The more I read about the xenophobia issue, the more I realise why the rainbow nation is experiencing teething problems. We are so busy putting labels on things that we miss the real issues.
“Xenophobia”, “racism” and “criminals” abound in every article we see, but very few actually deal with the problems of Alexandra, Soweto and Diepsloot.
Why is it that the whites, who fought the two biggest wars in history and gassed six million innocents of their fellow race, are not asked why whites hate whites? Because in each case the real debates revolve around the reasons why those wars were fought.
The question I’ve posed in the heading is not being put by white journalists and commentators but rather their black counterparts and letter writers to the various newspapers and websites. Whites wouldn’t dare pose this one.
The truth is that, like every race, blacks don’t hate blacks for being black but have some other issue that is causing the friction. The people of Alexandra don’t hate the immigrants because they are black. Whoever came up with that garbage knows absolutely nothing about the situation. They resent immigrants whom they perceive to be committing crime and taking their houses and jobs — nothing more and nothing less.
Of course I’ve read the geniuses who claim that white immigrants are regarded as wonderful and loved by all, while blacks are pilloried, reviled and abused because they are black. Whoever came up with this cock-custard I can’t say, but if you get it from a newspaper, cancel your subscription immediately.
Firstly, the residents of Alexandra and the like are not competing with those white immigrants for resources.
Secondly, many of our white tourists and immigrants have been hijacked, robbed, raped and even killed. This is primarily down to the fact that the crime rate in this country is high and whites are believed to be affluent. Robbers believe the prospects of a successful haul are increased with white victims. Ask me — I’m a criminal lawyer.
The fact that by far the majority of victims of crime are black — including the crimes above — is down to demographics.
Thirdly, white immigrants are not thrust upon the residents of Sandton or Mondeor in the same way that the Zimbabweans and Mozambicans are in the case of Alexandra and Diepsloot.
The reasons are endless, but the common denominator is that it has nothing to do with blacks hating blacks for being black and everything to do with socio-economic factors on the ground. If you knock this one down to blacks hating blacks, you are playing into the hands of those who wish to duck responsibility for our immigration laws, possibly corrupt local authorities and a failure to deal with poverty.
Do not let local or government politicians use labels to avoid dealing with the problems of these communities — blacks do not hate blacks for being black. They fear or have contempt for foreigners based on issues that have absolutely nothing to do with skin colour. The government and local authorities must now start dealing with the problems and tell the label manufacturer to take a holiday.
Let’s widen the argument a bit: How often do we hear about what blacks have done to blacks in Uganda, Kenya, Zimbabwe and so on and so vomit? The same “authorities” conveniently forget the world wars, Bosnia, Kosovo, Ireland and many more that bring whites into conflict with whites.
Where blacks do go horribly wrong is that they forget to point out that the vast and overwhelming percentage of those populations is black. For example, if (when there was still conflict) a Catholic was looking to bomb a Protestant pub in Northern Ireland, what were the chances of the victims being black? Virtually nil unless it was the odd second-generation immigrant or tourist in for a pint.
So if there is a civil war in Kenya, of course the participants are black. Yes, we can put it down to tribalism, as was also the case in Rwanda, but is that any different to Catholics and Protestants? Does the latter offend our sensibilities less because the words “tribalism” and “racism” are left out? If they do, we need help.
By focusing on the word “black” in African conflicts or even issues like xenophobia, we are missing the point completely. We also afford the opportunists of Africa a gap that they use against the very people they are purporting to help.
Take the examples of Rwanda and Zimbabwe. In the case of the former, Bill Clinton — then president of the United States — knew what was going on in terms of the genocide but ducked the issue. Uppermost in most European and American minds in cases relating to Africa is concerns about being styled colonialist or racist. Here, Rwandans were massacred until the planet could just not stomach it any more.
Perhaps it is time for the United Nations to point out to African leaders that if they abuse the term “racism” to keep the world at bay so they can do what they like to their populations, it will be deemed a crime against humanity in itself.
Would anyone dare suggest that the reason why the Tutsis and Hutus began killing each other was because they hated the fact that the other was black? Yet wars that affected Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Congo burned long and hard and the death toll was unbelievable. The wars were about dominance and had nothing to do with hatred of the skin colour of opponents. The UN, Europe and the US must learn to laugh off guilt tripping by local opportunists and act immediately where large-scale genocide or humanitarian disasters threaten.
The hell with claims of racism and imperialism.
Zimbabwe is another excellent example. Because the whites are marginalised, Mugabe is calling the struggle anti-colonialism — strange, that, when there seem to be an awful lot of Chinese arms and military about. Of course he also labels anyone who won’t vote for him as a counter-revolutionary. I’ll leave the answer to Pallo Jordan in this fabulous article on Sunday.
The issue is not Mugabe hating blacks, I’ll spare him that much. He hates anyone who wants to take power away from him, just like many, many white politicians hate being dispossessed. What he has done, primarily to blacks, is as a result of his refusal to give up his toy.
The lesson we as Africans need to learn is that by focusing on the “black question” we blur the real issues. This gives people like those running the councils in Alexandra a gap because everyone is looking at the labels and nobody is looking at the issues.
The residents — both local and immigrants — are thereafter shunted together without any regard for what caused divisions in the first place.
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90 Responses to “Why do blacks hate blacks? SA a label manufacturer!”
“All of the great leaders have had one characteristic in common: it was the willingness to confront unequivocally the major anxiety of their people in their time. This, and not much else, is the essence of leadership.” - John Kenneth Galbraith
On Sunday Carte Blanche interviewed some of
the victims. One lady showed her South African
ID and said she was told to leave as well as it
was a place for Zulus and Shangaans were not
welcome.
I may be wrong in my assessment but tribalism is
alive and well and comes to the fore where people
are competing for the same things,such as housing, jobs etc.
You forget Idi Amin and Asians, let alone Kenya and asians, or that the Apartheid regime deliberately installed jealousy between tribes to stop them ganging up together. (The Zulus under Buthelezi and Xhosa ANC, as well as the Bantustans)
This is still hanging around.
And you seem to be unaware that pro Mugabe newspapers have repeatedly propogated hate speech stating that they will spread their “land reform” to South Africa.
Which mostly means stealing from other Black People just like they did in Zim from the Farm Workers.
It doesn’t seem to occur to you that this race hate is being deliberately spread by the ZANU regime:
1) To drive the refugees back to slave labour working on Zanu Generals Farms.
2) To distract from Zim elections, since you’re all too busy dealing with civil disorder in your own country to deal with that in another.
3) A racist agenda of spreading their politics and Black empowerment to the rest of the world until they create an empire with stolen land after causing destabilisation in other countries, shortly before invading in order to “keep the peace.” (Classic Fascist politics.)
4) To create a market for the three million rounds of Ammunition when the generals sell it to gangsters on the black market shooting each other and pocket the hard currency after using public money to buy it. (Just like they did when Zim troops were in the Congo, guarding Mugabe’s diamond mines.)
You are still in denial that Black people can be racist imperialists against other Black peoples without any whites or even arabs around because you still have not learned any African history from Ancient Egypt, via Timbuktu, Ghana, yoruba, Zanzibar, Shaka, Tippu Tu, Kush, Memelik, etc etc etc ….
The next stage you should look out for is people organising “defence committees” in order to “restore order” because the govt has “failed”.
Which usually involves lots of people marching around in uniforms carrying flags with symbols on them, targetting a minority with money (shopkeepers or bankers.) and stealing their goods in order to “compensate” the native sons that have had their rights trampled on as the Master race of the country.
Then you might notice Zim has spread to SA and what Europe have been trying to warn you about, since we have seen it so many times before.
Thank you for writing this. I do not believe a light skinned Somali or Zimbabwean would have passed through unscathed. I find the historical discriminations in our country relevant, but by no means a principle motivation in these events. There are many forms of discrimination, many ways of talking about us and the infamous “them”.
A lot of discrimination in South Africa is culture based and class based and then grouped under racism. It makes it no less discriminatory, no less of an issue, but if you call it wrong you’ll solve it wrongly, and possibly create unintended side effects.
There are also discriminations based on local cultures such as Xhosa, Sotho, Zulu, Venda, etc. Even political ideologies create divisions and enmity. In the past the ANC could easily unite all these under a single banner, because they had a singular common enemy as core focus. Today they have to deal with more complex issues and with divisions amongst their own people. (Some might even try to revive the old enemy as means to unite)
Many African leaders justified their one party states with the argument that it lessens tribal divisions and problems. And then they appoint their families and tribesman as top officials. Eventually resulting in tribal based conflict.
Hopefully we can avoid going down that path (one party states, or tribal conflicts).
Amused reader is right. If whites are angered to the point of rage by what blacks DO rather than by the mere fact of their blackness, such whites are deemed “racist”. Whites are not allowed to separate out the despicability of the deed from the doer.
But, Traps, now you’re campaigning for blacks to have that very privilege. There’s clearly a double standard here.
The human inclination towards label- or group-thinking is fascinating and depressing. The “us vs them” mentality is ingrained in us, it is one of the most basic ways in which we see the world. All of our labels have no objective meaning outside that which we give them, which means they can change or even disappear. But the black/white dichotomy in South Africa is almost treated like the woman/man division: without question. And by default, when black South Africans beat up any other black Africans, we somehow link xenophobia to skin colour, because South Africa is defined by colour. It is bad enough that all Zimbabweans are supposed to form a homogenous group, “the enemy”, but why does skin colour have to brought into the equation? It is truly a national obsession. I see no way of overcoming this until people are prepared to see every one else as an individual before their labels. But that is idealism at its highest, I know! At least we can stop inserting the words “black/white” into every utterance made about SA.
