Xenophobia in Mandiba’s Land: Too Black… Or Just Too Poor?
TRANSCEND MEMBERS, 25 Jul 2022
Baher Kamal | Human Wrongs Watch - TRANSCEND Media Service
18 Jul 2022 –
UN Photo/Pernaca Sudhakaran
Just three days ahead of this year’s Nelson Mandela International Day (18 July), a group of independent United Nations human rights experts condemned reports of escalating violence targeting foreign nationals in South Africa.
Known as Special Procedures of the UN Human Rights Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world, the human rights experts warned that the ongoing xenophobic mobilisation is “broader and deeper,” and has become the central campaign strategy for some political parties in the country.
Operation Dudula
In a statement released on 15 July 2022, the United Nations independent human rights experts cited “Operation Dudula” as an example of the spreading hate speech.
Originally a social media campaign, Operation Dudula has become an umbrella for the mobilisation of “violent protests, vigilant eviolence, arson targeting migrant-owned homes and businesses, and even the murder of foreign nationals.”
According to the human rights experts, xenophobia is often explicitly racialised, targeting low-income Black migrants and refugees and, in some cases, South African citizens accused of being “too Black to be South Africans.”
Inequality
South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world, according to a recent World Bank’s report titled‘Inequality in Southern Africa’.
The report highlighted how inequality is consistent as 10% of the population owns more than 80% of the wealth.
Out of its 60 million inhabitants, “an estimated 10 million people in South Africa live below the food poverty line, while the unemployment rate is at a record high of almost 40% amongst Black South Africans according to Statistics South Africa.”
Poverty, unemployment and crime are reportedly the greatest sources of contention as Operation Dudula and its members believe that illegal foreigners are the reason that South Africa’s public socioeconomic systems do not benefit its native Black majority.
Impoverished former European colonies –who also fall victims of deepening poverty and inequality–, South Africa’s neighbouring countries- Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and the enclaved Lesotho-, have been lastly a source of increasing migration.
Fueled by the Government
“Anti-migrant discourse from senior government officials has fanned the flames of violence, and government actors have failed to prevent further violence or hold perpetrators accountable,” say the UN human rights Special Rapporteurs.
According to the World Bank’s country review, the South African economy was already in a weak position when it entered the pandemic after a decade of low growth.
From 2021, the recovery is expected to continue in 2022, with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth expected at 2.1% and to average 1.7% over the medium term.
Progress stagnated
Commodity prices remain important for South Africa, a major net exporter of minerals and net importer of oil, however, strengthening investment, including foreign direct investment, will be critical to propelling growth and creating jobs.
The World Bank goes on explaining that South Africa has made considerable strides to improve the wellbeing of its citizens since its transition to democracy in the mid-1990s, but progress has stagnated in the last decade.
The percentage of the population below the upper-middle-income-country poverty line fell from 68% to 56% between 2005 and 2010 but has since trended slightly upwards to 57% in 2015 and is projected to have reached 60% in 2020.
Structural challenges and weak growth have undermined progress in reducing poverty, which have been heightened by the COVID-19 pandemic, adds the review.
“The achievement of progress in household welfare is severely constrained by rising unemployment, which reached an unprecedented 35.3% in the fourth quarter of 2021. The unemployment rate is highest among youths aged between 15 and 24, at around 66.5%.”
In her extensively documented, detailed article on IPS: Myths Fuel Xenophobic Sentiment in South Africa, Fawzia Moodley also reported from Johannesburg on a study by the World Bank: Mixed Migration, Forced Displacement and Job Outcomes in South Africa.
Debunking the myth that foreign nationals are ‘stealing’ jobs from locals or are better off than locals is the finding that “one immigrant worker generated approximately two jobs for local residents in South Africa between 1996 and 2011”.
Nelson Mandela
“Today, the world honours a giant of our time; a leader of unparalleled courage and towering achievement; and a man of quiet dignity and deep humanity,” said the UN secretary general, António Guterres, in his message on the occasion of the 2022 Nelson Mandela International Day.
“Our world today is marred by war; overwhelmed by emergencies; blighted by racism, discrimination, poverty, and inequalities; and threatened by climate disaster,” adds Guterres.
“Let us find hope in Nelson Mandela’s example and inspiration in his vision.”
Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity — as a human rights lawyer, a prisoner of conscience, an international peacemaker and the first democratically elected president of a free South Africa. See Mandela’s life >>. See also: Mandela Rules >>
“It is easy to break down and destroy. The heroes are those who make peace and build.”- Nelson Mandela.
Any politicians listening over there?
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Baher Kamal, a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace Development Environment, is an Egyptian-born, Spanish national, secular journalist, with over 45 years of professional experience — from reporter to special envoy to chief editor of national dailies and an international news agency. Baher is former Senior Advisor to the Director General of the international news agency IPS (Inter Press Service) and he also contributed to prestigious magazines such as TRANSCEND Media Service, GEO, Muy Interesante, and Natura, Spain. He is also publisher and editor of Human Wrongs Watch.
Go to Original – human-wrongs-watch.net
Tags: Africa, Apartheid, Asylum seekers, Human Rights, Migrant Workers, Migrants, Nelson Mandela, Racism, Refugees, South Africa, Xenophobia
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Dear Respected Mr Baher Kamal
Greetings from Durban, South Africa. Thank you for your insightful publication on “Xenophobia in Mandiba’s Land: Too Black… Or Just Too Poor?” in the Transcend Peace Journal.
I enjoyed reading the report and your analysis as implied in the title. I have already prepared another publication related to your topic which will appear after my series on “Martyrs of Apartheid” currently in Part 3, but I have already published the following to highlight the reasons for some of the points you have raised in your analyses. May I refer you to these publication in TMS for Mr Kamal to appreciate the complexity of the issues you correctly raise
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2021/07/south-africa-is-burning-the-legacy-of-mandela-is-dead-for-a-nation-of-thieves/
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2021/07/south-africa-the-long-walk-to-freedom-and-a-short-walk-to-nowhere/
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2021/08/south-africa-durban-riots-1949-the-destruction-of-cato-manor-and-murder-of-people-of-indian-origins/
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2021/08/the-march-of-hatred-in-south-africa-one-bullet-one-indian/
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2021/05/in-the-shadow-and-shade-of-apartheid-in-south-africa-post-liberation-impact-on-the-rainbow-nation/
I will be pleased to enter into further discourse if Mr Kamal, will be kind enough to peruse the above publications and perhaps express your opinion, thereafter. Perhaps we can even have an open webinar to discuss the current status of South Africa. I will be pleased to arrange the logistics for the Zoom Meeting if Mr Kamal is agreeable Finally, may I respectfully point out that the former, President Nelson Mandela (MHSRIP) is fondly called MADIBA and NOT MaNdiba. The word MANDIBA is incorrect and has a totally different connotation. MADIBA is affectionately referred to by his traditional Xhosa clan name, “Madiba”, in South Africa. The term is used to describe someone who is familiar, respected, and endeared. Thank you for your time and accepting my comments on your publication, which I find thought provoking reading, Hoosen Vawda e-mail: vawda@ukzn.ac.za Phone +27 82 291 4546 Good night, dear Sir. Monday 25th July 2022 1955 SAST