemned these attacks, however why is it so that community leaders within the specific communities affected by and perpetrating this violence have not really come to the fore to condemn these attacks. Why is this so? Are these leaders perhaps part of the problem? Are these leaders perhaps instigating these attacks. Why has no one from within the communities come out to say that this behaviour is unacceptable? Why is it that there are reports that by-standers have applauded the killing and burning of foreigners, or have even said that foreigners must go back. Have these external condemnations not added even more fuel to the anger and frustration experienced by these communities. These external commentators could even be accused of not taking these communities` aspirations, frustrations, expectations, anger, grievances seriously and have in fact sided with the foreigners. Therefore the victims of poverty are once again being victimised. I am not saying that what has happened is morally right, no in fact what has happened is morally wrong and needs to be condemned. However what needs to happen is for local leadership to come to the fore to condemn it. The communities need their local leaders to take leadership and come to the fore to condemn this violence. Should this not happen, the communities will ignore high profile leaders and continue with this violence. The criticism needs to come from within the community. Of course this may be dangerous for leaders to speak out against this violence, because they may be accused as sympathizers of the foreigners and they may also be attacked, similar to those who were viewed as associated with foreigners through marriage or friendship. Was this also not the case of moderate Hutu in Rwanda.
Much has been said about the ineptness of government departments in alleviating poverty, and providing houses for the poor. The result has been intense competition over very scarce resources for the poor. Most of these resources have been in relation to the distribution of wealth and employment. Others have mentioned that some state officials have been corrupt in allowing immigrants into South Africa, or the state`s inability to stop South Africa from being swamped by immigrants, and or refugees. This may be so. Foreigners have been accused of stealing South African`s jobs. Government has been accused of being non-responsive to the needs, aspirations and grievances of these communities. This may be the case. However no one has really started asking why these communities still face extreme poverty and high levels of unemployment. Accusations that government has been corrupt, inept or non-responsive is only a part of this broad ranging problem and has to an extent blindsided other major factors that has led to the problem of extreme poverty and unemployment.
I firstly want to look at the unemployment issue. Many have said that the labour market is not flexible enough, however the labour market is flexible enough for capital in general and employers in particular to exploit labour. How is this done? Well employers have described South African labour as expensive, unreliable, disloyal, too unionised and not very trustworthy. So foreigners are used instead of South African labour. Why should an employer pay a minimum wage of R100-00 per hour to a South African, when that employer can pay R90-00 to foreigner. This is a R10-00 saving and makes for increased profits. Therefore it is not only government who is responsible for this violence, but capital and employers that need to accept responsibility. Labour is being exploited to the extreme. Now because employers are more willing to employ foreigners than South Africans, creates competition over the scare resource, namely jobs. Foreigners are not stealing jobs from South Africans, it is more capital which is using cheap labour to extract more profits and through this extraction, South Africans are being marginalised. Capital is robbing South Africans from their jobs.
Now for the extreme poverty issue. Government announced that the macro economic policy of South Africa is GEAR. The intention was to increase South Africa`s economic growth with the hope that wealth will be distributed towards the poor. This has obviously not happened. Instead the gap between the rich and the poor has grown even greater and even faster. The economy is currently overheating and even though it has grown, the lot of the poor has not improved but has worsened. Prices of various commodities have increased dramatically and with that the living standard of the rich and the middle class, because the grants are hardly worth the paper that they are written on. The poor are unable to keep up with this and have been further marginalised. It was also hoped that GEAR would increase employment, however this has not come to fruition. On the contrary GEAR has increased unemployment and has increased competition over the distribution of wealth or just some form of an income. Many people believed that the government would create employment opportunities. However government can only go so far in job creation. The extended public works programme is one such example. Strange though how the justification for foreign investment is always punted as increasing jobs, but capital and neo-liberalism is not interested in creating jobs locally. It is primarily driven to extract profit. Therefore jobs are not created, rather people are retrenched leading to job losses or job destruction and increased poverty. Should business and capital not rather be held accountable for job creation and for the job losses that have occurred. Now government cannot understand the frustration, anger and despair experienced by communities. Government has created the perfect grounds for conflict. It is just a pity that foreigners have been made the scapegoat of people`s poverty. Yes foreigners have viewed South Africa as the goose that lays the golden eggs, and have decided to come to South Africa in search of work and wealth. However there is such a little portion of the wealth or income cake that is going to the poor in South Africa, that foreigners are in direct competition for these small portions. This analogy is incorrect, because the poor and the foreigners are not in competition and conflict over small portions of the cake, they are fighting over the crumbs that are falling off the table.
