I took a taxi a few days ago and listened to a conversation between two women and the taxi driver. They were talking about the mushrooming of foreign business owners in the township.
The taxi was driving into Alexandra, which has seen an increase in Pakistani and Somali businesses recently.
Almost every corner house has a small shop. Mozambicans have been there for some time but most are hard to identify because they speak Shangaan and Zulu, languages spoken in the township.
“I like the fact that they work hard, they are everywhere. Here (in Johannesburg), Mpumalanga and even as far as Brits,” said one woman.
“And their stuff is very cheap,” added another.
“What about our people? Zulus work hard as well but are unable to open those businesses,” chipped in the driver. “The space is taken by these Pakistanis and Somalis.”
It’s getting interesting. I then ask if they have a problem with these foreign shop-owners.
“No not at all,” came the chorus. “Their things are cheap.”
I then ask about the locals who say “the foreigners have unfair business practices because they mark their prices very low compared to the local business people”.
“They should match them. For example bread should be cheap. But our people want huge profits. I sell things as well and some of these foreigners are my competition. So I play along,” said the first woman, who I realised later owns a small business near Alexandra. Alexandra was the launch-pad of the deadly xenophobic attacks that gripped the country in 2008. The attacks were instigated by residents who accused foreigners of stealing their jobs, women and being the reason for crime.
This conversation happened as I was contemplating writing about the crazy policy suggestion made at the ANC conference to curtail the foreign ownership of township shops.
The proposal, widely believed to have come out of the ANC in Western Cape, suggests the explosion of foreign-owned shops in the townships takes bread away from the locals. They also say it causes tensions between locals and foreigners.
While ANC members were grappling with the matter in Midrand, tensions were already at boiling point in the Free State’s Botshabelo, near Mangaung, where several foreign-owned shops were looted and burnt down. One person was even shot dead. Nothing suggests it was the ANC’s call that sparked these tensions.
But what the ANC suggests is criminal.
This is an organisation that spent many years of its existence outside the borders of this country. Africans across the continent and overseas found it in their hearts to accommodate party leaders forced into exile.
There they were allowed to live, work and sent their kids to school. They were allowed to build homes, they were put through military training in places like Tanzania and Zambia. They survived. They found a home when their home was not welcoming any more.
And just a few years ago this country witnessed one of the worst hate crimes against foreigners under the watch of the ANC government. Many foreigners were killed in xenophobic attacks, their shops and homes torched. They had nowhere to go. Even the police couldn’t help them.
What the ANC is proposing is dangerous and misguided.
ANC Western Cape provincial secretary Songezo Mjongile is quoted as saying the explosion of foreign-owned shops is out-muscling local owners.
Maybe the ANC has local business interests at heart. Maybe it’s true that foreigners don’t play by the book and use unfair business practices.
Is this the only way to go about it? I don’t think so.
South Africans are angry. They are angry with the ANC for failing on its promises for a better life for all. No jobs, no food, an unequal society. Many feel betrayed. So the ANC is using the foreigners as a proxy, an excuse why it can’t deliver.
What the ANC forgets is that these people are not here because they want to be here. And they definitely didn’t come here because they think it’s payback for hosting ANC exiles in their countries.
These people are here because of the situations in their respective homes. They are from Somalia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, among others, where there’s instability, no food, and in some, no government.
They are here looking for political or economic asylum.
“Where must we go? Does South Africa want to drive us to the sea now?” says one asylum seeker.
The ANC needs to fulfil its human-rights obligation and ensure these people are taken care off if they want to avoid them coming up with ways of survival, like opening these shops.
Most of them go through hell when seeking asylum. They are harassed by the police, forced to bribe home-affairs officials, and are treated terribly at the Lindela Repatriation Centre. They are not given food, water, sanitation — nothing.
The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) is investigating the Lindela facility after receiving complaints from several NGOs relating to the alleged mistreatment of refugees and asylum seekers.
“The rights of non-nationals are specifically protected in national law and in international human-rights agreements. This group is particularly vulnerable and the state is obliged to take appropriate steps to ensure that the basic rights of this group are adequately protected … these violations are of grave concern as it appears to be becoming endemic and systemic,” said the SAHRC.
Given. Asylum seekers running businesses is illegal under United Nations conventions but only if the host government comes up with solutions to take care of them.
