Crisis, what crisis? This is the refrain from those who blithely opt for ignorance rather than facing up to the facts.
It is a reminder that we choose our crises, that they are not predetermined. It’s all relative: we either underplay or we exaggerate a crisis.
I happen to think that as a country we are on the brink of a crisis that we choose to downplay. And it is not a personality crisis, such as might be invoked by a Jacob Zuma or an omnipotent Julius Malema.
Our crisis is a fast-brewing hatred for foreign nationals. Maybe it’s not an easy subject to harp on about because it doesn’t have a face or a personality and there is no politician to blame for it.
The exaggeration of Malema-phobia and the underplaying of an impending xenophobic war is what I think defines this South African moment. Right across the country, more and more people living in townships, beset by poverty and unemployment, are finding a scapegoat for their lot — the foreigners who compete with them for scarce resources.
Even in areas where there have been no xenophobic outbreaks so far I have picked up a strong hostility to foreigners. This antipathy has not been acted upon for various reasons, either because of a lack of organised leadership or because there as been no single outrage — such as a crime — or simply because no one has taken the initiative and because people fear arrest.
The tinder is everywhere, waiting for the spark to light it. The situation is not helped by indifference and ignorance from our police and authorities, who insist there is no such thing as xenophobia.
A police spokesperson insisted last week on the radio that he knew that “South Africans are not xenophobic people”. He was explaining that common robbery was the motive behind an attack on a foreigner’s shop, even though it was carried out by a mob and community leaders had openly warned foreign shop owners to leave the area.
We may urge government to carry out workshops and speak to its constituencies, but we all have to do more informally in our constituencies, families and networks to redirect the anger. The bitterness increases as more people become unemployed, whereas those few with political connections create a new class of semiwealthy tenderpreneurs.
As for the disappointment, fear and anxiety occasioned by the re-election of Julius Malema as ANC Youth League president, I say: learn to live with it. We can’t sit in our armchairs and choose the “democratic” outcomes that we want. Especially those of organisations we long ago wrote off as not representing the interests of young people.
As the young people themselves would say, “Take a chill pill”. To those who now paint scenarios of Zanu-PF-like war veterans and youths rampaging, inflicting violence and ruining the economy, I ask: What is the leadership you would rather have?
Lebogang Maile? Would that be the same person we demonised a few years back for leading the disruption of township schooling while he attended a Model C school? Or is it Lindiwe Mazibuko we wanted?
I can just imagine her working the youth league branches in Thulamahashe, Comfivaba, Seshego and Qwa Qwa, speaking to captive audiences and delivering the message of peace and reconciliation we so want. I contend that too many political parties, publications and civil-society organisations thrive on projecting this country as being on a sinking course.
No doubt Malema believes he is close to invincible after all nine provinces gave him the nod of approval. He was so bold as to declare that he is about to go to war, a war within the ANC, which he believes he will win.
His war entails getting the ANC to agree to whatever economic policies he proposes and crushing anyone in the party who thinks otherwise. This should undoubtedly occasion panic and uncertainty among some ANC leaders who want to hold on to whatever cushy jobs and seats they have.
But why must the rest of us start making inquiries about Perth? Because we believe the ANC will soon start implementing ruinous economic policies and we will be reduced to a Zimbabwe?
We should leave the Freedom Front to say that. The rest of us should have better sense, knowing that we would not allow it to happen. The separation of powers, the strong sense of activism, the lessons of history and the pride in our country should ensure that anyone who tried to take us down that path would be destroyed long before they could do any such thing.