Eddie Haywood
Beginning on September 1, a wave of xenophobic riots in South Africa swept the cities of Johannesburg and Pretoria, leaving at least ten dead and scores injured, as foreign-owned businesses were looted and set afire. Gangs armed with axes and machetes poured into immigrant residential areas and carried out numerous assaults against South Africa’s working-class immigrant population.
South African media reported that the catalyst for the eruption of violence was the previous week’s alleged killing of a South African taxi driver by a Nigerian national in Pretoria. Stoking the campaign of xenophobic hysteria and outrage, several media outlets reported the accused killer was a drug trafficker. Several Nigerians living in Pretoria were beaten, scores of Nigerian-owned shops and businesses were torched and looted, and several cars were set afire and destroyed.
A Nigerian business owner gave an interview with the BBC after his shop was ransacked by looters, telling the reporter of the media’s promotion of a hysterical campaign against migrants, “Foreign nationals are [being] subjected to a lot of allegations and lies.”
Promising a violent crackdown, state security forces spilled into the streets firing tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades to quell the unrest. Hundreds have been arrested since the violence began.
With South Africa’s migrant population in a state of terror, the wave of attacks has led thousands foreign nationals to flee their homes for makeshift refugee camps set up by police, with many immigrants declaring their desire to leave the country permanently.
Kadiye Mohammad, a store owner from Somalia and a nine-year resident of Johannesburg, told Bloomberg: “My fear is dying from being beaten. That is no way to die, especially at the hands of your fellow Africans. I ask myself what we have done to make them so angry.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered completely empty rhetoric during a televised address, condemning the wave of attacks and feigning concern for immigrants. Cynically, he called the attacks “unacceptable,” saying that xenophobia “is something that is completely against the ethos that we as South Africans espouse.”
He continued, shedding crocodile tears for the victims of the violence, “Over the past few days, our country has been deeply traumatised and troubled by acts of violence and criminality directed against foreign nationals and our own citizens.”
Ramaphosa’s concern for immigrants is a fraud. The African National Congress, along with sections of the ruling class, have played a significant role over the years in stoking anti-immigrant poison and bigotry, seeking to scapegoat immigrants as the cause for the nation’s economic malaise.
Just in January, the ANC called for “tough new measures” against immigrants and proposed “tougher border control.” Explicitly targeting immigrants, the ANC introduced plans in March to use drones in patrolling the nation’s borders to intercept “illegal border crossings.” Additionally, the ANC has called for the prosecution of employers who hire undocumented immigrants.
In calling for limiting immigration to the country, Ramaphosa declared that “effective border management is an important aspect of ensuring that the country and its people are safe.”
Herman Mashaba, Democratic Alliance mayor of Johannesburg, one of the cities in which significant anti-immigrant violence occurred last week, provoked popular social outrage in November when he posted several xenophobic messages to his Twitter account.
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