Two days before health rights groups the Treatment Action Campaign, Medecins Sans Frontieres and Kopanang Action Against Xenophobia launched an application at the South Gauteng High Court on November 25, seeking an order to force the state to ensure safe access to hospitals and clinics, and remove anyone trying to keep people out, the vigilantes […]
The hostility directed at migrants often stems from ignorance of civic rights and scapegoating by politicians wanting to deflect blame from their ineptitude
Politicians all over the world are deflecting people’s anger and resentment at their failings onto a convenient scapegoat
Xenophobia is festering across the world. In South Africa it carries a dangerous legitimacy, cloaked in the language of liberation, and now embodied in open fascism of Operation Dudula
But there is hope. Poor South Africans, the very people Operation Dudula claims to represent, are standing against this form of hatred and extreme violence
The Human Rights Commission and legal experts say the Constitution, the National Health Act, the UN Refugee Convention and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights obligate South Africa to provide basic healthcare to all people in its borders
Populist parties have made considerable gains in the wake of the government’s insecurity-inducing economic policies
Public figures are often quick to heighten negative stereotypes about migrants
Report says crime statistics at the end of August reflected limited improvement on protecting women’s rights
South Africa is quick to forget ubuntu or its own destabilising role when it comes to regional policies
The broken Zimbabwe economy and political system are too much of a push factor for xenophobia and Aaron Motsoaledi to stop people seeking refuge in Mzansi
enophobic opportunists and demagogues steer us away from addressing our own social failures
The market, allowed to flourish and create jobs, is the solution, not violent nationalism
One person was killed, while others were stripped naked and beaten by groups, who also barricaded roads and searched abandoned mines
Dozens of stalls were reduced to ashes in the fire, with some traders adamant that the Afrophobic vigilante group was to blame
Our reactions would be more positive if we understand that bullies act out as result of their own pain
The movement purports to only encourage the government to act on undocumented immigrants but that’s a falsehood and its activities are criminal
There are endless protests over service delivery, gender-based violence, crime, the July 2021 unrest and, of course, Operation Dudula’s violence towards foreigners
Zimbabweans to set up businesses without being required to first invest R5-million in South Africa, and the study permit was just that; a permit that allowed Zimbabweans to live and study in South Africa until the end of their studies.
South Africa needs to hold a national conference on xenophobia, which would be the first step towards building a civic infrastructure to fight discrmination against foreign nationals
Zimbabweans are frustrated by the xenophobic sentiment and violence against them in South Africa, but their real fury is aimed at the Zimbabwean government
Honesty and ethics are in short supply among this vital department’s officials
State security and the SAPS are on high alert as vigilante group gain momentum, but police concede they do not have the resources to stop Operation Dudula form stoking xenophobia
When the infrastructure breaks, the social fabric frays, rape escalates and taps run dry, we curse the foreigner, who is always from another African country
The president says the party cannot support ‘vigilantism’ and ‘wanton violence’ against migrants
Despite warnings that vigilante organisations can become xenophobic and violent, the ruling ANC says the more grassroots groups like these, the better
The state’s failure to act as a source of moral or political authority creates a vacuum that ‘seductive’ populist movements are happy to fill
Although some refugees choose to leave, others refuse to leave if not on their own conditions
The ongoing Afrophobic behaviour in our country is misdirected anger and frustration at the fact that black South Africans still have to make do with welfare crumbs
Operation Dudula has carried out a crackdown against illegal immigrants in Jo’burg, a drive that has resonated with mainly poor, angry South Africans