Tunisian President Kais Saied.
Racism, xenophobia, anti-immigration. Violence on migrants. Hundreds driven out of their homes. Repatriation flights. No, it isn’t another xenophobic flare-up in South Africa — although it could be, given the government’s attitude to Zimbabweans and others.
Black migrants in Tunisia have fled their homes to sleep outside their embassies or the United Nations buildings. There is a state-sponsored witch-hunt for African immigrants and those who don’t look like Tunisians according to President Kais Saïed’s standards — Arab and Muslim. Tunisians are reporting people from sub-Saharan to the police and tenants are being evicted, intimidated and hunted.
Saïed has, in the past two years, fired 57 judges, dissolved the country’s High Judicial Council and signed a presidential decree to take control of the election commission. Amendments to the Constitution were also on the cards when he called for a referendum. The process was not transparent and excluded most of the population.
Saïed has been facing pressure from within his borders and outside. Protests are growing in the poorest areas over price hikes and unemployment. Debt has spiralled, and he has asked for another International Monetary Fund loan. The international community has called on him to stop ruling by decree and silencing detractors.
Like any bully, he turned his fear of losing power to the easiest targets: black migrants — the same way South Africans usually do when the pressure is on.
In February, he told the National Security Council in Tunis that there’s a plot to settle migrants from sub-Sahara in Tunisia. There is no proof of this.
He has vowed to use state agencies to remove people who have entered his country illegally.
What ensued is scenes South Africans have witnessed, where migrants are brutally arrested and detained, with or without legal paperwork. South Africans themselves have targeted migrants, sometimes resulting in death.
There have been crackdowns against Saïed detractors. Many in his country are in shock. “It’s an explosion of hatred that we ourselves cannot explain.” “It is a racist approach just like the campaigns in Europe … the presidential campaign aims to create an imaginary enemy for Tunisians to distract them from their basic problems.” “Hateful and racist.”
Saïed has found scapegoats to torment and threaten. Bullies like him, including those in South Africa, do not devise humane solutions. They show no leadership in balancing their national and international obligations, interests, security and economic growth.
Real leaders don’t pick on the weak. They include them in problem-solving and strengthening their nations and the continent.