I first pondered this issue years ago when assessing some comically over the top anti-Australian material for my thesis. In the SA context at least, white and black South Africans seem most threatened by those who are similar to them. This is partly a function of economics of course; Jacob Zuma might be visiting white squatter camps, but whites generally don’t compete for resources with the poorest of the poor. On the other hand, competitiveness, for white South Africans, is generally linked to sport. White middle class South Africans generally don’t feel threatened by immigrants - look at how many gardeners advertise themselves as Zimbabwean in the classifieds of the local paper - because they don’t compete with them.
“Where there are examples of what is described as ‘racism’ there are also other causes, it also isn’t about skin colour.”
It doesn’t matter if it didn’t start off that way. Finding something you don’t like about someone and applying it uncritically to everyone else who looks like them is textbook racism. The fact that it didn’t start out about color doesn’t lessen the blow — it makes it a more authentic racism.
Cool down:
It’s almost as if you didn’t read the entry. Trapido referenced the very obvious example of the Catholics vs. the Protestants, a conflict now almost universally regarded as patent nonsense but which somehow persisted ferociously all over Europe for nearly 700 years. The fact that you generously don’t call it tribalism, which I would presume — forgive me — is given partly to a more intimate knowledge of the conflict’s intricacies, doesn’t make it any less tribalism, which is exactly Trapido’s point: we make allowances and grant benefit of doubt for European subjects where no quarter is given for African parallels.
If you think I’m misguided in saying that we must get to the bottom of the grievances giving rise to xenophobia - instead of just condemning xenophobia - read this fabulous article by Justice Malala :
Xenophobic attacks need to be dealt with but that is merely a fraction of the solution. Government ministers need to get into their cars and drive down to these communities and listen to the people.
I try my hardest not to be racist, but i hope the moderator and readers will cut me some slack.
Those people ARE half-human. I am horrified and disgusted. Thankfully i know most black South Africans will be just as disgusted as I, but while there are large numbers of black South Africans behaving like this, what do you expect white South Africans, or the rest of the world for that matter, to think?
It certainly puts ‘pissing in someones dinner’ in context.
The ‘Urinating 4′ of course have already been arrested, what is the bet that these animals go free.
That’s bit unfair to only say blacks hate blacks or to ask such a specific question. What about Israelii and Palestines they were fighting since I can’t remember. And Chinese on Tibetans what’s happening there can’t be love, can it be? Christians (Americans, British, Australians) on Arabs (Iraq, Afghanistan, etc). Why don’t we ask the same question? Obama had to pronounce that he is a Christian not a Muslim inorder to get white people’s votes or trust.
Siphiwo Qangani with Kangaroos on May 19th, 2008 at 9:03 am
Michael
Any investor and visitor who saw the horrific
picture of the poor soul set alight by the unruly
mob, must think twice about visiting and investing.
Good Heavens have people gone mad and has our
Government adopted, hear no evil,see no evil, speak
no evil??
No wonder my pen friend in the States, keeps on
reminding me ‘the barbarians are at the gate’.
You are waaaaaaaay off-base about the civil war comment. Please rather say nothing.
@Traps
You are spot-on about your analysis. For the 1st time today I heard something close to useful on the radio from Jody Kollapen. He said that the SAHRC needs to study and understand the reasons for the violence (I hope they do it quickly using the Traps methodology!!) and to advise the relevant authorities.
Indeed, calling it xenophobia, criminality, stupidity, copy-cat killings etc. certainly demonstrates that the ‘leaders’ and the ‘media’ certainly are looking for simplistic ’solutions’ to the problems and that they do not understand the complexity of the issues. The issues are deeper and certaily look more complex and they will need the Kofi Annan approach: Send people there for extended periods to work on the problems and feed the research back to people who have power to do something about it.
Lyndall 2 replies in 1 day - “Can’t I see anything but race?” - Compadre that’s my whole point - I’m saying ditch RACE if you want to get to the bottom of many of our problems.
Get down to root cause ie policy failures and what that has done to our poorer communities.
As I said to Gerard I am hard on xenophobia but harder on what is giving rise to it. Our guests are not the cause of xenophobia (in the main) - our lack of clear policies on how to deal with immigrants in an oderly fashion and alleviate the suffering of poverty is what is causing the problem.
What about the young lad who went and shot up a township? I don’t see a white boy shooting blacks, i see a young man distressed to the point of losing reason about what is going on in his community. and the same applies to those who burn others, these people are distressed to the point of losing all reason.
Do you see that young guy as half human too? We should drop colour from the vocabulary and focus on each individual case of crime.
I am a south african and i’m tsonga. Last month i got bit up by Zulu police(they asked me for my identity and i respondend in tsonga and said i had left it at home and i showed them my Tv licence card which has my south sfrican ID number on it, next thing they are all over me pulling my hair and they kicked me around and one of them left bruises around my neck) and they called me a foreigner, they locked me up in a police van for more than 5 hours and later released me, so just imagine what this guys will do if they get hold of me and i can speak Zulu properly (which i don think i’m suppose to because i only learned it when i came to Jozi). I don think it’s all about blacks hatin blacks, i think its Zulus hating other ethnic groups, how many Zulus can speak more than one African language? very few. and besides that, I was watching the news yesterday and i so this Pedi guy bleeding and they were callin him a foreign. why? because he couldn’t speak zulu
As Zimbabwe is now a de facto province of South Africa with the Thabo having encouraged Bob to do stuff which has caused the bulk of his population to decamp to, and effectively, annex South Africa in sheer desperation, South Africa should now formally annex Zimbabwe and take over the governing of that country from Zanu PF. It would merely formalise what is going to happen and is happening any way. When Zanu PF has burped its way through the last remnants of the meal its made of the braaied carcass of Zimbabwe, South Africa will be stuck with the full bill for the evening’s festivities, after Bob and his cronies call for their last after-dinner mint.
• More immigrants coming in South Africa
• Lack of employment
• Illegal immigrants rapidly increasing the CBD and selling drugs all over town
• Taking over jobs of South Africans for low-priced labour
• Escalation of crime amongst black society
Entirely this has nothing to do with the so called “xenophobic behaviour” but seeing that the needs of the black communities are met.
As number of foreigners killed viciously the entire weekend the President is still busy attending meetings and informing Metro Police to be firm on the perpetrators. http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=339520&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
That’s not what the President of the country to be doing instead we want to see Nqakula (Safety & Security) and the President himself at Alexander and the rest of the areas where the movement is taking place, After all we speaking of the President for the people.
These attacks are totally excruciating and really undermine the Black society morale. Foremost the most crucial reason behind the xenophobic attacks results in unemployment, poor conditions of living and yet the government allows more immigrants.
As for tata Nqakula he is inefficient on SABC news on Thursday the 15th he clearly stated “that the xenophobic conflict will not expand in any manner as they are currently busy assembling more police force” and again today 19th May 2008 in Diepsloot on Morning Live a footage of burning human being was shown. How does he define this horrendous, malevolent attack?
Prejudice is everywhere. It is there in the race for the White House. It is there in the separatist movements. It is there in the debate about sovereign wealth funds. It is there in the conservative argument about the export of American jobs to China.
The precursor to such racist or ethnic issues is not about the ethnic differences. No one discriminates against another for ethnic reasons. As Professor Walter Rodney in his monumental book “How Europe Underdeveloped Africa” put it whites did not enslave blacks for racial reasons and confine Africa’s role in the world trade system to being an exporter of slave labour, it was for purely economic reasons. Similarly in the modern era race and ethnicity, ranging from the Holocaust, the Liberian conflict,Gukurahundi to Rwanda is for political and economic reasons. As Lord Bertrand Rusell in his essay “The Ancestry Of Fascism” stated that it is very easy to become a “hero” just by exploiting people’s standing grievances.
Years ago just after Zimbabwe had attained its independence, there was a general strike about delivery of a “better life”. The then Prime Minister Robert Mugabe before he had fastened his grip on power was at a loss as to how to explain that they were doing all they could to bring about that positive development. Guess what he did? He called on the respected ally and President of Mozambique the late Samora Moses Machel to address his people. Samora Machel told the people that development takes time and resources and that their leaders are trying all they could to make the people’s lives better and that they also had to help government to help them by developing themselves. The strike ended.
Years ago when the whole region was looking to emulate the Tigers of south East Asia. A major stumbling block was seen to be South Africa’s unfair dominacy of trade in the region. We were accusing it of wanting to make the rest of us consumers of its goods. We were urging it to relax duties and controls of regional exports. We were also urging it to facilitate job creating investments in the region so as not to make us go to South Africa in search of jobs. This is what then venture capitalist and now partner at the private equity fund Actis Dr Nkosana Moyo called “Positive Selfishness” or self interest. This was before the political crisis. This is just to illustrate the other angle of the problem.
The problem is what are the South African socio-politico players telling the people. That they are poor because of Thabo Mbeki. That Thabo Mbeki likes to see them in shacks.That Thabo Mbeki is doing nothing. The violent protests of the last two years that have led us to fear student, marches, service delivery protests, strikes, mass actions seem to indicate that socio politico players have not played their part in explaining and selling government programs and time frames in the the contraints of scarce resources. Similarly when security guards killed during their strike, when trains are burnt they have condoned violence as a legitimate voice. Above all inspite of the rabidly anti- white dose of pro ANC history being seen on TV and “Black Consiousness” we have not seen the arming of people with a right dose of Paulo Freirean “Critical Conciousness” perhaps because it could be politically suicidal.
