The old laager mentality is raising its ugly head again=20 in the form of xenophobia. Eddie Koch and=20 Accadoga Chiledi report
SOUTH Africa’s landscape is littered with bronze and=20 stone statues of ox-wagons drawn into a circle to=20 defend those on the inside from a marauding band on the=20 outside. There is no need to take them down in a hurry.=20
Last Saturday in Alexandra, near Johannesburg, the ANC=20 called a meeting between residents and the=20 amakwerekwere, as illegal immigrants from Mozambique,=20 Zimbabwe and Malawi are now known, to discuss a recent=20 wave of violent attacks on foreigners who have flocked=20 to the township.
A woman who lives in a section named Maputo, after the=20 large number of Mozambicans who live there, stood up.=20 She reminded the assembly that her neighbours had=20 fought shoulder to shoulder with the township’s self- defence units against attacks from members of the=20 Inkatha Freedom Party in the violent run-up to last=20 year’s elections.
Down in the cemetery lay the graves of men from=20 Mozambique who died in these battles. “If you are going=20 to chase us from the township,” she asked, “will you=20 give us time to take their bodies with us?” Hers was a=20 poignant comment on the way bonds of solidarity forged=20 by the oppressed in the days of white domination have=20 given way to a new chauvinism on the part of many who=20 became free on April 27 1994.
There are other examples to illustrate how that=20 dramatic lurch into xenophobia has invaded the psyche=20 of South Africans across the ethnic spectrum of their=20 “rainbow nation”. Villages in the Eastern Transvaal=20 districts that straddle the Mozambican border, for=20 example, were once renowned for the sacrifices they=20 made to accommodate waves of war fugitives. Chiefs=20 provided their new neighbours with scarce plots of=20 land, clinics were opened to them even though these=20 were in short supply and the refugees’ children cramped=20 into classrooms with the local kids.=20
Today many of the men in these villages have joined the=20 local commando, once the exclusive preserve of=20 conservative white farmers, so that they can receive=20 military training and weapons. Their motive: to hunt=20 down and repatriate illegal immigrants who have been=20 blamed for a recent escalation in crime and cattle=20 theft in the region.
An organised campaign against foreigners in Alexandra=20 is being led by a 29-year-old theologian called Walter=20 Mojapelo who returned home in 1991, after living in=20 Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe as a refugee from=20 apartheid. “Let them go home,” he told reporters from=20 the Sunday Times. “They do a lot of horrible things and=20 have no respect for the laws of this country.”
Is this not inconsistent with the hospitality he has=20 received as a refugee? “My situation was different=20 because I was driven into exile by apartheid,” was=20 Mojapelo’s telling reply.
The pogroms are not confined to Alexandra township.=20 Reports of similar drives have been received from the=20 East Rand, Natal and the Western Cape. A survey by the=20 Johannesburg-based Centre for Policy Studies shows=20 South African nationals blame immigrants for a variety=20 of social ills afflicting the townships, including=20 theft, car-hijackings, house-breakings, rapes and gun-
A common theme threads through the complaints: “They=20 are taking our women.” Foreigners — legal or illegal – – who have South African lovers or wives are singled=20 out for attack. This brings to mind the images of brave=20 boers protecting innocent women, babes in their arms=20 and kappies on their heads, that are sculpted into=20 monuments to Akrikaner nationalism.=20
An obsession with the invasion of the amakwerekwere has=20 seized the popular imagination. This new version of=20 total onslaught is the talk of the day in the shebeens=20 and on the streets. And the passion for inwardness is=20 not confined to rank-and-file residents of rural=20 villages and urban townships — it reverberates in the=20 political, cultural and economic life of the country.=20
Examples include musicians storming the SABC to demand=20 curbs on the broadcast of imported music; members of=20 the performing arts industry demanding stricter=20 controls on outsiders coming into their theatres;=20 political parties across the board — with the notable=20 exception of the South African Communist Party and=20 leading ANC figures in the Defence Ministry — balking=20 at the idea of sending forces to help keep the peace in=20
Although South Africa has recently joined the Southern=20 Africa Development Conference (SADC), there is a=20 growing sentiment in the departments of Foreign Affairs=20 and of Trade and Industries that the old customs union=20 between Pretoria, Swaziland, Lesotho and Botswana set=20 up in the apartheid era should be maintained as a=20 superior form of economic co-operation in the region.