“In SA, unlike other countries, once you are inside the country you are on your own. In other countries the state provides asylum seekers with food and everything. If SA wants to stop them from running businesses they must also comply fully with UN resolutions and agreements,” says Migrant Community Board director Serge Lwanba Lwa Yeba.
The truth is South Africans are not a hating society. We don’t hate our African brothers. But our own circumstances and the shortcomings of our government turn these people against one another.
The women in that taxi gave me a sense that they actually don’t have a problem with foreigners owning shops. As is the case with residents in other townships across South Africa. They do of course have issues, issues they believe can be resolved if the government acts as peaceful mediator, without violence, as this ANC document suggested.
But as colleague Fikile Ntsikelelo-Moya puts it on twitter: “The barbarism against foreign nationals will continue until there’s political will to prosecute, convict and sentence these hooligans.”
For not condemning or talking against this proposal as the leader of the country and ruling party, Jacob Zuma’s silence amid the recent attacks on foreign shops in Botshabelo could be interpreted as silent support for it.
“For not condemning or talking against this proposal as the leader of the country and ruling party, Jacob Zuma’s silence amid the recent attacks on foreign shops in Botshabelo could be interpreted as silent support for it.” It’s not even silent – it’s loud. The ANC has always been the prime mover behind the xenophobic violence and the ethnic chauvinism that had locals in SA attacking those from all over Africa. The reason is simple – their values go against the whole ANC value system. There is nothing the ANC hates more than people who succeed through hard work and determination, though their own efforts rather than the ‘collective’ lowest and basest denominator. The ANC’s values are monopolism, protectionism, entitlement, grievance, extortion from others (anyone who works hard and tries to bootstrap themselves), and blaming others for all their problems whilst attacking anyone hard working or successful. Of course they hate hard work and low prices – they want huge profits, sheltered employment, and the greatest monopoly of all – the state.
Hear, hear excellent post! Thank you for raising this and keeping this horrible xenophobia and bigotry in the spotlight. SA should operate an open door policy
to the rest of Africa. That is not to say that it should be laissez faire but rather
obey our rules or get booted straight back out. Individuals only, not groups.
People should be judged for their own actions not lumped together with the idiots
that ruin it for the rest.
ZA policy should be, welcome to our African brothers and sisters, come and make
a peaceful and prosperous life for yourself in our great country, and any person
who wants to cause trouble should – sod off.
very good piece – thank you
Don’t expect Zuma to do the right thing. His top priority right now is fighting for his own survival because if he fails, he may possibly be taken to task on charges laid prior to his ascendancy to top office. I hear he loses sleep over the poverty in South Africa. Perhaps he should not sleep in multi-million rand jets and stay home to sleep in a bed on the floor
Well said “John from the Congo”.
As usual, simple facts are obfuscated. If locals were efficient, hardworking and intelligent business people no-one would think to open up next door. And if they did, they would compete on the basis of price, quality and service to create a loyal customer base. How hard is that?
There seems to be a mindset among locals that is incapable of adaptability.
This is from July, 2009:
Pioneer Foods stands accused of belonging to a bread price-fixing cartel, but denies collusion. It only raised prices because costs had risen, it maintains; coincidentally on the same day as its alleged partners in crime: Premier Foods, Tiger Brands and Foodcorp, who all admitted their guilt and paid fines to the Competition Commission.
They have testified to meetings where price increases were discussed and agreed with dates of implementation also agreed. The group also promised not to poach each others’ agents, Sapa reported. Pioneer was reportedly present at some of the cartel meetings, including the one where decisions were finalised.
A point of law was broken and something smells, to me, fishy, although not in a ‘loaves and fishes’ way.
Then, in Gugulethu, Somali shopkeepers received letters telling them to leave the area, pointing to possible xenophobia.
They reported the matter to the police and a meeting, according to Sapa, between local, South African shopkeepers and the Somalis, took place. Agreement was reached: Somali shopkeepers will raise their bread prices to match those of their South Africans counterparts. Race was not an issue; loss of business was.
Fishy? Smells like price-fixing to me. Those queuing for the bread will gain no benefit and afford no fish! Business exists to please customers, not to please itself! But I can’t see the Competition Commission follow through in this case.
Continued…
I’m not sure how many people realised that both the scenarios above were playing out virtually simultaneously. They made it obviously that there’s one law for some and another for others.
I’m right behind you, Isaac. This nonsense must stop. It is practised against all people and races to various degrees and it is nothing less than criminal racism which should not be condoned by the police, the state or the competition commission!