On the issue of the role of Thabo Mbeki in Zimbabwe, I request a proto type wording of what Thabo Mbeki should say on Zimbabwe without making Robert Mugabe reject him as mediator. History shows that from the Tibaijuka moment Mugabe will never accept a United Nations envoy. What would have been the effect of sanctions against zimbabwe? a worse flood into South Africa than we have seen I can confidently say. We could also have seen an unstable south africa as Mugabe directly or indirectly influences and or sponsors chaotic groups of “pan africanists”. South africa does not have the critical consciousness to render it insusceptible to anarchists. At the same time we cannot have an ANC that is beginning to act like an opposition in power. A day after the elections Gwede Mantashe said “that we hearing that the opposition has won gives us the confidence that the elections were free and fair”. What kind of sick nonsense is that. then when Robert Mugabe uses the loop holes in the law to stay in office Thabo Mbeki is to blame. From claiming credit for quiet diplomacy to repudiating it. The ANC must behave and act more maturely.
Today South africa must ask itself some critical questions. Yes the people have genuine grievances, but is violence the only voice they have. In fact we should ask ourselves the question once asked by Thabo Mbeki “What ever happened in the evolution of our society?”. To all the people who have noted the people’s grievances I say have we not in the last two years in trying to achieve narrow political goals stoked anger and lit a fire that will be difficult to douse even when the immigrants are gone.
South Africa as a society stands at a watershed moment. Those who claim to have the ears of the people must now go out and stop this backlash against foreigners (sections of whom might also fight back) and neutrals which also threatens to become an ethnic inferno because if they fail woe betide South Africa. Similarly the nation needs Critical Consciousness in the coming Jacob Zuma trial.
One thing for sure the violence of many on the innocent has not done South africa’s fight against crime and violence any good. In fact it has taken it back.
Again, you see an opportunity to generalize and woof! There you go, what is this about “I try my hardest not to be racist, but I hope the moderator and readers will cut me some slack”? There’s your slack then, endeavor amusingly at your racist generalizations while Traps’ brilliant analysis speeds past you like a cabinet minister’s antorage, you disgust me! White South Africa and the rest of the world can think whatever nonsense they want to think, it is of no use to us anyway.
If you watched the first TV broadcast of the first incident in Alexander, the guys were angrily shouting that they don’t want these “makwerekwere” in Alex because they were 1 – Taking their jobs, 2 – Taking their houses and 3 – Interfering with their wage disputes. Now, examine the above reasons carefully and tell me if you see any tribalism? I thought so, it is basic socio-economic issues that affect and anger the poorest of the poor.
@Lyndall Beddy
“Civil War is rare, except in Africa. Why”
Let me help you;
Civil war is rare, except in Africa were there is a long history of oppression and slavery, poverty and disease, exploitation and demoralization and all the other historical problems that you guys are conveniently forgetting here. These brutal behaviors towards Africans had to result into some form of abnormality, before we can even talk about class and all other resultant socio-economical conditions of capitalist policy reforms.
The argument that the South African government – in its teens – is suppose to be dealing with these issues alone is as futile as the thinking that the effects of the oppression suffered by black South Africans was supposed to be reconciled by their right to vote in 1994. I agree, in fact I angrily protest, that what my fellow South Africans are doing to other Africans is inhuman. I understand their frustration, but fok of man this is not the way to deal with problems.
White South Africa – and that includes you Amused Reader – with all its resources and experience needs to work with us on this, i.e to solve the socio-economic plague that is infesting our country, or all of us will regret the day we chose to assume a position of “the government is not doing enough” instead of asking what is it that we can do to help!
That white kid is, quite rightly, in jail awaiting trial, and will get all he deserves.
I also tried to not tar all ‘blacks’ with the same brush, because i have met too many brilliant black Africans to do that
…BUT…
There is something very wrong with Black African culture. This is not an isolated incident (Nigeria, Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Sudan, Congo, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe…), and these people (the animals who are doing this) are our electorate.
We do desperately need to move past race, a point to which i regularly elude, and Traps is right, this is about the chronic failure of our government, but i would suggest that African culture is again at the core of most of what is wrong with our government.
Arrogant, greedy, corrupt politicians, who believe themselves above the law, not accountable to the people, who close ranks to protect each others dirty little habits. Meanwhile the people buy the pathetic and utterly implausible line that this all harks back to Apartheid and colonialism.
It is a little hard to move past race, when i read about a group of ‘animals’ laughing as they burn a man to death for no other reason than he is not from the right tribe, in the same way as i am sure you were not pleasantly disposed towards that young man from Skeilik. The same sickness rises in my throat as i read about who was raped, or murdered in cold blood each day, knowing that, yet again, it is Black Africans that have cheapened the value of life so much. Skeilik was an isolated incident, black barbarity is a daily, no hourly, occurance.
Do not kid yourself that this is the same everywhere, it is not. In no first world country would Zuma have got away without resigning, nor would Yengeni and 83 other criminals be on the NEC of the leading party. Manto and Nqula would have resigned in disgrace years ago, and the ‘travelgaters’ would not have been let off. On and on i could go. But what will happen, stupid, dumb Africans will just go on electing the ANC until we are another Zimbabwe, and it is too late. Oh i desperately want to be proved wrong, their is no joy in my heart over it.
When my outrage, on behalf of that poor (black) person who suffered such an agonising needless death, has subsided i will somehow fight my way back to my belief in racial equality, but until then, at least in my mind, if the cap fits, then black Africans are going to have to wear it.
Ntombizonke Mehlomakulu let me ask you this - you think violence is caused by what you listed above? If the answer is yes then why beat up South Africans and tell them to go back to Limpopo? Why take peoples belongings and their money? The reasons you give are the same reason Sunday Times used to sell their paper some time back when they started saying foreginers are the one who commit crime but they did not have proof to support the argument. If a somali opens a spaza in a place where ther is not spaza whos job has he taken? Been reading the comments and there is one thing that is common in most of then South Africans will never stand up and take responsibility for their actions they will always blame someone or something never themselves. I grew up in Zimbabwe back in the day before my uncle pulled his stunts, we had foreigners from mostly Moza and Malawi there is never one day did i witness a situation like here. They competed for the same resources as the unemployed but they where never burnt them for being who they are.Ask most people from Zim they will tell you most gardeners where from Malawi. South Africa is a violent society and it will never end as long as locals dont accept they have a problem instead of blaming someone else. As for black people there is no reason why we cant love each other and support each other irregardless of where you are from. Look at the cops in this country they never stop white people and ask for their Ids but they stop every dark skinned man or woman.
***k my rant is over.
It all makes good sense thank you traps, why call it xenophobia then? Some people from Zimbabwe have lived in Alex with the same people for decades without any discrimination, or atleast they weren’t hit, shot, raped etc
The reason behind all these riots seems to be “Cleptophobia” and maybe “Ochlophobia”, and the goverments fear and inabillity to make decisions addressing these fears “Decidophobia”.
Ditch the word XENOPHOBIA.
…. and i support them 100%. I am no fan of the government, and desperately want to see the poor uplifted. I completely understand how bloody frustrating it is to be overwhelmed by outsiders, when life is already an endless struggle…
BUT
That does not in any way, shape or form justify dragging a man into the street, beating him, covering him with blankets, and burning him to death whilst laughing at his agony.
Sir,
You are correct in asserting that the explosion of racial violence is due to underlying socioeconomic factors and our failure to deal with the grinding poverty in our country. We are now reaping the consequences of stubbornly adhering to neoliberal economic policies which have made the rich richer and the poor poorer over tha last 14 years thus exacerbating the inequalities that apartheid bequeathed us. The expression of rage we are now witnessing is being vented against the the most accessible victims and the most vulnerable in our society- namely the poor black African immigrants. We, the cosy upper and middle -classes of all hues need to take note that it is only our physical remoteness from the marauding masses and our relative inaccessibility behind our electrified fences that are protecting us now from a similar fate. If we ignore the cries of the poor we will do so at our own peril. As the challenges of peak oil continue to take effect , socioeconomic conditions will worsen and so will the rage and violence. We need economic policies that will adequately and timeously deal with theses challenges.
please see www.sane.org.za and www.aspo.org.za
Yaj
The ANC led government is reaping the whirlwind of their own racism - AA and BEE - all the locals are doing is executing these policies by force.
Now how long before they start on the whiteys???
Sbu, i promise you i would do anything in my power to uplift the lot of the poor, and i think white people are badly misunderstood, because i think the vast majority of whites would also do so.
I would willing give a large part of what i own, of what i earn, of my time and of my energy if it could make a difference. I am so angry this morning because of the suffering of that one man, how do you think i feel about the suffering of a whole nation? Why do you think white governments pour aid money into Africa, and white Europeans and Americans give so much personally to African charities? Why do you think i am so angry with our government?
I desperately want to help, but my help is not wanted, I am the wrong colour. Look at the treatment of the KZN doctors, who raised money privately to pay for the treatment of poor black people.
The circumstances just do not exist to help. Nothing i can do can change the incompetent actions of our government, why do you think i blog. In the vain hope that someone, somewhere knows how to make a difference.
You could ask 100,000 independent economists which party’s policies would uplift the poor better in SA, the ANC or the DA, and 99% of them would say the DA, but who will be elected? You don’t want good governance, you want the ANC.
Please tell me how i can make a material difference to the suffering of this nation, as opposed to pissing in the wind, and i will do it.
At last a straight, true and honest article aimed at the people who are to blame. It is delivery, delivery, delivery not any ‘isms’ that is our problem. When Govt, province and city councils start to deliver (using up the massive amounts of money available for its intended purpose - upliftment and delivery) we will start putting our wonderful Rainbow nation back on track.
