Africa’s open wound
… Xenophobic attacks in South Africa expose deep economic inequality, weak institutions and a painful betrayal of the continent’s shared liberation history
ACCORDING to media reports, by last Tuesday, Nigeria and Ghana had evacuated at least 2,000 nationals running away from xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Another hundred buses had within two days slipped people back home to Malawi. Several more have returned to Zimbabwe and Zambia.
June 30, 2026 was the deadline set by anti-immigration mobs that have been protesting demanding that the government expels what they are calling illegal immigrants whom they have accused of having swallowed jobs, depriving local communities.
Though the government has several times dismissed the deadline as unofficial, countrywide matches went ahead on Tuesday at least with police escort to curb possible vandalism and looting.
Prior to the protests, there was wide spread xenophobic attacks on non-South Africans most of whom were people from neighbouring countries. There have been a number of deaths recorded and injuries too.
The bone of contention by the protestors is that the government has not done enough to deal with undocumented immigrants whom they have been accused of being involved in rampant crime including massive drug peddling.
In the Southern African region, South Africa has a much more buoyant economy that has attracted migration from neighbouring countries most of whose economies have not only been lean but in some of them poor governance has driven people away from the countries to look for greener pastures elsewhere.
So far, there are no statistics to show how many jobs the immigrants have taken away from the South Africans to justify the recent harassment culminating into forced expulsions.
But many people that have visited South Africa and economic experts insist that most of the so called taken jobs are in the in formal sector. At least 90 percent of immigrants that are not documented are involved in menial jobs including vending in commodities.
Since most are not registered anywhere, they have been exploited by doing even skilled jobs such as mechanics, brick laying, electrical tasks on little pay. They have been used for cheap labour. In short, they have contributed to building the flourishing economy there.
The American cable news network, CNN on Monday asked some fleeing Malawians who were kept at a transit centre in Johannesburg on why they did not get resident permits. Many of them said the permits were difficult to obtain because of rampant corruption within the system.
As a result, the majority had sneaked in the country to get menial jobs to simply eke out a form of living. Some of them got married. One of the fleeing men interviewed said he had left behind a wife and four children.
Again, the government which had said does not support the forced expulsions has committed to streamline documentation of people without papers.
The reaction to this by other countries in Africa is to get at South Africans and businesses from Pretoria. Some of them have also began asking South Africans to leave. If the situation does not change the retaliatory actions will escalate.
However, the question many people are asking is who is behind those people who suddenly have risen to chase away fellow Africans? The Tuesday protests, which they called peaceful matches were countrywide. Like the previous ones, they appear not only to be well coordinated but neatly organised as well.
The government explanation has been that protests in South Africa are a constitutional right as long as those involved do not resort to violence or any form of hooliganism. Granted. But it is difficult to understand why authorities have simply not prevented both the xenophobic attacks and the forced expulsions from even having begun.
Note that even after independence in 1994m more than 80 percent of the South African economy has been in the hands of white people some of them from the settler origins. It is also difficult to understand that white and other non-African immigrants are not targeted but a small group of people have been victim. Why? Without proper statistics, there is no evidence that indeed the so-called illegal immigrants have taken any jobs at all. In any case, these are in the minority and mostly unskilled lot.
Admittedly, unemployment is high in South Africa but most experts argue that it has nothing to do with an influx of immigrants. It is very clear that one of the contributors to the country’s economy was manufacturing. Over the years, it has been decimated leaving many people without jobs.
Other sectors have been hit too, living the once strong economy struggling. It is with this background that it is difficult to think that the protestors are acting on their own. What South African needs to do is to address the protracted inequalities between the settler community and locals that has overflowed from the apartheid days.
The economy is still in the hands of the minority, therefore a lot needs to be done to broaden the cake sharing so that the local populations can benefit as well. The rainbow nation must admit that it has a difficult history, a past terribly glazed.
South Africa is a country that was born out of help from neighbouring countries and beyond in the continent. If other countries had not helped out in the freedom struggle, the fight for independence would have taken much longer. Those involved in protests today may have a poor grasp of history as to where the country came from but most leaders both in Government and in political parties are aware.
It is not fair that the country can turn its back to such history, the form of history that cannot easily be erased. In any case, this global economy is interdependent. As Africans we have always depended on each other.
Even with the current problems, South Africa has the resources to strengthen its institutions including the immigration department which is responsible for issuing permits. Pretoria must deal with the persistent accusations of rampant corruption in most government departments.
After the institutions have been strengthened, it will be easier to deal with illegal immigrants and it will equally be easier to fight run away crime.
It is not all correct to insist that all the crime has been committed by immigrants. To the contrary, some of the most heinous type has been the work of local people.
Is it not the weak institutions that people find it easier to enter the country illegally and stay for long enough to marry and begin raising a families?
What will happen if more countries begin expelling each other’s nationals on flimsy grounds? There will definitely be chaos. In normal circumstances if those protestors were genuine in dealing with illegal immigrants, they should have not selected their fellow alone as targets. Someone seems to be behind and prodding the groups to kick out illegal immigrants.
Hicks Sikazwe is author of Zambia’s Fall-back Presidents, Wasted Years, and Voters in Shadows. A former Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Times of Zambia, he is currently Communications and Media Affairs Advocate based in Ndola. Comments 0955/0966929611 or hpsikazwe@gmail.com.
