It is said that the migrant holds a mirror up to her host society. South Africa has again experienced the ravages of xenophobic violence in two of its major cities. Both the response by government as well as the incidents themselves reveal that all is not well in the rainbow nation.
The incidents reportedly began over a dispute over scab labour breaking a strike in Ishipingo, south of Durban, for which 'foreigners' were (unfairly, as it turns out) blamed. But this followed on Zulu King Zwelithini’s public exhortation, since denied multiple times, that foreigners in South Africa needed to pack their blankets and go home.
The violence quickly spread to the Durban CBD and parts of Johannesburg. 7 people were killed and around 9000 people were displaced of whom 900 remain in a hastily erected camp. In addition countless businesses, mainly in the small convenience spaza shop sector, have been closed, and an at times heated public debate has ensued concerning the phenomenon’s origins and proposed cures.
What is less well known is that these events cannot be construed as an isolated outbreak. Xenophobic attacks have become an established part of the South African landscape since 2008 when over 63 people were killed and 100,000 displaced. Since 2010, there have been an average of two serious incidents a week while an estimated 350 to 500 migrants have been killed.
Statistics for incidents of rape, corrupt practice enforced on migrants by officials, and the creation of bylaws to exclude migrants from opening businesses are, understandably, more difficult to come by. The casualties would have been far higher if it weren’t for the considerable efforts of some NGOs and UN agencies to try to alleviate tensions and ensure appropriate law enforcement when tensions mount.
The wider context is a country with a young demographic and whose unemployment rate is 25.6 per cent with youth unemployment topping 50 per cent. Economic growth rates are modest at around 2 per cent – not enough to absorb school leavers into the job market – and in several traditional employment sectors, such as mining, restructuring gathers pace as hitherto cheap labour is laid off in favour of more mechanised operations with a smaller, more skilled staff.
While historical factors help to explain much of this, neither they nor the characteristics themselves adequately account for xenophobia and its very narrow target band of African immigrants. Some light to this quandary may be shed