Aspekter av xenofobin

av TOR BILLGREN

I tisdags evakuerades 2000 utlänningar, mestadels zimbabwier, ur ett informellt township vid De Doorns nordost om Kapstaden, efter att invånare börjat köra ut dem och demolera deras skjul. De Doorns-borna menar att utlänningarna accepterar lägre löner, och därför slår ut de sydafrikanska arbetarna. Händelsen är en repris av den våldsvåg som drog genom landet i maj förra året, då 60-70 utlänningar lynchades. Det har hettat till flera gånger i år också (se här och här), men hittills inte i samma utsträckning som 2008.

I samband med Mail & Guardians senaste artikel om händelsen i De Doorns, har det postats ett antal kommentarer som på ett bra sätt åskådliggör olika aspekter av det känsliga problemet..

Africa for Africans...hypocrisy abounds...!
Dylan Goodwin

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Africans were taught well to distrust each other, remember the divide and rule philosophy. Guess who taught them!
Peter Garayi

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Garayi: The communists?

In this case, we have a political situation, created by our leaders (SADC/ANC/ZANUPF), which is affecting our country.

Mugabe is the cause, of the influx of Zimbabwean immigrants.
Sinudeity

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This is not xenophobia......this is just poor South Africans defending their communities from illegal immigrants. Just so that the liberal idiots know....if u r living illegally in a country, that makes u a criminal. Xenophobia is just a word coined by the media. If Home Affairs cant control illegals in SA, then people should kill them on the streets.
Khalsa Singh

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It is unrealistic to expect 3500 foreigners to fit into a town of 10000 highly reliant on seasonal farm work without this trouble breaking out. Over 50% of the locals are unemployed and the per annum median income is under R10000. Considering the town is on the edge of the Karoo scratching an existence from the soil is always going to be marginal. I can only imagine the feeling of despair and panic the locals must feel when they are passed over by the farmer in favour of the foreigners. Expect more trouble.
Marius de Kock

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Khalsa Singh: "If Home Affairs cant control illegals in SA, then people should kill them on the streets."

How about instead: "If Home Affairs cant control illegals in SA, then the minister must be held accountable for his department not doing its job, and the ANC leadership should be held accountable for their tacit support of Mugabe's tyranny".

When opposition parties point out the shortcomings and incompetencies of the ANC government (according to their duty as opposition), and insist on accountability, then they are often labelled as 'racist' or 'unpatriotic'. Criticizing the ANC is seen as an act of treason.

I can understand the frustration that poor, unemployed South Africans face when their scarce jobs are threatened by illegal immigrants. But those immigrants are also in a struggle for survival.

If the South African government had been firmer from the start about what was unfolding in Zimbabwe, and helped the legitimate democratic forces to take control, then Zimbabweans wouldn't be fleeing and South Africans wouldn't be regarding them as a threat to their jobs.

So now it's not only Zimbabweans feeling the consequences, but poor working-class South Africans too.

I just hope they can control their frustrations and vent their anger at the government rather than on defenceless, desperate Zimbabweans.
Bleeding Muppet

Personligen tycker jag att Bleeding Muppet här sist på ett bra sätt lyckas ringa in problemet och dess orsaker.