Which country in the world can afford open borders to all the neighbouring unemployed when its own people have no jobs?
Look at how tightly the USA contols its borders, and the fuss they make about “illegal immigrants” from Mexico, who would be called “economic migrants” anywhere else in the world!
And the reason that China seized Tibet was to control the Himalayas so that the Indian unemployed can’t migrate into China.
Not only the great multi-wived, richly-offspringed mega-rich familied, partriach from Nkandla is silent on this, one of the worst of the plethora of shameful national crimes.
We await with bated breath the intervention of that intrepid spin doctor Dave Harris
on this one.
Hey Dave, the ANC will get at you for sleeping on the job as well!
I find it hard to comprehend the ANC’s socio-economic values. Surely hard work and entrepreneurial spirit should be encouraged? If local communities are too lazy (or entitled) to start their own enterprises, then of course the competition should and will step in. Should it matter whether it is Afrikaners, Zulus, Somalis or Pakistanis? Wealth is not created by re-distribution and entitlement, but by innovation and hard work.
But then I guess it is easier to blame your own shortcomings on other (minority?) groups? Blame apartheid. Blame white males. Blame Somali traders. Blame Pakistani general dealers. But avoid focussing attention on open borders, poor education, failing healthcare, corruption at the highest level (and the list goes on).
Racial tolerance and multi-cultural acceptance are enshrined in our constitution. It’s high time our government exhibit these and other values.
A great post and an exceptional reply from John from the Congo. I understand the simple bloodsuckers in the ANC who are only after their own narrow minded, gluttonous greed and to find ways of fleecing anyone within touching distance. What I fail to understand is what party stalwarts are doing about this. Where is Trevor Manuel, Cyril Ramaphosa, Parvin Gordhan and the like? Why are they not shouting from the rooftops that their beloved party is degenerating into this lustful twilight and hurtling towards their endless night? It perhaps is simplistic to recognise that no freedom movement has ever transformed into successful government. But surely we have leaders in this country that can stand up and say “….no, this must all now STOP!”
That is the sad part. The silence of the majority. Commentators such as Alistair Sparks, Justice Mahlala, Aubrey Matshiqi, Steven Friedman, Tim Cohen, Max du Preez and many many others constantly and consistently point out the failings of the previously proud and now bankrupt ANC but say very little about what needs to be done to rectify the situation. This is not an issue of politics, its about the survival of this great country. We teeter on the brink of just being another African Basket Case. Who will speak for the poor traders, mothers and children, disenfranchised, unemployed, unemployable, fired, failed and futile? Its time for some social movement to rise above all this and demand a better future.
Isaac, I am astonished at your ignorance and skewed way of puting misleading info as facts cos u hv acces space as comentator. 1 thing ur article and the least your knowledge lacks is the true happenings most of our people were subjected to in foreign lands. Much as I didn’t even see it fit to read through ur entire piece because it’s not a true reflection and lacks a true understanding of what really are SAns faced with in sharing the fruits of the hard earned democracy but I wish to call u to do more readings that talks to the lives of some key people like Chris Hani and see how SAns like him contributed military wise with skills and even fighting at the battle fileds to help liberate those african states which even today can not even start to want to sit and defgine their role in liberating Africa as a whole but SA has to take that responsibility irrespective of the fact that we attained our liberation last in the continent. I do not think that a person of your calliber could even require to be refered to a simple struggle icon such as Letlapa Mphahlele who should be within your reach just to gather some information as to how people like him even when was outside the borders of the country he worked hard underground to influence what was happening back at home with one thing in mind, to set SA free and have the people see the fruits of what they fought for. It is comments like yours that are sickening to always instill a sense of guilt on the SAns to reclaim their own…
Govt need to apply an open mind. Balance the equation. So that all us as Africans can live as one. No nationalism and tribalism as it results in xenophobia.
Good points made by Isaac and John but also Lynda. You cant just have any guy from Pakistan or Somali come open a shop in Diepsloot or elsewhere just because of the hardship they endured, and lack of opportunities in their home countries. They should also try and resolve their home issues (I have the DRC or Zim in mind).
But one should not paint all with the same brush. Between the spaza in Alex selling vital necessities and the cell-phone cum TV shop, often in a row of the same, coming on top of official shops in malls, there is a difference. Hard to believe that the market for the later is not saturated. How can profits allow its managers to pay for flat and car even if they work hard (which they dont, they have employees).