Currently the economy is overheating and prices of goods and services are increasing constantly. The cost of living is increasing at an alarming rate and the gap between the rich and poor is getting larger and larger. Not only is this gap increasing the poor are becoming increasingly impoverished. Scapegoats for are being wrongly identified and the problems and consequences of these problems are being displaced to these scapegoats, namely foreigners. The causes of these problems are also being deflected from the economic situation to become reframed as criminality and criminal behaviour, the work of the so called third force, government inability to deliver among others.
Richard Records
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 19:55 and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Xenophobia Thoughts about the situation
Some of the comments that have been made, have labelled these acts as purely criminal acts, based on general lawlessness and have framed these acts in terms of normal criminality that pervades South African society in general and Gauteng in particular. This is very concerning, and although I would agree that they are criminal acts, but framing them as merely criminal acts removes or negates the seriousness of these acts. In Bosnia and Rwanda murder, rape and looting were a means of ethnic cleansing and removal of people from specific areas. We cannot equate what has happened to immigrants, whether legal or illegal or refugees as part of the normal crime situation. These criminal acts are abnormal acts, and have the same results as ethnic cleansing that occurred elsewhere in the world and on the African continent. Criminality may have been the trigger that has set off this widespread violence, but they have taken an ethnic turn, where areas have become ethnically cleansed through the forced removal of non-South Africans.
Many high profile politicians rushed to condemn these attacks. Others went on some sort of denial that seems to pervade our society now days, by saying that South Africans are not xenophobic. However there are polls and reports that indicate that South Africans are generally more xenophobic than other countries. There is clearly a contradiction and it seems as if politicians have lost contact once again with what is actually happening on the ground at grass roots level. Some leading politicians have pointed out that many countries have hosted exiles that left South Africa because of the oppressive apartheid regime. These statements, in my mind have only added fuel to the fire, because many, many more people stayed in South Africa, or were unable to leave the country and go into exile. Vicious battles and oppressive measures took place within South Africa`s borders and a large majority of South Africans were suffering, while the exiles did not suffer these sufferings. Furthermore, South Africa was the skunk of the international community and there was broad support to the exiles. South Africa is currently not doing very much in dealing with the dictator further North. The quite diplomacy as a means of repayment for past support in the liberation from apartheid has not assisted and does not bring about any solution to the current problems, in fact it seems that is it currently increasing the severity of the problem. Yes South Africa has a debt to pay to other African countries, for the assistance that they provided and the hospitality that they provided our exiles, we should be reciprocating it, however the question does come to the fore, how much integration and how much competition was there between our exiles and their hosts? Furthermore, using the argument does not diffuse the tensions, and does seem to be elitist, since it was only a relatively small group who were able to escape the oppression and abuse of the past. In my mind these pronouncements regarding previous hospitality experienced by exiles and the implied debt that has to be paid can only frustrate and anger local communities.
Although the political leadership has condemned these attacks, other commentators and opinion makers have also condemned these attacks, however why is it so that community leaders within the specific communities affected by and perpetrating this violence have not really come to the fore to condemn these attacks. Why is this so? Are these leaders perhaps part of the problem? Are these leaders perhaps instigating these attacks. Why has no one from within the communities come out to say that this behaviour is unacceptable? Why is it that there are reports that by-standers have applauded the killing and burning of foreigners, or have even said that foreigners must go back. Have these external condemnations not added even more fuel to the anger and frustration experienced by these communities. These external commentators could even be accused of not taking these communities` aspirations, frustrations, expectations, anger, grievances seriously and have in fact sided with the foreigners. Therefore the victims of poverty are once again being victimised. I am not saying that what has happened is morally right, no in fact what has happened is morally wrong and needs to be condemned. However what needs to happen is for local leadership to come to the fore to condemn it. The communities need their local leaders to take leadership and come to the fore to condemn this violence. Should this not happen, the communities will ignore high profile leaders and continue with this violence. The criticism needs to come from within the community. Of course this may be dangerous for leaders to speak out against this violence, because they may be accused as sympathizers of the foreigners and they may also be attacked, similar to those who were viewed as associated with foreigners through marriage or friendship. Was this also not the case of moderate Hutu in Rwanda.
