Tag: xenophobic attacks

South Africa has been very much in the global news in recent weeks, but  for the wrong reason. It was because of the massive xenophobic attacks in some key urban areas of the country by black South Africans on African immigrants from Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Ethiopia, Somalia and some other African countries. Shops and businesses owned by  immigrants from these countries were attacked and willfully destroyed by hordes of black South Africans, wielding guns, machetes and other dangerous weapons.  Scores of fatalities were recorded in these wanton, premeditated and barbaric attacks, casting a slur on South Africa’s claim to be a ‘rainbow’ country in which all races and tribes live peacefully together and in harmony. This new wave of xenophobic attacks was perhaps the worst in the long history of attacks on African immigrants by black South Africans. And because of rising tensions it is not likely to end soon.

These attacks, though more vicious, were really not new. Even before the fall of the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1997 and the assumption of power by Nelson Mandela there had been reports of attacks by black South Africans on African immigrants in the country. They have since continued almost with unabated fury and vigour, each succeeding attacks being more vicious than previous ones. Between 2000 and 2007 over 100 fatalities were recorded from these attacks. In 2008 alone 62 deaths were recorded. In 2015 another round of attacks with scores of casualties led the governments of Malawi, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Zambia, South Africa’s neighbours, to withdraw their beleaguered citizens from South Africa. The bloody attacks strained South Africa’s relations with its African neighbours and weakened SADDC, the Southern African economic community organisation.

Global response to the new wave of attacks was swift and strong with many foreign governments and international labour and human rights organisations condemning it as a violation of the declarations of the United Nations on the rights of migrant workers to protection in their host countries. Nigeria also expressed deep concerns over the attacks which appeared to centre mainly on Nigerian immigrants, their families and businesses. The South African High Commissioner in Nigeria, Mr. Nguni, was immediately summoned to the Foreign Ministry in Abuja where Nigeria officially made very strong representations over the attacks on Nigerians in South Africa. He was told that Nigerians living lawfully and peacefully in South Africa had a right to the protection of the South African government and that such xenophobic attack on immigrants could no longer be tolerated or accepted. Shehu Sani, the vice chairman of the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs visited the South African High Commissioner and conveyed to him in very strong terms the concerns of the Federal Government over these attacks from a country that Nigeria considered friendly. An official delegation from the House of Representatives, led by Mr. Gbajabiamila, chairman of the House Committee on Foreign Relations, decided to go to South Africa to assess the situation there. The visit is unlikely to be of any effect. A few days later some demonstrators attempted to break into the South African owned MTN, the giant telecommunications company in Nigeria, but were driven back by the Nigerian security forces. There were a few minor protests and demonstrations in Lagos and other major cities in Nigeria over the xenophobic attacks. Despite the justified anger in Nigeria, we must discourage retaliatory action, threatened by Mr. Gbajabiamila, as it does not serve our economic interests.

The South African government does not yet have a handle on the problem. In 2007, when a similar xenophobic attack on black immigrants occurred in South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, then the South African president, dismissed media reports of the attacks as ‘exaggerated and false news.’ That was an open invitation to future attacks. But this time virtually all South African leaders, including President Jacob Zuma, denounced the attacks as shameful and disgraceful. Shoprite, the South African owned retailing business in Nigeria with many super markets, also denounced the attacks as deplorable. It has to be admitted that this time the South African security forces, though overstretched, acted swiftly to bring the attacks under immediate control. Several arrests of the perpetrators were made and many are being taken to the courts for trial. In the past the South African Police had secured some convictions of those involved in the attacks on immigrants.

What are the causes of these bloody attacks by black South Africans on black immigrants in South Africa? The attackers complain about African immigrants taking jobs away from black South Africans. It was also claimed that some of the immigrants were bringing drugs and prostitution into South Africa. Post-apartheid South Africa has not been able to fully confront the challenges of job creation for the teeming blacks in South Africa. Political freedom and the fight against racism may have been won, but this has not led to the creation of jobs fast enough for the blacks in South Africa who remain largely marginalised in the domestic economy. Currently, there is rising anger and tension over this, as well as the pervasive corruption in South Africa’s public and private institutions. This competition for jobs in South Africa has no doubt contributed to the xenophobia against African immigrants in the country.

But the fact of the matter is that African immigrants constitute only four per cent of the total work force in South Africa. Most black immigrants do not enter the South African public service. They are to be found mainly running retail businesses where they employ thousands of black South Africans. In fact, as is usually the case, an investigative commission by the South African government into the economic activities of black immigrants in South Africa reported that they contribute a lot more to the South African economy than they draw in terms of the provision of social services. But this is not all that apparent to the black South Africans who readily find scapegoats in black immigrants from other African countries. Obviously, these black South Africans attacking black immigrants are ignorant and misguided.

In 1982, or thereabouts, we in Nigeria also made the same mistake when we expelled thousands of ECOWAS citizens from Nigeria with the excuse that they were putting pressure on social services and on the domestic economy. At the time I was serving as Ambassador at the United Nations in New York. I found it disturbing. I knew we had made a terrible mistake and that it had badly damaged Nigeria’s international image almost beyond repairs. It took us years to live down that image. Right now the ECOWAS workers we expelled are back fully in Nigeria and are making positive contribution to our country in all spheres. So, while we have every right to be angry with South Africa over these attacks, we should also treat it as a learning curve for South Africa.

South Africa, with its long coastline, alluring beaches, affable weather and striking mountain ranges, is a very beautiful country, in which comparatively better economic opportunities appear to abound for African immigrants, particularly from its black neighbours. But all that glitters is not gold. It has always been a violent and bloody country. Even long before the adventure and entry of the Dutch into the territory in the 15th century the blacks, in a wave of massive migration towards the Cape Colony, were already competing for land and massacring one another in a violent and no holds barred competition for land, in what became known as South Africa. The arrival of the British and the Boers intensified the struggle over land among the blacks and whites leading to many bloody wars in the country. In fact, apartheid was initially constructed to prevent the blacks encroaching and seizing land from the whites. It was much later on that it was erected into an obnoxious political, religious and social dogma. This is the terrible legacy inherited by post-apartheid South Africa. Throughout the long struggle against racism and the apartheid system in South Africa the black South Africans  inflicted more fatalities on themselves than they did on the whites. Even today more blacks get killed by blacks than whites. South Africa is one of the most violent countries in the world. It is this terrible bloody legacy that is currently being reflected in the wave of xenophobic attacks on black immigrants by black South Africans.

What is to be done? In the case of Nigerians, both the Nigerian and South African governments should work together to resolve this nasty problem. This can be done under the aegis of the Nigeria-South Africa Bilateral National Commission that needs to be re-activated urgently. The framework for a settlement should include the right of documented immigrants to the protection of the South African security forces. Those not documented should either regularise their stay, or leave the country. They should be repatriated by our Federal Government as is being done with some Nigerian immigrants in Libya. The Nigerian government should also enlighten would-be Nigerian emigrants about the risks of leaving their own country for foreign lands where they cannot count on the protection of the host governments. But we must also create in our country the economic and social conditions that will make emigration by our people to other countries in search of economic opportunities less attractive.

It is with some pain that I write this. In my career in the Nigerian diplomatic service I was involved both at home and abroad in the struggle against apartheid South Africa. My professional colleagues and I were totally committed to the struggle. I had hoped that Nigeria and post apartheid South Africa, the two largest economies in sub-Saharan Africa, would work closely together to lift the continent up. We must not let these unfortunate and regrettable attacks on Nigerians by black South Africans destroy this positive prospect. Strategic cooperation between Nigeria and South Africa is in our mutual interests and the collective interest of Africa.