Unless of course their shops cover up for something else…
I am writing this from Botshabelo were it all started and i want to make it clear to Isaac this is not about xenophobic attacks . We are fighting for our survival , the Mangaung metro demolished our businesses and protect those that belong to foreigners , we were made to feel like foreigners in our own land . To be good citizen are we suppose to roll red carpet for every Pakistan , Bangladesh , Nigeria , Ethiopia , Chinese and others , at our own expenses . Should we just pretend everything is alright even when it is not, we manage to beat the apartheid system now we are phased with xenophobia system . This foreigners they have their own rules , eg in the townships no one must do business 500m from one another , but that is not applicable to us. We become foreigners in our own land . Why are they running away from their countries , most of are asylum seekers but no war in their countries .
Spaza shop network!
@Lefu,the ANC told the people in SA that they will provide everything for them and not to work. These people are coming to SA and working hard to get the things they need for themselves, to take care of their families. So, John from the Congo is right in his comment that he posted on this subject.
Lefu
I don’t know if it is any comfort but this present Psuedo ANC bunch of show-offs to the world with their open borders policy is not the Real ANC.
The Real ANC leaders- John Dube, Sol Plaatjies, Chief Luthuli – campaigned the most for closed borders to stop the mines importing cheap labour from across the borders.
The Real ANC was taken over in the 1950s by Communists and Pan-Africanists and has been dead since Chief Luthuli died.
Lefu
The Freedom Charter was written by this same bunch of Communists/Africanists and was never approved by either the ANC or Chief Luthuli, or Alan Paton’s Liberal Party, who were the main voice at the time for both Liberal Whites and Coloureds – BECAUSE of “the communist clauses”.
The Freedom Charter was written by the ANC Youth League, allegedly by the Communist Rusty Bernstein, and forced through the Congresses, who were nor representative of either white or brown.
That Nelson Mandela was himself an Africanist/African Renaissance/ Egyptologist is clear from the story he tells in “The Long Walk To Freedom”.
He tells how the prisoners were upset after seeing the film “Cleopatra” that she had been played by a white actress when she was an “African Queen”.
He reassured them that Cleopatra had been black. Actually Cleopatra descended from one of the Generals of the Macedonian Greek, Alexander the Great, and in her dynasty brothers married sisters to preserve the bloodline – so she was most likely white and blue eyed.
But this “Cleopatra was a Black Queen” myth is a favourite one of the Afrinan Renaissance Egyptologists.
“There is nothing the ANC hates more than people who succeed through hard work and determination,…”
Folks who say such and their buddies want to be taken seriously! How funny…
The South African liberation movements did not go into other countries around Africa to open up Spazas and dwell there indefinitely during Apartheid. They had a mission to overcome the evil white government of the day in SA and used these other countries to prepare themselves to be deployed in the fight against apartheid in one way or another. During their existence in those foreign countries, it was always very clear why they were in those any foreign country to the people and the governments of those countries. As such the locals didn’t see South African struggle fighters as a threat to their economy or national security, because their mandate was crystal clear.
On the other hand, the same can’t be said of the many foreign nationals infiltrating our country due to political problems in their own countries (Somalia, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, Ethiopia, etc.). These foreign folks are not here to strategize to launch any kind of defense against the injustices in their own countries! Some are in South Africa for sinister reasons “ThoughtLeader” blog doesn’t have enough guts to handle and so keep censoring.
The South African liberation movements have always expressed gratefulness to all African countries that helped them during those struggle days, we will forever be indebted to them for…
Every cloud has a silver a lining. As a result of South Africa collapsing into the same mess as the rest of Africa we now know WHAT went wrong in Africa.
They also had vultures descend on them from the diaspora spewing anti-white and anti-Indian hatred – like we had Paul Ngobeni and Suresh Roberts.
The Portugese were the Europeans that started buying slaves first, and stopped last, yet the Portugese colonies have none of this anti-white hatred – Mozambique and Brazil for example.
I attribute this to them not being able to read “American”.
Last night on TV, I got really irritated at Black Americans complaining again – this time because there is 10 percent more unemployment among Black Americans than White Americans. American unemployment is at about 10 percent at the most. 10 percent of 10 percent would put Black American unemployment at 11 percent! Compare that to most of Black Africa!
Black Americans don’t want to live in Africa – they want to live, and complain, in America.
AND they want to control Africa from America!
They want MINORITY protection rights in America – and they want the rights as a MAJORITY in Africa to throw out Whites and Indians!