If delivery continues to fail those in charge should start doing some bum kicking and good old fashioned firing of incompetents.
I understand and share your frustration at not knowing how to help and feeling that your efforts will go to waste. I think we are hoping for miracles to solve this country’s problems, because we can’t see any way to do it ourselves. I think you and I should start to think of the bigger picture, do tiny things that may help a person, or two, and accept that we may not see the fruits of our efforts in our lifetimes. It hurts to think this, but to do tiny things is better than doing nothing, and if every body did something tiny, the benefits will be great. But in the future. Any suggestions for tiny things that we can do to uplift the future of our country will be great. Easing the difficulties of the present are important too, and I know that feeling of futility when you feel like anything you do won’t make a difference. Do it any way.
To all my fellow countryman who have not yet called home please do so. Imuli zenu zikhathazekile ngani. I was in Bulawayo on Saturday, the anxiety is killing.
I appeal to the “de facto President” of the country, champion of the poor, Mr Jacob Zuma because they will not listen to Thabo Mbeki (for reasons known to everyone)to speak to the people because it is to their own benefit to keep the peace and not to trash their own humanity, economy, image, country and economy.
To my fellow countrymen and other immigrants let us try to restrain ourselves and endanger no-one.
Jirre. When i saw the picture of the man burning alive, Ikageng next to Potchefstroom in 1987 came back to my mind. I took our maid back home after a day’s work at our house and the tsotsi’s attacked us and burned her alive after forcing her to eat the Omo, they burned her alive, just like that man. I was 23 at the time and even now i dream of her screams. I swear to God if I had a gun i would have shot and killed ever f&cking bastard in his shoes, but i was afraid and had no gun anyhow, i was klapped around a bit and my car’s windows was thrown out. She was just one of many killed by the tsoti’s, normal good people doing a honest day’s work in the wrong place. I still feel weak, like a loser for not being able to safe her life. Why wasn’t I killed? Perhaps because I am a whitey and would have had the SAP trashing those tsotsi’s. I don’t know. Those young guys were not human, they where drunk with the wine of revolution, just like the madmen anywhere else in the world. Ireland, Bosnia, Rwanda. Those young guys where the same people who pinned rozette’s of Mama Winnie on their chests and the same people who voted and will continue to vote for the ANC. After seeing that picture i nearly vomited. My honest question to all of you ivory tower politicians is where will it end? Will it end like Rwanda or Bosnia or will some-one somehow pull a miracle out their hat and stop this madness? I feel completely naked after seeing that picture and think that right now some-one might be killed for just being there. it is beyond disgusting
Where have the members of Parliament been for the last 10 years(or longer). Surely for democracy to work they should have been amongst their constituents and relaying their concerns to the responsible ministers. I would love to hear an ANC MP stand up in the house and say “Minister, you promised housing and jobs to my constituents but the situatiion is getting worse, not better. What is the Government going to do? What shall I tell my people, or perhaps you would care to address them?”
Yaj you divert the responsibility. The so called liberal economic system has delivered hundreds of millions in tax revenues year after year. It is the ‘non private’ sector that does not spend this money - year after year - that is the problem.
If all three public (socialist) sectors would just spend the millions they have in delivery we would have a thriving growing economy.
So please no more public sector growth, just make them do their jobs
What has gone into people’s minds, assumming they have it,to burn someone and rape a woman becoz he works as a gardener and she as a maid.God i’m raving mad but Alas i have no power to change the world…BUT A FEW LIKE ME GETTING TOGETHER WILL MAKE A BETTER PLACE SOME DAY , NO MATTER HOW LONG IT TAKES..This week rapists and Murderers walk our streets freeeeeeeeeeee to kill again. COM’ON SOUTH AFRICA .LETS DO SOMETHING .We are held at ransom by these crazy few..NO NO NO ..Thugs are out to play..Lets show them that we have the RAINBOW power…… IDONT KNOW HOW THOUGH BUT SOMETHING WILL WORK.
Sbu
Thanks for answering. Unless we try and answer the right questions, we have no hope of finding the right solutions.
Chuma
My father always said that one can’t understand History without studying Economic History. Mbeki has a degree in economics ! I think we should sue Sussex University!
Yai
You are not bring up “sane” again are you ? We already dealt with that.
Anonymous & Siphiwo
We have never had a religious war in SA - which is much worse than any other kind. Pray we don’t - and Ronnie Kastrils and others don’t keep inviting over to SA all AlQuada’s pals.
Everyone
A Dutch expert on racial conflict was talking on SAFM. She said that only in South Africa do we call it Xenophobia. Everywhere else in the world they call it New Racism or Neo Racism. Should we not call it by its right name?
Analysts writing in the weekend papers say there are rumours that the taxi drivers are involved. This is possible. Apparently they see the foreigners as taking away their jobs and their women. It is way overdue time that the taxi industry was NATIONALISED ! A developing country must not have a third force of power and no subsidised transport.
Traps
I posed a question to you in your previous blog, to which you have not replied. I thought I saw a reply, but it appears to have been deleted. Please can you answer the question which was:
I will repeat the question re ZUMA. “I have never read anything HE has said which could not have been equally said by you, me or the homeless man on the street. Give me one example of original thought please”
Also on this blog is another question unanswered by you:
“Rwanda was also civil war -why should the USA get blamed”
Todays (19 May) “Fact a Day” as sent out by www.eighty20.co.za states:
“Two thirds of South Africans agree with the statement ‘Most of the problems in South Africa are caused by illegal immigrants / foreigners.’ “(FutureFact 2006)
This is 2006 statistics! Has something been brewing that we should have taken heed of long ago?
Are white South African considered foreigners by the respondents of this survey?
This is a scary fact as we never know when we will be “aliens” in another country!
All South African urgently need to know/be taught that how we as South Africans treat foreigners will be how they will treat us one day when we need their help! As the old saying goes “do unto others ….” (Luke 6:31)
My most remarkable revelation from the 2004 movie, Day After Tomorrow, was the Americans flocking across the border into Mexico to seek safety there from the catastrophic effects of global cooling (Mother Nature apocalyptic response to global warming). I’m sure that movie made many Americans change their views on Mexicans!
Loving the alien: Practical responses to the alien in our midst
The command to ‘love the alien’ is repeated 36 times in the Old Testament. Yet our modern idea of love have been so thoroughly personalised and sexualised that we sometimes fail to recognise the hard-edged practical implications of the kind of love that biblical teaching commands.
Main verses:
Deuteronomy 24.14-15 & 17
14 Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns.
15 Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
17 Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.
Further reading & leading questions:
Read Leviticus 19.9-10, Leviticus 23.22 and Deuteronomy 24.19-22
What is God commanding the Israelites to do here? What reasons does he give for these commands? How might these commands be translated for today? What do you think might be the modern equivalents?
Read Deuteronomy 14.28-29 and Deuteronomy 26.12-13
How do these two passages relate to those just read? What more do they say about the role of the ger or alien in early Israel? How might these commands be translated for today?
Read Deuteronomy 24.14-15 and Deuteronomy 24.17
Previous passages have been about economic issues from a standpoint of merciful behaviour, whereas these take a more explicit justice-based point of view. What more do they tell us about the position of the ger in early Israel? What might they imply about common treatment of the ger? How might these be translated for us in the UK today?
Read Numbers 15.29-30
What does this short passage tell us about the position of gerim (i.e. aliens) under the Israelite law? What implications might this have for us today?
Read Deuteronomy 29.10-13, Deuteronomy 31.12 and Exodus 12.43-49
These passages move to an area that we less readily associate with legislation but which Israel took very seriously – the question of community cohesion and belonging. What does the first passage suggest regarding the role of the aliens in Israelite society? What is the implication of the aliens’ presence in the two Deuteronomy passages? What about the position of the alien in the Exodus passage (i.e. in verses 48 and 49; the ‘foreigner’ and ‘temporary resident’ mentioned in verses 44 and 45 are different – see below)? Can you think of a modern British equivalent to the covenant, the assembly or the Passover in these passages? If yes, what are the similarities and differences? If not, why do you think that is? Can you imagine what one might look like? How might it be used to foster social cohesion among ‘citizens’ and with ‘aliens’, as it did for Israel?
Have another look at Exodus 12.43-49 and read also Ezekiel 44.6-9 and 1 Kings 8.41-43.
These passages all make reference to a different kind of foreigner. The Hebrew words used are nokrim or zarim rather than gerim, and are usually translated as ‘foreigner’ rather than ‘alien’. It is not always clear quite how these groups of people differed from one another but it appears that ‘aliens’ were among the more vulnerable members of society, often housed under an Israelite roof, and economically and socially dependent. Perhaps most importantly, they were people who had made some personal commitment to Yahweh and to the covenant and so identified themselves with Israel. ‘Foreigners’ were probably more independent, might not be permanent residents in Israel and had loyalties elsewhere. They tended not to identify or commit themselves to the nation in which they found themselves. These three passages shed some light on how these differences in personal commitment and identification made a difference.
What are the implications of the differences outlined in Exodus 12.43-49? How are these reflected in Ezekiel 44.6-9? How does 1 Kings 8.41-43 redress the balance? Taken together, and referring back to the earlier passages (in particular Deuteronomy 29.10-13, Deuteronomy 31.12 and Exodus 12.43-49) what do these passages suggest about the importance and implications of ‘belonging’ to Israel? What model might they suggest for us today?
Bible Texts:
Leviticus 19.9-10
9 When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.
10 Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.
