By: Eric C. Sigmund
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa – Numerous immigrants to South Africa are being expelled from their homes in the wake of the World Cup as xenophobia spreads throughout the country. Many observers warned of a campaign among the South African populous to remove foreigners from South Africa after the World Cup concluded. Some believe that this move to shun foreigners is more than a self-fulfilling prophecy and instead represents a xenophobic undercurrent in parts of South African society.
Although the recent expulsion has affected Africans of different nationalities, emigrants from Zimbabwe have specifically been targeted by the South African xenophobes. Nantes Rykaart of Interactive Security notes that “foreigners have been streaming out of the country” since the end of the World Cup. The government has acted quickly to stem the violence against foreigners, fearing a repeat of the 2008 situation where xenophobic violence left over 60 people dead and thousands of foreigners displaced. The South African army has even been called to move into settlement areas to maintain law and order.
The official policy of the government towards combating xenophobia in South Africa however, is unclear. Although the government recently established an agency, the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Xenophobia, to help stop violence against foreigners, the government continues to deny the existence of xenophobia in South Africa. Government officials have come out against this most recent episode of attacks calling perpetrators “criminals covered in xenophobia skin.” These officials contend that the South African media is mischaracterizing these perpetrators as xenophobes when in fact they are simply criminals.
Loren Landau, director of the Forced Migration Studies Program at Witwatersrand University, however, believes that the government is failing to address the seriousness of this situation. Landau states that these acts are just being dismissed as run-of-the-mill criminal acts while in reality “we are starting to realize that these are linked to something deeper, a broader pattern of xenophobia and violence that has gone unaddressed.” Landau contends the government has been hesitant to tackle the problem of xenophobia in South Africa for fear that it would tarnish the national image of unity and equality that has been fought for ever since the end of Apartheid.
The solution, according to Landau, is to address the issues of poverty and unemployment in South Africa. Although the country was recently the host to the nations of the world, many citizens are now turning against the country’s impoverished foreigners. Now politicians are leveraging this xenophobic sentiment to mobilize impoverished South Africans in order to gain support and shift blame away from the government.
Aid organizations and rights activists are mobilizing to prevent the spread of violence and to erase anti-foreign perceptions. Some groups are working to install emergency hotlines in order to help facilitate police response to violent events. Despite these initial efforts, human rights groups fear that the current violence is only the prequel to a larger nationalist upheaval.
For more information, please see:
Pretoria News – Policy on Foreigners in SA Needs Review – 29 July, 2010
The Star – Rage Against Foreigners Coming to a Boil in South Africa – 29 July, 2010
Pretoria News – Say Yes to Ubuntu and No to Xenophobia – 27 July, 2010
Africa Today – South Africa Sends Troops to Kya Sands After Attacks on Foreigners – 22 July, 2010