SA doesn’t have the resources to stop people from coming to SA from other parts of Africa just like the US can’t stop Mexican people from coming to the US. Brazil and Russia are both having a problem with a flood of people coming to these countries to live and work from their neighboring countries. SA is becoming multi-culture country just like Brazil,Russia and the US. The US is making money with this system because these people are sending money back home to import goods from the US. Beddy, you should look at how many people coming to SA to shop from other parts of Africa. So, have your Ethiopian coffee and let the good times roll. As one Nigerian wrote last month, many companies will go broke without the SA trading in other parts of Africa. The future of SA lies with other African countries and not with China like many ANC members are trying to sell to the public in SA. Maybe, Du Bois was ahead of his times when he calls for pan-African ism.
@Beddy, it was Spain that started shipping Africans to the new world and not Portugal. The reason why the blacks in Brazil were late complaining about racism is because this country was ruled by dictators for the last hundred years and nobody was allowed to talk about racism. If the blacks would have tried to organized a civil right group when the military ruled Brazil, they would have been put in prison. Since democracy came to Brazil, there has been a lot of black civil right groups springing up in Brazil. The Brazil government has introduced AA and anti discrimination laws in Brazil. In Nov. of each year there is a black pride parade in Brazil and black Brazilian history month. If you think there is no racism in Brazil, you should speak to Ronaldo’s mother when she went to visit him at his condo in Rio. She made the mistake of using the front elevator instead of the service elevator like non white are supposed to use. This lady was abused and kick out of the building. As one black Brazilian told me, Brazil is the most successful apartheid country because they never put up signs like in SA and the US. Since democracy came to Brazil, there was a black university setup in Brazil and Lula spoke at the first class graduation.
@Jonamo, blacks from Africa and this includes SA are going to Europe and the US to live so, you have to be carefully what you are asking for. Many people from SA and this includes white and blacks are in prison in the US for crimes committed in this country. As I said before if the black governments in Africa would kick out the SA businesses in their country, many of these companies would go broke. Blacks in SA should be making goods to be shipped to other African countries instead of letting the Chinese take over your markets. Du Bois once said that the blacks should stop looking a the world through a veil and look at the whole picture.
@Sterling
All I’m saying is the Spaza Network is not what it seems at first sight. It is not business as usual & as such needs to be investigated to establish its roots so the pending threat to our national security is eliminated. The is nothing wrong with legit business coming into our country with a clear profit mandate that respects the SA legal system.
Sterling
The Portugese explored and traded around Africa, below the equator, BEFORE the Spanish who had very few colonies in Africa – Southern Sahara being the only one I can remember, although I think that one of the Guinea’s was also Spanish.
And one of the REASONS for the Portugese exploration of Africa was that the Pope had divided up the world bewteen the Catholic Spanish and Portugese spheres of influence.
@JoNaMo, the key to these immigrants success in business is that they are willing to work long hours for a very low profit margin. These people will run these businesses 24-7-365 days of the year. In Germany the government have passed laws forcing these businesses to close so many days a week. These people running these businesses have no pleasure in their lives except to make money and there aren’t no birthday parties that last for three days. In a few years these same people will be buying homes and moving up the ladder and many people will be wondering how they were able to do it. The answer lies in hard work and discipline that enable these people to transform themselves.
Sterlin
It is nothing to do with SA not having the resources.
The ANC deliberately took away border controls and patrols as POLICY! One truck driver reported, years ago now, that 100 Mozambicans a day were walking across the border at the border post, while his truck still had to be stamped through, and when he asked the border guards why -they replied that these were the ANC instructions.
When Zimbabweans started pouring across the border in 2001, the border farmers reported it to the police, who refused to do anything. The Zimbabweans were all hungry and desperate for work. When the problem was pointed out to Mbeki, his reply was “They are welcome here”.
So eventually the farmers put them on trucks, as they arrived, and drove them into Joburg, and left them there.
It was INSANITY to open the borders of the unemployed of the Homelands AND the neighbouring countries at the same time! The whole point of the pass system had been like the American green card, or British Work Permit systems- to let in only as many as there was employment for!
@Beddy, part of the American culture is to complaint and this includes all colors in the US. The blacks in the US have used their influence in the government to give aid to many African countries that their leaders have stolen. The government of SA wouldn’t spend money on the AIDS treatment but, found money for the world cup, the US is the one pushed to setup this AIDS treatment program in SA.
@Beddy, E. Guinea was a Spanish colony.