Leviticus 23.22
22 When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and the alien. I am the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 24.19-22
19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.
22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this.
Deuteronomy 14.28-29
28 At the end of every three years, bring all the tithes of that year’s produce and store it in your towns,
29 so that the Levites (who have no allotment or inheritance of their own) and the aliens, the fatherless and the widows who live in your towns may come and eat and be
satisfied, and so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.
Deuteronomy 2612-13
12 When you have finished setting aside a tenth of all your produce in the third year, the year of the tithe, you shall give it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that they may eat in your towns and be satisfied.
13 Then say to the LORD your God: “I have removed from my house the sacred portion and have given it to the Levite, the alien, the fatherless and the widow, according to all you commanded. I have not turned aside from your commands nor have I forgotten any of them.”
Deuteronomy 24.14-15
14 Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns.
15 Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.
Deuteronomy 24.17
17 Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge.
Numbers 15.29-30
29 One and the same law applies to everyone who sins unintentionally, whether he is a nativeborn Israelite or an alien.
30 But anyone who sins defiantly, whether native-born or alien, blasphemes the LORD, and that person must be cut off from his people.
Deuteronomy 29.10-13
10 All of you are standing today in the presence of the LORD your God – your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel,
11 together with your children and your wives, and the aliens living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.
12 You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God, a covenant the LORD is making with you this day and sealing with an oath,
13 to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 31.12
12 Assemble the people – men, women and children, and the aliens living in your towns-so they can listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and follow carefully all the words of this law.
Exodus 12.43-49
43 The LORD said to Moses and Aaron, These are the regulations for the Passover: “No foreigner is to eat of it.
44 Any slave you have bought may eat of it after you have circumcised him,
45 but a temporary resident and a hired worker may not eat of it.
46 It must be eaten inside one house; take none of the meat outside the house. Do not break any of the bones.
47 The whole community of Israel must celebrate it.
48 An alien living among you who wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover must have all the males in his household circumcised; then he may take part like one born in the land. No uncircumcised male may eat of it.
49 The same law applies to the native-born and to the alien living among you.”
Ezekiel 44.6-9
6 Say to the rebellious house of Israel, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Enough of your detestable practices, O house of Israel! 7 In addition to all your other detestable practices, you brought foreigners uncircumcised in heart and flesh into my sanctuary, desecrating my temple while you offered me food, fat and blood, and you broke my covenant.
8 Instead of carrying out your duty in regard to my holy things, you put others in charge of my sanctuary.
9 This is what the Sovereign LORD says: No foreigner uncircumcised in heart and flesh is to enter my sanctuary, not even the foreigners who live among the Israelites.”
1 Kings 8.41-43
41 As for the foreigner who does not belong to your people Israel but has come from a distant land because of your name –
42 for men will hear of your great name and your mighty hand and your outstretched arm – when he comes and prays toward this temple,
43 then hear from heaven, your dwelling place, and do whatever the foreigner asks of you, so that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your own people Israel, and may know that this house I have built bears your Name.
@Amused reader
I cannot understand why people allow you to spread your poison so unabatedly. Why do you consider blacks as barbarians, when whites have committed as many if not more atrocities in European conflicts. Please go an spread your poison in some remote little island where there is no one else.
Traps I think you have written a good piece, but I think that there is still an element of ethnicity and tribalism to all of this, which I think should not be ignored. Merely saying that these, socio-economic and governmental failures are the causes of this conflict, simplifies a very complex problem. The recent violence that has come to the fore, shows that we are still an intolerant society and we have to work much harder at becoming a nation.
What worries me about the case FOR the perpetrators is that they could have done the same thing with less violence. With a mob outside your door, you would willingly leave.
Then you have a person laughing over someone burning to death? And tomorrow that person asks for sympathy for his/her situation? They showed no sympathy, but demand it. And how will they bring up their children?
The xenophobia has been building for many years now it has finally reached the point where people are being killed. It is the inevitable when you mix diferent people and they must compete for limited resources. The more heterogeneity the more likely is ethnic conflict. Even Ghandi complained about Blacks being put into Indian areas. There lie the seeds of failure of every multicult fantasy. The very fact that we are not the same will doom all such mixing to failure. Even in the Rainbow the bands do not mix and stay distinct.
SA has been on the verge of these kind of attacks for a long time and the government did not care less who came into our country and what they did here had nothing to do with them. ANC officials were even involved in ’selling IDs.
Plus, blaming foreigners for the problems of no jobs and crime is a suitable scape goat for ANC non-performance. So why should they interfere? Easier for the ANC to blame it on xenophobia than on their failed economic, social and population control policies. Even they can’t blame whitey for everything.
Sporadic xenophobic attacks in South Africa a symbolic gesture for disparities between the poor and the rich
By Obert Mathivha
As we are still nursing the pain of Africans biting and killing each other in Kenya and Zimbabwe respectively, the same Africans are now attacking each other in the south part of Africa. Our very own people are doing it for the countless time again. This is a symbolic gesture that results out of the state of service delivery in our country and beyond. The state of service delivery in our country is below average. The concept of service delivery is yet to find a permanent place of stay within our bloods and veins. We must quickly find means and ways through which the referred concept is to flourish within our government systems. This should involve all public servants, politicians included.
Frankly speaking, the prevailing xenophobic atmosphere in some quotas of our society is indeed missing the point. This is worrying - particularly so because of the fact that it is misguided and therefore missing the real target. I shall illustrate here below as to where I think the real challenges and real target are.
Caution
As we are approach this dilemmatic posture, we should be able to appeal to all senses to refrain from petty politicking and avoid deepening further confusion by misinterpreting (sometimes deliberate) actual motivations this fast developing incidents. It should not be about Who might be behind all these, rather What fundamentally lies under it. Neither should it be about ‘we have seen them chanting m’shini wam, all of a sudden two people were dawn’, rather what informs this mushrooming xenophobic violence.
It will be vital to first acknowledge that these incidents go far beyond instigative cause by an individual or group of individuals. It goes beyond a song and its association. It goes beyond a particular location where it is currently experienced and noticed. It goes beyond the capacity of law enforcement agents and a panel to deal with it. It is about the entrenched socio-economic legacy of the past and a failed collective responsibility to tackle it effectively. There is no third force here – only harsh material realities relating to growing disparities between the poor and the rich. People are poor, hungry and desperate. They just can’t be rational anymore. Lets be brave enough to face this painful realities – for it does not help to be denialists!
The values of the Constitutional Democracy
The South African society must aspire to score high in terms of embracing the values and norms enshrined in our Constitutional Document. Often time the poor and the marginalized segments of our population hardly know about various values and socio-economic rights and responsibilities that come with democratic freedom. I shall here below write to remind ourselves about this rights and the related role of the state to materialize this rights and responsibilities.
Our Constitution provides as follows with regard to Fundamental Human Rights and the role of the State:
Section 7
1. This Bill of Rights is a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom.
2. The state must respect, protect, promote and fulfill the rights in the Bill of Rights.
To make complete sense, Section 7 should be read together with the Constitutional Preamble, Sections 1, 2, 8 – 12, 20, 24, 25(5), 27, 28(1), 29, 32 and 36 of the South African Constitution respectively. The whole doctrine of Socio-economic Rights as enshrined in the Bill of Rights must be given full meaning and practicality.
We should all read to reaffirm our firm belief that our transition from the regrettable past into Constitutional Democracy was not an act of coincidence. Rather it was indeed a dream come true from many years of a protracted struggle by African people to achieve a free South Africa and Africa in general!
One should think that, no matter how well motivated it might appear to be, the attacks on the persons of immigrants in South Africa is surely a wrong approach. In addition to verbally condemning this repressive conduct, it should be found appropriate to start by asking why we get Africans in South Africa targeting each other. Is it normal or abnormal conditions are trying hard to normalize such a horrendous conduct?
At the recent past, we have witnessed pockets of mass demonstrations, violence, and shocking incidents. It all started with the border disputes in Bushbackridge. We have witnessed the people of Khutsong boycotting services and barricading streets under the ‘new regionalist struggle’ relating to border disputes. Not so long after this, an incident involving a school boy stabbing to death his fellow student happened, triggering public dismay and shock among all South Africans. This was followed by Skielek boy randomly opening fire against the innocent lives of targeted black people, further followed by white Afrikaner boys subjecting elderly black parents to a urinated food, it was then followed by Cosatu-led mass boycott against price fixing, electricity hike, escalating food prices, this was recently followed by mass attack targeted against fellow African foreign nationals who are apparently widely viewed as negating factors in the South African economy. In this regard we separately witnessed the mob-driven xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals in Atredgeville, Alexander, Diepsloot, Thokoza, Thembisa and of late Cleveland respectively.
The reality we need to firstly acknowledge here is that each of the mentioned incidents cannot be treated in isolation.
All these are remnants of a sick society that developed over many years of colonialism and apartheid - a society unconscious of the new common value system it is expected to embrace and promote. A society full of disparities and inequalities, of extensive poverty, of joblessness and homelessness, of criminals, and society whose authority and direction is at times lacking.
Early Warning Systems
In a society as ours, the authority cannot afford to be caught wondering along side those it purports to lead as to why people react in a certain fashion – otherwise someone is neglecting his duties and that could be extremely rebounding against us. The point here is that government must not only play a reactionary role to incidents of violence, particularly ethnic related violence, rather a pro-active and preventive role as is expected to know better than anybody else through its early warning systems. This is the only way government can maintain the confidence of its citizens. It is within this context that I submit to say when the ground is silence, it does not mean all is fine with it – the time for volcanic eruption may be very much living with us!