Much has been said about the ineptness of government departments in alleviating poverty, and providing houses for the poor. The result has been intense competition over very scarce resources for the poor. Most of these resources have been in relation to the distribution of wealth and employment. Others have mentioned that some state officials have been corrupt in allowing immigrants into South Africa, or the state`s inability to stop South Africa from being swamped by immigrants, and or refugees. This may be so. Foreigners have been accused of stealing South African`s jobs. Government has been accused of being non-responsive to the needs, aspirations and grievances of these communities. This may be the case. However no one has really started asking why these communities still face extreme poverty and high levels of unemployment. Accusations that government has been corrupt, inept or non-responsive is only a part of this broad ranging problem and has to an extent blindsided other major factors that has led to the problem of extreme poverty and unemployment.
I firstly want to look at the unemployment issue. Many have said that the labour market is not flexible enough, however the labour market is flexible enough for capital in general and employers in particular to exploit labour. How is this done? Well employers have described South African labour as expensive, unreliable, disloyal, too unionised and not very trustworthy. So foreigners are used instead of South African labour. Why should an employer pay a minimum wage of R100-00 per hour to a South African, when that employer can pay R90-00 to foreigner. This is a R10-00 saving and makes for increased profits. Therefore it is not only government who is responsible for this violence, but capital and employers that need to accept responsibility. Labour is being exploited to the extreme. Now because employers are more willing to employ foreigners than South Africans, creates competition over the scare resource, namely jobs. Foreigners are not stealing jobs from South Africans, it is more capital which is using cheap labour to extract more profits and through this extraction, South Africans are being marginalised. Capital is robbing South Africans from their jobs.
Now for the extreme poverty issue. Government announced that the macro economic policy of South Africa is GEAR. The intention was to increase South Africa`s economic growth with the hope that wealth will be distributed towards the poor. This has obviously not happened. Instead the gap between the rich and the poor has grown even greater and even faster. The economy is currently overheating and even though it has grown, the lot of the poor has not improved but has worsened. Prices of various commodities have increased dramatically and with that the living standard of the rich and the middle class, because the grants are hardly worth the paper that they are written on. The poor are unable to keep up with this and have been further marginalised. It was also hoped that GEAR would increase employment, however this has not come to fruition. On the contrary GEAR has increased unemployment and has increased competition over the distribution of wealth or just some form of an income. Many people believed that the government would create employment opportunities. However government can only go so far in job creation. The extended public works programme is one such example. Strange though how the justification for foreign investment is always punted as increasing jobs, but capital and neo-liberalism is not interested in creating jobs locally. It is primarily driven to extract profit. Therefore jobs are not created, rather people are retrenched leading to job losses or job destruction and increased poverty. Should business and capital not rather be held accountable for job creation and for the job losses that have occurred. Now government cannot understand the frustration, anger and despair experienced by communities. Government has created the perfect grounds for conflict. It is just a pity that foreigners have been made the scapegoat of people`s poverty. Yes foreigners have viewed South Africa as the goose that lays the golden eggs, and have decided to come to South Africa in search of work and wealth. However there is such a little portion of the wealth or income cake that is going to the poor in South Africa, that foreigners are in direct competition for these small portions. This analogy is incorrect, because the poor and the foreigners are not in competition and conflict over small portions of the cake, they are fighting over the crumbs that are falling off the table.
Currently the economy is overheating and prices of goods and services are increasing constantly. The cost of living is increasing at an alarming rate and the gap between the rich and poor is getting larger and larger. Not only is this gap increasing the poor are becoming increasingly impoverished. Scapegoats for are being wrongly identified and the problems and consequences of these problems are being displaced to these scapegoats, namely foreigners. The causes of these problems are also being deflected from the economic situation to become reframed as criminality and criminal behaviour, the work of the so called third force, government inability to deliver among others.
Richard Records
This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008 at 19:55 and is filed under Commentary. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.