@Beddy, the US has a three thousandth mile border with Canada but, there is no problem with a flood of people coming to the US because the standard of living is equal. In Mexico the standard of living is just the opposite because the people in Mexico are very poor. So, many Mexicans are coming to the US to seek their fortunes. There is no way that the US can police a twenty four hundred miles border with the resources that the government have. The Mexicans have built tunnels under the border to the US side and the people are walking through to the US side.
In the case of SA, this country has a border with fours countries and the cost of guarding these borders is beyond the ability of SA to pay for it. Therefore, the problem could be best solved by increasing the standard of living in these neighboring countries.
Lyndall Beddy, you speak of Albert Luthuli and say he campaigned against people from neighbouring countries from being employed in the mines, do you know where this gentleman was from, he was Ndebele from Zimbabwe for your own information. You have not spoken out against white migrants from former colonies that came here from the north, and you do not speak out against people of western origin from coming here to settle down or Indians that continue to pour every day into the Durban habour, you just against black Africans, which in itself just shows how racist you people are, we can see the agenda that you are pushing. The fact that we Ndebeles have never been treated like full citizens in Zimbabwe, ever since the Shona people started ruling that country, we are treated like foreigners in that country and when we come to the land of our forefathers, you say we must go back, where are we supposed to go, because we are treated like outcasts every where we go.
Sterling
Yes – Equatorial Guinea was the colony that Mark Thatcher and others tried to free from a dictator, but were forstalled by Mbeki and Mugabe – the details are in the book “The Wonga Coup”.
@Beddy, the Romans had the same problem with all of those people flooding the Roman Empire. Three thousandth years ago everyone wanted to be a Roman. Today, on one side of the fence the people make a dollar a day and the other side the people make a hundred dollars a day, the people from the side making a dollar a day will try to come over to the side making a hundred dollars a day. As a matter of facts, many governments in Africa are encouraging these people to leave so they can send money back home.
@Bravado, this was an excellent comment by you because blacks in Africa look at other blacks with suspicious. Many black from the US have been held up at the customs while the whites are allowed to walk through. Some friends of mines were traveling in Africa and when they went to a restaurant, the whites were allowed to go in first, when they complained about it, the Host told them that she though they were Africans. In Keith Richburg’s book ” Out of America” he says it’s much safer to travel through Africa if you are white than to be black traveling in Africa. However, this is something the Africans will have to work on because this could be a big business with the people from the diaspora visiting mother Africa.
Sterling
Even better if you are Chinese. One of our black writers was turned away from 3 hotels in the Sudan because they were reserved for “Chinese Only”.
And the Romans did not mind how much cheap labour, or slave labour, flooded in – they were regarded as inferior to the Romans and never given equality.
Europe is now having the same problem with “cheap contract labour” not wanting to go home at the end of their contracts.
Which is why there are Indians in Kenya and South Africa – they were also contract labour to do the jobs the blacks refused to do (since the blacks were NOT slaves), who also did not want to go home.
In Kenya they were brought in to build the railway from Lake Victoria to the coast; In South Africa to work on the sugar cane fields of Natal.
@Sterling
I’m not in any way question the work ethics of any one. If folks decide to abuse themselves for money’s sake that’s their business and not mine provided they are not breaking the law in the process. I understand and know very well what makes for a successful business and don’t mind any foreigner legitimately entering the country to make an honest living so long as they don’t pose a threat to the nation’s peace. I have feeling you’re so concentrated on proving that black South Africans r lazy you’re missing my point.
My point is this:The Spanza Network, at large, is an organized systematic movement. The execution of which is very cleverly implemented through years of experience by its leadership across the globe. The perpetrators are very well aware that South Africa is very fragmented along race and class lines, and this makes the nation very vulnerable to outside attacks. This blog and much commentary on it is testimony to the blinding effect of our deeply entrenched stereotypes about each other as South Africans. Soon, if our government continues ignoring the growing problems underlying the Spazas, we’ll be faced with violence at scales never imagined in South Africa. Perhaps we’ll learn to appreciate life for what it is then when explosions are a weekly part of our lives in South Africa much as it is in many infiltrated African countries up north and across the oceans.
My question is, is SA in a position to accommodate all African foreign nationals seeking assylum in SA? Is it practical, given the economic situation?
@Mesh
In general we’re not well equipped to accommodate all African foreign nationals seeking asylum in SA. However we’ve got to help where and when we reasonably can.