Those in authority should know better that the more people start feeling neglected and hopeless about their own collective future, the more disloyal and hostile they become towards the system and unfortunately certain people becomes unnecessary causalities as in the case under consideration. The current prevailing xenophobic attacks in Gauteng are a result of failure to manage (both politically & administratively), in one hand the relationship between government and its desperate citizens, particularly from disadvantaged communities. On the other hand, the incidents exposes the weaknesses embedded in our immigration control systems in that they seem to be failing to effectively manage the high volume of immigration into south of Africa due to political and economic reasons.
The 2010 Soccer World Cup and the friendly democratic environment continue to attract many immigrants from all over the world by day. All these challenges simply require visionary leadership at all spheres of society. It should be all about management of challenges and implementation of preventive strategies that we would be able to win the war against factors leading to civil unrest such as poor service delivery, xenophobia, ethnic hatred and conflicts, moral decay, etc.
We must be able to vigilantly combat and prevent the creation of an environment which in turn becomes a breeding ground for senseless civil unrest.
Assuming full responsibility
Government and the people of South Africa must prominently continue to place the agenda to defeat poverty high in their own formulation of priority lists. This should happen in reality and not just in paper. All Africans (all human race included) in South Africa must radically and consistently be taught how to commonly co-exist in an environment filled with peace, hope and prosperity. This should be learned as the only ultimate truth that is to be with us for eternity.
As the developing nations of Africa, we need to start to radically remove elements of intolerance among our people despite the privileged or underprivileged backgrounds that we are respectively coming from. From the early to medium ages, educating our youth to embrace the constitutional value system we have hardly attained with the 1994 democratic breakthrough must be intensified. South Africa needs to quickly intensify its effort to educate its citizens to become caring and prosperous in their wider diversity.
In this regard one should salute the long overdue decision by the National Department of Education to introduce the National Pledge for young learners at an early age. Any attempt by our government to educate its citizens about the constitutional value system should be seen as the first step towards getting everything else right.
It is somehow painful to recall that the move by the Education Department was met with a very shocking and shameful attempt by political parties of doom to prevent this natural step forward. Their advanced doomed argument that this initiative will “indoctrinate our children” was unfortunately and sometimes deliberate, being raised out of positive context. This demonstrates the most backward and resistant behavior that is yet to find peace with the living reality that South Africa is a home for all and is to be guided into the future by the constitutional torch of prosperity. Their argument exposes them as bitter pessimists whose attempt to block inculcation of constitutional values among our children clearly demonstrate that they are ready to defy the constitutional imperatives in favor of preserving their own isolated and ill-acquired socio-economic status. These are fanatic elements whose wild dreams still present a possibility of ‘their South Africa’ and South Africa of everyone else. We must reject their agenda!
As the loyal citizens of the country, we hold every right to be well informed and served about the values we are expected to uphold in the Constitutional Democracy. Equally, the people have a right to be consistently reminded that better life for all does not have to be only a mere expectation, but about information sharing and active participation in all spheres of the life and destination of our country. The current beleaguered and dented SABC must be in the centre of the struggle to fully inform our people about the values, services and responsibilities that come with our democratic freedom. In adopting this approach, we should be clear in our belief that targeting fellow Africans does not bring us freedom to a better life - but actually holds us ten times back!
Forward thinking and planning
In order to avoid running a risk of evolving into a recycled misguided ethnic violence within and amongst fellow Africans, we must be determined through viable strategies to put an end to this valueless and uncaring society emerging within our midst.
This potentially dangerous situation must be despised at and prevented against at any cost. Concurrently an interest should be found among various stakeholders (particularly governmental institutions) to urgently respond to the socio-economic conditions currently prevailing in our society, particularly amongst the disadvantaged communities.
It is high time that we knock sense in the urgent need to distribute the message that neither beating nor hackling each other is likely to resolve any of the problems we are facing. Only government should be able to explain to its loyal voting citizens why does it seem that the promise for better life is for ever an escaping reality.
The government should therefore be able to speedily identify challenges and constrains that our people are faced with daily. We should be able to respond by developing appropriate practical approaches to resolve them. Should it be that people lack information as to how to change their life for better in the so called open economy, it be found proper to close the information gap. This should obviously be followed by crafting logical and implementable programmes that can speedily bear practical meaning to millions lives of the suffering people in our country.
In the same vain, let me place it to you that the government seems to have failed to mobilize an acceptable number of citizens that has basic conscious capacity to actively participate in the daily running of programmes that are aimed at transforming their lives for better. Here we must agree to accept the fact that it is one thing to boast about ‘good’ strategies being in place but another to explain whether people understand how to productively relate to the set up for their own self-empowerment and development of the country as a whole.
It would seem obvious to me that if you are not well informed about it, you will most certainly be left behind in terms of benefiting from it. Information is power through which our government can empower our people to take charge of their lives and their communities. Until or unless we empower our people with information about the value system and developmental path we are pursuing, so shall always be anger and frustrations, especially among the disadvantaged communities as more and more people get lost along the way in the so-called fast growing economy. In this regard, one can’t wait to see the important Polokwane decision that the branches of the ANC are to be mobilized to practically spearhead the fight against poverty, crime and others social ills so as to filter the struggle dawn where the suffering masses are.
Towards this end, I wish to present that the entire government, not only the Department of Home Affairs and law enforcements agents, must therefore take a full responsibility to strengthen existing empowerment strategies and intensify the struggle to optimize the level of service delivery within the entire public service administration. The Batho Pele values must take precedence and be able to shine prominently in all services being rendered by each and every Public Service Servants. All governmental Departments must be able to talk and compliment each other in the true sense of the word. Otherwise South Africa and Africa will always be plagued with civil unrest targeted at the wrong people and direction. Time is now to act!
Excellent article but writer forgot to mention that the government sowed the seeds and fanned the flames of this conflict long ago. Just a few months ago Home Affairs Parliamentary committee made a finding that foreigners were being treated “like animals” but that did not stir the Home Affairs behemoth to clean up its mess. A few months later, a Safety Minister condoned lawless violence by declaring that police should shoot first and ask questions later. That for the same police who invaded a church sanctuary and dragged foreign women and children into the streets amidst accusations that they were “criminals”. Moral of the story- government sets the moral tone by cheapening lives of immigrants then the rest of society follows by going on xenophobic rampage. And so the story goes. Nice work Susan Shabangu and all the xenophobes out there!
Pogroms. Sorry Amused Reader, I normally find myself in broad agreement with what you say (and share your frustration about uplift). But the barbaric behaviour is typical of pogroms - which seem to be the same in Rwanda against Tutsis as they were in Russia against Jews, or Romania against Gypsies or China against Vietnamese. Part of the psycology of the mob seems to be that the ‘other’ must be treated as less than human. On the positive side, it’s been getting rarer in the West over the years. Perhaps a product of time and education. We can hope…
However…
Pogroms are typically and have always been a tool of the ruling classes. They are a displacement activity “Blame them. The jews take the jobs. The gypsies steal. The tutsis get the best jobs… etc.” I will grant that I doubt the ANC realised quite how dry the tinder was. The ruling classes are doing very well for themselves. They are isolated from the desperation. They HAVE been guilty of years and years of displacement - blaming very nearly anyone else except themselves - the ones with the power and responsibility - for the fact that SA has stagnated in employment terms, and worsened in education, and failed to raise the standard of living in the way they promised.
Pogroms typically allow a blood-sop rather than dealing with the problem, and let the ruling classes - who should bear the brunt of this rage - continue on their merry way. The trouble with Pogroms is when they run out of one target, they start on the next minority - anyone who can be defined as different.
Not good times.
The right target for this rage should be the people in power. If it infuriates you - and you don’t feel you can vote for the policy - not skin colour or history - of another party, then vote against. Vote for any another party. The Soccer Party for all I care. But do let the government know that you are disappointed. That way they MAY change the things they do. If you give them that vote, or boycott, nothing changes.
There is a rightful way, a correct way, a moral way, a principled way, for any person performing a job to execute that job and this ranges from the job of t6he president of a country to the lowliest labourer in that country.
The term for this framework within which a job should be done if it is to be done correctly is referred to, in Sanskrit, as the Dharma of that job.
Unfortunately Mbeki and many of those whom he has appointed under him to serve the people have not been fufilling the Dharma of their jobs.
There is a negative impact on others in society when the lowliest of workers does not fulfil the Dharma of his or her allocated job. The size of the negative impact increases steadily however the higher up the social scale you climb until at the top you reach the presidency and maximum impact.
A president not fulfilling the Dharma of his presidential position eventually corrupts the whole of society. The so called xenophobic violence that we are now experiencing is but one of the symptomatic consequences of the ever increasing negative consequences of Mbeki’s and many of his ministers non-fulfilment of the Dharma of their positions.
Hopefully whoever replaces Mbeki will fulfil the Dharama of the presidency and will expect the same from those that he appoints under him. Then we can begin to move forward as a people once again.
Traps, as usual, you’ve thrown red meat at the lions. The sad thing about a number of reader responses is that some appear not to have read your argument carefully but rush to judgement as it were. You are NOT saying “blacks hate blacks” merely for being black. Your title-question is a poser to trigger the analysis you are making. Why are your critics ignoring all the pertinent examples you make about the European situations? That’s the crux of the article. If it’s not economics, it’s politics. Conflicts do not occur in a vacuum.