There are a number of complex issues behind these=20 manifestations of South Africa’s new xenophobia. They=20 reflect real anxieties and fears by people who expect=20 the quality of their lives to improve now that they=20 have obtained political freedom.=20
This is probably the basis of the paradox that pervades=20 Alexandra, villages in the Eastern Transvaal and other=20 townships. Solidarity is always mercurial. Bonds of=20 mutual support are forged in the heat of common=20 oppression; they slip like quicksilver into the cracks=20 and fissures that are created by new sources of social=20
Another factor is contained in the statement by=20 Mojapelo: it was fine for us to be refugees because we=20 were fighting apartheid. South Africa’s peculiar form=20 of institutional racism has always occupied pride of=20 place in the annals of liberation struggle — even=20 though the damage wreaked by Pretoria’s foreign=20 policies on the lives of people in Angola, Mozambique=20 and other frontline states was probably as severe — if=20 not more so — than the internal impacts of apartheid.
This special status — the glorification of South=20 Africa as the world’s “struggle nation” — has=20 encouraged a popular disregard for efforts by millions=20 of people in other countries of the region to change=20 their conditions of misery.=20
“As a result, the efforts to rebuild after apartheid=20 are heavily focused on the inside,” says Hassan Lorgat,=20 co-ordinator of the South African branch of the Public=20 Services International (PSI). “The only way to resolve=20 the problem of immigration is to pay real attention=20 (rath-er than lip service) to an internal and an=20 external programme of reconstruction.”
Peter Vale, director of the Centre for Southern African=20 Studies at the University of the Western Cape, believes=20 the recent displays of anti-foreign sentiments are the=20 first symptoms of a conservatism that is deeply=20 embedded in the South African state and its=20 departments. “The South African state was founded along=20 Anglo-Victorian lines. It had set boundaries and it=20 operated on the notion that might is right. This=20 perception of government was passed on from the old=20 apartheid state to the new government and its=20 apparatuses,” he says.
“Moreover, the old state did not live with its=20 neighbours. It lived up against them and this has also=20 been passed on … There is no reason to believe that=20 because a different group is in power this basic=20 feature will change automatically.”
Lorgat fears that the backlash against immigrants will=20 escalate during the build-up to local government=20 elections. He notes that it is common in many parts of=20 the world for parties to play an ethnic card,=20 especially in campaigns which deal with municipal=20 issues like housing and crime.
The dangers have been aptly described in a statement=20 issued by the Congress of South African Trade Unions=20 (Cosatu): “What started off as attacks against `illegal=20 aliens’ soon became attacks against immigrants legally=20 here with their families, and then attacks on South=20 Africans who `looked foreign’ because they were `too=20 dark’ to be South African. This is the evil story of=20 the beginnings of fascism … and ethnic cleansing=20 which has been practised in other parts of the world.”
But all is not doom and gloom for the amakwerekwere.=20 Some sections of the ANC have demanded that the=20 government act decisively to prevent the “witch-hunt”=20 of foreigners from becoming a time bomb. “We did not=20 fight for a South Africa that breaks up families,” says=20 Obed Bapela, an official in the ANC’s Alexandra branch.
Cosatu says it is finalising an integrated policy to=20 deal with the question of migration that will include=20 proposals for a regional programme of reconstruction,=20 an agreement between states on how to regulate=20 migration and border controls, and strict action=20 against employers who make use of cheap foreign labour=20 to undermine minimum wage and safety standards. “In the=20 meantime, the government must take harsh action against=20 those attempting to fan conflict between South Africans=20 and immigrants. It needs, as a matter of urgency, to=20 set out a national policy position.”
Until that happens, the views of Dwight Allenton, a=20 refugee from Liberia, will endure as a description of=20 the new laager that encircles South Africa: “When South=20 Africans were refugees in our countries, we often gave=20 them better houses, better facilities and better=20 education than anyone else. Now that we need them, they=20 don’t lift a finger to help … How do you compare=20 apartheid and our war?”
Accadoga Chiledi is a Tanzanian journalist in South=20 Africa (legally) as a correspondent for the Inter Press=20