In May 2008, South Africa witnessed some of the most horrific acts of violent xenophobia in its history. Scores of foreigners were injured or killed with thousands more displaced from their homes. In the aftermath of the violence, several religious and political leaders decried the attacks. However, at the beginning of the new year, it looks as if xenophobia has again erupted.
Renewed Attacks on Foreigners
On the 6th January 2009, the South African Newspaper, the Daily News reported an apparent attack on foreigners. Dasen Thathiah’s article, "They pushed my brother out of the window", recounted some of the details of the recent attacks in Durban. Thathiah reported on the case of a Tanzanian refugee who had lost two brothers to xenophobic violence in less than year. The first brother was murdered in xenophobic related attacks in Johannesburg in 2008 and the second, on the 5th January 2009,was forced out of a 6th floor window of a shelter for refugees by a marauding mob. These attacks on the shelter left a number of other foreign residents with serious injuries and three people dead.
Vivian Attwood, Slindile Maluleka and Dasen Thathiah reported in The Star on January 08 2009,"Cops stood by during xenophobic violence", that a number of witnesses to the violence accused the police of not responding. It is alleged that “the mob passed the police station twice, and still no response came.”
The account of Hassan Bakari in Attwood, Maluleka and Thathiah’s article is damning. Bakari, a Kenyan national, alleges that he watched the mob pass the police station and enter the apartment block. He said that they "blew vuvuzelas and were singing songs and shouting 'shaya amakwerekwere' (hit the foreigners). They were all carrying weapons, but the police did not question what they were up to.”
Are the Upcoming Elections a Trigger for Xenophobia?
In the wake of these recent attacks the Mercury Newspaper did an in-depth analysis on possible triggers. In its January 8th edition Ntokozo Mfusi and Wendy Jasson Da Costa,"Xenophobia fear as election looms", considered the possibility of such attacks spreading across the country much like the previous year. According to Mfusi and Jasson Da Costa, Duncan Breen of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa has warned that the potential for xenophobia to become a bigger issue as the election draws closer. Breen alleges that local leaders were rallying support around the issue of foreigners.
What Does This All Mean for South Africa?
Much of the grievances leveled against government during last year’s violence have been ignored by government. Vivian Atwood of the Daily News, in the 8 January 2009 edition, "Xenophobic attacks: cops ready for arrests", reported that Amnesty International has blamed the absence of a structured responses to last year’s xenophobic violence for current tensions in Durban. The reality is that with already high crime rates and increasing political intolerance, South Africa can ill-afford another hotbed of unrest.
This year South Africa expects an influx of foreign guests for the FIFA confederations cup. These attacks amongst others put a serious question mark on the ability of South Africa to host safely host this event. Moreover, it puts a question mark on its long-term stability.
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