For example ‘Cool Down’ misses the point by attributing the conflict to “tribalism”; it makes no sense. Similarly ‘Oom Koos, while I share his disgust and horror of the savage attack on his maid, he confuses this CRIMINALITY with the issue of ‘xenophobia’ the article is discussing. The current attacks directed at ‘illegal immigrants’ have specific economical and social causes as Traps rightly points out, the compettiion is between locals and these ‘uitlanders’ who happen to be black. Alisdair Budd, ‘Z’, Anonymous and others have got it right on because they have actually taken into account the telling European examples you bring to bear on your analysis. Xenophobia alone is not sufficient to explain these attacks; they cannot and should not be separated from the realism of the situation on the ground. Some of these critics should read up on the current anti- Roma [Gypsy] round up and attacks in Italy. The issue there is the same: economic competition at the lower levels and crime against everybody.
Accusing an analyst of ivory tower liberalism is a bit disingenuous; it’s those critics who fail to come down to the ground to examine the situation in which these confrontations take place. This is not a uniquely South African phenomenon; though it is exacerbated by the unique S.A. demographic residential patterns. Stepping out of the parochial box may help somewhat.
Commendable article.
The latest of the many trevails occurring in South Africa (Aids, Crime, Corruption, Immigration, Eskom, ad nausium) points out once again that the current political leadership is completely, totally and disgracefully inept.
The current choas is the result of the ANC’s total lack of leadership in resolving the issue of illegal immigration. Did anyone expect any other outcome? When you have 25% unemployment and migrants pouring into your country how could you expect otherwise?
The ANC will not wake up, will not change, will NOT provide the leadership that South Africans deserve until the PEOPLE wake up and demand accountability and if necessary, change in leadership.
South Africa has a tyrant to the north in Mugabe. In Zimbabwe as in South Africa, nothing will change until the people take back their countries.
I saw some genius on SABC saying that the violence was caused by people becoming embittered by the large wealth gap between rich and poor. I suppose that he never noticed that the violence is poor on poor and that nobody is justified to act out his savage jealousies just because he is poor. This is a completely diabolical moral justification for savagery thats cause is naked covetousness in its most base form and probably one of the base reasons that Africa never prospers. Africa can never prosper until it learns to celebrate the most talented and entrepreneurial members of its society. In fact general African cultures are of the kind that try to level any individual successes away, down into the mediocre and away from the sublime and to prevent any revelation of personal inadequacies. If Africa cannot obey the 10th commandment : “Thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that is thy neighbor’s ” then they will always be poor. All perpetually poor societies have one thing in common, they remain very covetous. Some people who are not covetous do sometimes go through lean times but they usually bounce back again. Unless Africa recognizes that this is a sin against God and take ownership of it to repentance, I see no hope for Africa. God’s laws are very practical !
when mexico got the olympics and the world cup, they culled the people in shantytowns. brazil has done the same thing during the pan american games, and will probably do it again before their world cup — they have roughly the same demographics as south africa, with matching income distribution. [south africa is much more like a latin american country than an african one, by most societal measures]
i’m not going to tell the government to go into the townships and shoot people — it’s wrong, and they won’t do it. but the lack of fear of true government or police reprisals is something that feeds into this.
and to the people who think that civil wars only occur in africa need to look at why mexico got the world cup twice in 16 years. [see, in 1970, it was supposed to have gone to colombia. however, the colombian government had to choose between the world cup and the civil war. they chcse the civil war. it’s not over yet.]
most of latin america is less than 15 years out of war or war-like states of emergency. and with the exception of argentina’s “dirty war” and the pinochet regime in chile, most of the insurrections have a lot to do with the non-white masses being fed up with their treatment by the white elite, ie the government.
he doesn’t look like he’s laughing to me. i thought about my first reaction when i saw the picture of the guy burning and sure enough my teeth were out.
here’s a neat trick. take a picture of yourself wincing, as if you’re in pain.
If your parents, school teachers, youth leaders and political leaders teach you to hate, well, that is what you end up doing. It will take a miracle to change this hate-racism-infested people. But they say we don’t understand becuase we are white, but let us tell you, we had enough Stalins,Hitlers and Verwoerds to learn from, and to know what NOT to do. My question is, who are you blacks taking your lessons from? Mugabe, Idi Amin?, and when will you learn that only if EVERYBODY wins, everybody wins. If some lose out or are suppresed, EVERYBODY LOSES.
@ Sbu.Po et al:White South Africa and the rest of the world can think whatever nonsense they want to think, it is of no use to us anyway.
Do you see the problem?
This latest conflict is a consequence of political idealism. Our politicians are so obsessed with human rights, dignity for all, etc. that they forget that their decision making must be founded with a strong practical basis. Obviously, allowing millions of Zimbabweans to come to South Africa is going to create an unstable situation, particularly, in the poorer communities. Out of sheer practicality, the government must control the influx of foreigners into the country so that immigration can occur at a more measured and controlled rate.
Last night I appeared as a pundit on Xenophobia on the BBC’s “Have your say” : While I expected a rough ride for defending Alexandra, Diepsloot etc I was given a relatively fair hearing by the rest.
Where I was however shocked was the massive response to claims that South Africans are snobs who turn their noses up at jobs that they believe are beneath them.
They all phoned in to say that South Africans only want prestigous jobs.
South Africans have not integrated into Africa that we have remained seperate.
That we are ungrateful for what Africa did for us.
(And some very unkind remarks about Derby County)
I must say that attitudes did change when I said that people must understand that the same poor communities who bore the brunt of apartheid are now, again, bearing the brunt of immigration policies.
That the government has to talk to communities urgently.
I also condemned xenophobia in no uncertain terms.
I am not one to march, toyi-toyi or even do rallies. However, I think the only way as South Africans can show our revulsion at this repugnant neanderthal behaviour is to hold hands, with the foreigners and show them that we still care, despite the failures of several departments in our country.
When Germany was under the grip of skinheads, Germans marched to show solidarity with the targetted groups and I think as South Africans we need a similar action to salvage the image of this country both in Africa and elsewhere.
It might not mean much, but simply walking outside of your work place during lunch and holding hands with other fellow human beings in solidarity with humanity, we can achieve more. We can show the rest of the world that we abhore violence and that the actions of these thugs does not represent who we are.
We have lost that humanity to be side with the underdog. We prefer to heap blame on one person or one group, but this is our chance to say “enough is enough, will will not tolerate this sort of hatred in our country”
All it will take is all South Africans across the country and the world to go out into the streets at 12pm on Friday and form a chain holding hands. No need to march, simply stand in your street with your colleagues and form a chain and support humanity in China, Burma, Zimbabwe, Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.
Those who are driving, can hoot at Midday on Friday again in support of humanity especially our own crisis.
Bitching and moaning will achieve something, but millions of South Africans holding hand shows only one thing, not all south africans are criminally minded thugs.
Umntu ngumntu ngabantu
With due respect, Traps, the Herald story is not really a story, rather a letter written by a reader of the newspaper. It is not their opinion nor is it an official opinion.
We do allow people to have their opinions without claiming that come from official circles. Let us criticise and comment or even lampoon Zimbabwe, but let us recognise letters to the editor.
The only real people to blame here are the SA government for not addressing the illegal immigrant and refugee problem correctly years ago. When people started asking where the refugee camps and medical care were for desperate Zim refugees our illustrious Home Office Minister told us that ‘the communities must take them in’. I hope she loses her job now over those statements because the deaths of these people are on her head! It has been a massive human rights violation from start to finish.
The violence and looting that has taken place recently can be attributed to common opportunistic criminals. By blaming the foreigners they see fit to rape and pillage, and probably believe that they are justified in their actions. We should not tolerate this behaviour from anyone for any reason. Doing so will just lead to further mob hysteria and anarchy.
And lastly, just as a comment on South African personality traits - we do all in general, both black and white, generalise too easily and seem to have an innate fear of the ‘other’. Everything is always about race. An employee of mine told me how people in her township doubted that she was Xhosa simply because she spoke to and was kind to foreigners. I fear that if the violence spreads to Cape Town that she and her family could be victims simply because they are seen as sympathisers or not really South African enough.
Anonymous
Thank you for your comment. You are commenting
on this article with total disregard of our
common history.One should see what is happening
today against the background of the 19th century
upheavals.
It is not the first time and it won’t be the last time that Southern Africa will be struck by tragedy.
In the early 1800’s it was struck by the Mfecane
‘the crushing’ by the Nguni and Difagane ‘the
scattering of tribes’ by the Sotho-Tswana.
They were called the wars of calamity by the Europeans.
It is reported that by 1825 two and half million
starving, homeless people wandered about southern Africa looking for a place to rest, away from
trouble.
Allow me to quote the following:
” The causes of the mfecane were many. Starting in 1800 a long drought
made Southern Africa inhospitable moved in
search of food and fought for meagre supplies,
producing the Difagane. The entire Sotho-Tswana
region had fallen into a state of anarchy.One clan
conquered the other only to be defeated by another’
The Mfecane gave rise to Shaka Zulu. In less than two decades, a powerful Zulu empire arose from
a typical Bantu decentralized pastoral society.
Chaka’s anger knew no bounds.refugee groups invaded the lands of the present ay Botswana.Sohuza of the
Swazis moved his people North from the Pongola river to present day Swaziland and conquered the peoples living there’The marauding Hlubi and Ngwane
created chaos moving westward.The Xhosa expanded
into Khoi-khoi land, some (Koi) retreated to the Kalahari dessert.’The Zulus were eventually defeated
at Ulundi by the British,Shortly thereafter,the
Anglo Boer wars took place, the first and second
world war, stock market collapse etc.
