The attacks on migrant shop
owners in Durban this week
reminds us the position of
foreigner in South Africa is a
complex one. After decades of
isolation from the rest of the
African continent, and the world,
during apartheid, South Africa
finally opened up to the rest of
world in 1994.
Under apartheid, South Africa’s
immigration mirrored the
narrow mindedness and
prejudice of the National Party.
Several laws made visiting
or living in South Africa
unpalatable to many. Particularly
those of non-European descent.
At the dawn of the “new South
Africa” in 1994, the country
became home to many outsiders
playing a key role in offering
protection and refuge to people
who had suffered unfavorable
conditions in their home
countries.
At the heart of South Africa’s
complex problem with
xenophobia is the loaded
meaning of the term “ foreigner.”
Pejoratively, the term
“foreigner” in South Africa
usually refers to African and
Asian non-nationals.
“Other” foreigners—particularly
those from the Americas and
Europe go unnoticed—they are
often lumped up with “tourists,”
or even better, referred to as
“expats.”
It is this reason why the South
African government says its
hesitant to call the recent attacks
on foreign nationals as
xenophobic.
Many South Africans look at the
attacks on enterprising African
immigrants from Somalia, the
Democratic Republic of Congo,
Mozambique, Nigeria and Malawi
—often running shops, stalls and
other businesses in the informal
economy—and resolve that the
current attacks on foreigners are
more afrophobic, than
xenophobic.
Many ask: “Why is it that a
Somali man can run a shop in a
township, get raided and beaten
up, while a white immigrant in
town continues to run a
restaurant full of patrons?”
It is this delineation that breeds
ground for denial.
While this sentiment may be
correct—that the violent
expression of xenophobia in
South Africa is meted out mainly
against African immigrants – it
is unhelpful to resolve the crisis
that has left many foreign
nationals homeless, tortured and
dispossessed.
While we can ascribe the attacks
to sentiments of Afrophobia, we
must be willing to agree that the
attacks are fuelled by a sense of
hatred, dislike and fear of
foreigners – and that is
xenophobia. And given the fact
that foreign nationals from
Pakistan and Bangladesh have
been profiled in this wave of
attacks, it will soon no longer be
enough for South Africans to cry
“Afrophobia.”
South Africa’s xenophobia
reflects the country’s history of
isolation. As a country at the
Southern most tip of Africa,
South Africans are fond of
referring to their continental
counterparts as “Africans” or
“people from Africa.” Many
business ventures, news
publications and events—aimed
at local audiences—routinely
speak about “going to Africa.”
Of course this narrow-
mindedness, suffered by both
black and white South Africans,
is a by-product of apartheid. For
black people, apartheid was an
insidious tool used to induce
self-hate and tribalize people of
the same race. For white South
Africans, apartheid was a false
rubber-stamp of the white race
as superior.
It is these two conceptions that
gave rise to the myth that South
Africa is not part of the African
continent, but a different place
that just happens to be on the tip
of the continent.
Long after the scourge of
apartheid, it is also clear that
we’re fueling this prejudice in
the present.
It remains to be seen whether
South Africans will break away
from these shackles, and rid
themselves of this horrid
prejudice anchored in our past,
but seemingly fuelled by our
present.
By Sibusiso Tshabalala

If the gov of SA refused to handle this problem it will degenerate to a monster that may set that country at war with other African countries thereby grounding her economy.
Zuma needs to act fast and stop living in denial!