In Empangeni recently I saw a really funny sight. Two Chinese men were sitting among a group of Zulu women who sell roasted mielies on the side of the road, and they too were selling roasted mielies.
One was roasting the corn while the other was serving it to customers who didn’t seem to find it odd that these Asian gentlemen had infiltrated a traditionally black female trade.
Why, I asked myself, have there been no xenophobic attacks against the Chinese community in the century they have been running successful businesses in South Africa?
Then I began to wonder: How is it that Africans from elsewhere are fleeing South Africa as a result of xenophobic threats when, less than a month ago, a million people from across the world were in the country, happily enjoying the World Cup?
I don’t think South Africans are as xenophobic as they are poverty-phobic and Afrophobic. Tragically, South Africans who, in the past, have violently attacked Africans, are as Afrophobic as the majority of the world — the only difference is that they are not in the business of concealing their unjustified hatred.
I’ve heard that some of the reasons for this Afrophobia by poor black South Africans is that African immigrants accept lower than minimum-wage jobs, are taking RDP houses and “stealing” business from South Africans by opening their own spazas.
I’m not in a position to dismiss these claims, but I do know that many poor black South Africans could learn from what the Chinese and African immigrants appear have in common: the desire to be self-sufficient.
I was in KwaZulu-Natal for Mandela Day and I was happy to give food and clothing to people in need. Some need assistance because they are sick, others because they are old and most because they are unemployed. What struck me was the similar response to their circumstances of rural individuals and those from peri-urban locations: a general depression.
Apparently people who live on large pieces of land in rural Zulu areas today are in need of food. Yet 20 years ago they grew the food they needed. The land they inhabit is still there, but today it is barren and the people are hungry.
It is in this climate of local despair that immigrants come to this country, with a hopeful spirit, to make hay. I find it odd that plenty of able-bodied and skilled South African men run rampant, unemployed, wearing gold teeth instead of work uniforms while young women have (social) “grant babies” to curb their need to be employed. I’m aware that the situation is not simple, but perhaps it is less complicated than it appears.
In the build-up to the World Cup, for six years South Africa had a national goal and we achieved it beyond our expectations. But why must it stop there?
It is our duty to be self-sufficient, workaholic Africans. That is the only way we will prevent outsiders from fuelling our bitterness by making a quick buck off even the simplest things we have to sell.