By this time you will ask what has this got to do
with today situation. Everything. Today we again
see people fleeing in their millions across our borders looking for respite, trying to escape
poverty, famine, all created this time not
by marauding tribes but by one dictator aided by
a silent partner.
So one can expect similar reactions from people
as those during the Mfecane and Difagane.The African tribes are once again on the move. We may be more civilised, perhaps better equipped but if we
do not remove the underlying causes the result
will remain the same. Masses of displaced people.
Now a bit of the point, this was precisely the
chaos that confronted the Afrikaners in 1948
and their effort to restore tribal balance by
moving people back to the homelands under the
policy of separate development or better known
as ‘Apartheid’ proved to be a colossal failure
in human Engineering.
Just as they were unable to untangle the mess,
the present government is facing the same problem
repatriate the refugees or allow them to integrate. The question as always remains will
the South African tribes tolerate their presence
in a climate of poverty,unemployment etc.
On top of all this you are dealing with a once
powerful proud independent nation namely the Zulus who were forced together by the iron will of their
Kings.
Just try to get the Dutch, Germans, Belgians into
one state and you have got problems.England
cant even unite Scotland, Ireland, Wales into
one united nation without bashing each others
heads in at soccer matches.
Yet everyone expects the African tribes to get
peacefully along with one another, because we
are one nation. Well I have got news for you
we are not and what is happening today is a result
of a lame duck government unable to deal with
the reality on the ground and confront its
power hungry former ally who is causing just
as much upheaval as those whose history I briefly
highlighted above.
as i read the morning papers far away in new delhi, it saddens me to see pictures of a country once struggling towards freedom, and having achieved it, now burning with hatred. have we not learned anything from our past experiences? have we forgotten what it was like to me marginalised? where is our compassion towards others who have arrived in our country, and who willingly carry out menial taskes just to eke out a living?
whether they have arrived as refugees or legal or illegal immigrants, the fact is that government is unable to provide adequately for these people. let us not forget that many of those who are in government were “refugees” in other countries where they were taken care of. is south africa now neglecting its immigrants because they belong to the lower socio-economic sector?
the perpetrators of this violence need to be dealt with firmly, and if it is serious in putting a stop to further violence the government needs to send a strong message that this will not be tolerated
If barbarity is black culture, then racism and oppression is white culture, check your history books! I will come back to you on your foolish comments about black culture, just busy collecting money for your one-way ticket to Australia…
It is true that some black people do hate other black people. However, to simply attribute hate of this nature to the simplistic concept of colour has never been the aim of those who have purported the said argument.
Conclusions drawn by you of this argument as being worthy of a falacy are biased and unproductive as they do partly distort one of the many root causes of this unfortunate state of affairs.
Just like Arpartheid, whites hated blacks but everyone knows that this hate was not as simplistic as colour, however, in the same breadth, colour was contributory.
The fact of the matter is this:
We have overrated the concept of a rainbow nation and this needs to be re - visited. A case in point is the Carte Blanch piece which brought to our attention that some South Afrcan’s were also displaced from their homes on the basis of their ethnic identity. Some call it Trabalism, I call it black on black hate. Does this mean that the veracity of the problem has been toned down by my argument, I do not think so…
I beleive that the first step to fixing this problem is by admiting that indeed xenophobia, just like racism, is a part of our society. In other words, South Africans (some) hate each other and this needs to be dealt with.
The need for a moral regeneration of our society has rised again…(though it has never left us). This is a long term project. The short term project is to however make an example of the fact that our STATE (Government, Excutive, Judiciary, Civil Society and the general public at large) do not condone these thuggery actions worthy of a Genocidal dscription (though not state sponsored).
This example entails bringing all those responsible to book. We need to remove the sense of entitlement that runs within the fabrick of society by making it public through the course of Justice that people will always be held accountable for their actions.
“Your democratic right to swing your fist ends where my nose begins!”
Jack
“something HAS been brewing” for a long time. The African Peer Review warned that zenophobia was increasing. The government denied it was significant.
Osbert
“no third force”?
“spontaneous” outbreaks in the townships in totally different provinces on 8/1/2008, 8/2/2008, 8/3/2008, 8/4/2008 - and now in May?
You can believe in “no third force”. I prefer to believe in Father Christmas, The Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy.
You suffer from a very severe case of David Bullardism – a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among black and white South Africans determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that Whites are superior and have the right to rule blacks. This is found in your continued attempts manufacture self-serving labels for black people such as “a group of ‘animals’ laughing as they burn a man to death for no other reason than he is not from the right tribe”. Check your newspaper sources, they seem to have changed their story about the laughing group of animals!
Again, you are in high speeds to call us names; “as i read about who was raped, or murdered in cold blood each day, knowing that, yet again, it is Black Africans that have cheapened the value of life so much” and “black barbarity is a daily, no hourly, occurance”, you have really outdone yourself this time, and you sound very bitter. Amused as you are, foolishly so, you should not be surprised of these “barbaric” behaviours. Slavery, oppression and other white and racist cultures are known to produce exactly that. And you think 14 years of “Arrogant, greedy, corrupt politicians, who believe themselves above the law, not accountable to the people, who close ranks to protect each others dirty little habits” is enough to create a culture?
This black culture - the sum total of ways of living built up by a group of human beings and transmitted from one generation to another – that you so badly talk about could only have been created by the unending oppression and David Bullardism that has been perpetuated by white people on black people (Particularly in SA), the 300 years of slavery could only achieve the bitter black man that you seeing today. And this white culture is being transmitted from one generation – suppose 14 years is adequate to create generation – to another. Continue to treat black people as a problem, a barbaric race that needs some form of cleansing, and trust you me, we will all suffer.
I pity you, the amused and confused one, but I do not blame you, with role model like Eugine and David, you were bound to turn out this way. Try this, and I pray it works:
“We seldom study the condition of the Negro to-day honestly and carefully. It is so much easier to assume that we know it all. Or perhaps, having already reached conclusions in our own minds, we are loth to have them disturbed by facts. And yet how little we really know of these millions,–of their daily lives and longings, of their homely joys and sorrows, of their real shortcomings and the meaning of their crimes! All this we can only learn by intimate contact with the masses, and not by wholesale arguments covering millions separate in time and space, and differing widely in training and culture. To-day, then, my reader, let us turn our faces to the Black … and seek simply to know the condition of the blacks…of one county there.” From The Souls of Black Folks (W.E.B. DuBois)
There is a very good comment on the Readers Blog “Where are we Heading” by “Deveolpment Economist” of Allan Greenspan’s analysis - “economic popularism as a response by an impoverished populance to a failing society”
Can someone link it - I don’t know how to. I think it is relevant.
It is you that has it all wrong, but before i start please note that i draw a very distinct difference between black african people and black african culture. I do not believe white people are in any way superior to black people, but i do recognise that white culture is significantly more advanced than that of black african culture, and i think the evidence bears this out to the extent that no fair minded commentator could really disagree.
Black culture does not go back 300 years, it goes back thousands of years, why do you only go back 300? That is a rhetoric question, i know the answer, because before that you have no-one left to blame but each other, so you would have to take responsibility yourself!
Ask yourself the question did slavery and apartheid cause primitive black culture, or did primitive black culture cause slavery and apartheid? You of course know the answer (since one pre-dated the other).
If black culture had not been so much less advanced that white culture, you would never have been taken into slavery (or to be correct sold each other into slavery). Likewise the British, pre-apartheid, kept black South Africans apart from the Boers because when they arrived the difference in your ‘levels of civilisation’ was so great that they believed you had to be kept separate until you could catch up.
The British, like I, believed that you were perfectly capable of this, but needed time.
Why your culture was, and remains, so much behind the rest of the world is open to debate, but ironically, and perhaps unsurprisingly, it is black commentators that usually shed the most light on this subject.
That is is behind, can be demonstrated it so many ways. I could list all the african disasters, but how about a positive one. The success black africans achieve when you take them out of african culture and place them in a western one. This is the ‘coup de grace’ for me. Proving your personal equality, with the ineptitude of your culture (in creating the society that you claim to want, as opposed to the primitive society for which your culture was developed).
There is much that is very admirable in traditional african culture, and if you want to lead that life fine, just don’t then expect a 3 bed semi and a BMW! (or financial equality).
Government (suprise suprise) does not accept any responsibility for the unrest.
Essop Pahad says:
“He rejected statements that the government’s sluggish service delivery was partly to blame for the situation.
“A lack of service delivery can never be an excuse … no one else has done what we have done in 14 years. Let’s not forget where we came from,” Pahad said.”
So the gist of it is we should be grateful , don’t we realise how great things are at the moment, and some ‘right wing’ elements have caused this all. Must be the local AWB branch office situated in Alex then!!!
Is it me, or are we even starting to sound like Zimbabwe?
He is right of course, few other could have achieved what the ANC have achieved in 14 years…
amused reader
You have been here for 4 years,correct? and
you are already being called a racist or semi
racist.
You’ll have to take it easy from now on because
your folks back home,wherever that is, are bound
to refer you to a psychiatrist,on your next visit, wondering what caused your personality change?
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By trade a criminal attorney he is now a politcal commentator and journalist full time.
"Traps Report" on the Richmark Sentinel is probably the largest news aggregator in the world. That includes Google, Huffington Post and Drudge.
If you click on the links of the Traps Report you should be up to date on all the latest news worldwide as well as local.
He is a director of the firm Turnbull and Associates.
He was born in Johannesburg and attended HA Jack and Highlands North High Schools. He married Robyn in 1984 (Mrs Traps, aka "the government") and has three sons (who all look suspiciously like her ex-boss).
He was a counsellor on the JCCI for a year around 1992.
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