The latest occurrence of xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals occurred in South Africa is a throw-back the 1990s. Xenophobia simply known as an anti-foreigners’ sentiment felt by some locals and sometimes results in violence against immigrants. Lately, thousands have been displaced from their homes and thousands of people have been reportedly killed in brutal mob actions.
Since 1994, South Africa has been a cesspool of sporadic xenophobic attacks against foreigners with Zimbabweans, Somalis, Mozambicans, Ethiopians, Kenyans, Angolans and Nigerians among others, being the major victims.
In December 1994 and January 1995, armed youth gangs in Alexandra Township outside of Johannesburg, Gauteng Province, destroyed the homes and property of migrants and marched the individuals down to the local police station where they demanded that the foreigners be forcibly and immediately removed. This was to be followed by a series of more violent attacks across the country in 1998, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2016.
In the case of Nigerians, the attacks seem to have worsened due to the recurring police brutality and extra-judicial killings, which in 2014 led Nigeria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs to describe the South African police brutality on a Nigerian, which was caught on camera as “horror and particularly disturbing.” Tochukwu Nnadi, a 34-year-old Nigerian businessman, was killed by South African police on December 29, 2016.
Since the end of apartheid and the opening of South Africa’s borders in the early 1990s, migrants from all over the world, especially African countries, have trooped to South Africa in search of greener pastures and a means to escape the poverty and political intolerance in their home countries.
Many regard South Africa as a place of opportunity but with the country’s economy in stagnation, strained by an already high unemployment rate, tensions between local residents and foreign nationals have escalated in recent years. And this current attack is the first of many.
Many immigrants remain in refugee camps, afraid for their safety and wanting nothing other than to return to their home countries, even if it means they will return to a more difficult life. They say the anti-immigrant violence in South Africa has become unbearable.
Over a quarter of the South African population is unemployed and protesters have blamed foreigners for taking local jobs. The founder of a new anti-immigrant political party called South African First, Mario Khumalo, told news site Times Live that over 13 million foreign nationals were living in South Africa.
According to reports, South Africa’s last census in 2011 estimated that only 2.2 million people born outside the country were living there, according to fact checking site Africa Check.
The United Nations put the number of foreign migrants living in South Africa at 3.1 million in 2015.
The xenophobia protests which started February 20th 2017 has continued to spread across South Africa, with violence spreading to Pretoria, the country’s capital. The South African police said it arrested 136 people, as the anti-foreigner protesters clashed with African immigrants in the capital.
The protesters accused the immigrants who mainly include Nigerians and Somalis, of being involved in crimes, such as drug and sex trades. The incidents have prompted an angry response in Nigeria, where protesters marched to the offices of South African telecoms firm MTN and satellite cable service provider, DSTV.
President Jacob Zuma rebuked the violence against foreigners in a statement saying: “It is wrong to brandish all non-nationals as drug dealers or human traffickers. “Let us isolate those who commit such crimes and work with government to have them arrested, without stereotyping and causing harm to innocent people.”
In a statement issued in Abuja, Dabiri-Erewa described the attacks as an unnecessary setback. Urging restraint on the part of Nigerians, she warned that further attacks without any reprimand may incur dire consequences. She spoke at the Senate, and called for harder stance against South Africa on the issue.
Chairman, House Committee on Diaspora Matters, Rita Orji, also condemned alleged lackadaisical attitude of the Federal Government towards the protection of Nigerians outside the country, saying the government was more interested in remittances than the welfare of citizens abroad.
There appears to be little respite for Nigerians at home and in the Diaspora at the moment. While those at home are facing economic challenges due to the current recession, those in South Africa are grappling with xenophobia from the citizens, while Libya has become living hell for many seeking greener pastures and wanting to cross to Europe.
Earlier last week, 171 Nigerians ‘voluntarily’ returned from Libya with a tale of woes after their attempts to cross to Europe through the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert failed all in the search for greener pastures. Even those in Europe already, fear and hide daily due to their illegal stay and fear for deportation, while palpable fear haunt those in the United States because of the anti-immigrant policies of President Donald Trump.
On February 23rd, no fewer than 43 Nigerians were deported from Germany, Belgium and Italy for alleged immigration-related offences and unruly behavior. Running away doesn’t help solve half the problem, it is time for the Nigerian youth to learn that we must all come together to challenge our leadership and be prepared to work hard and smart to make Nigeria the el Dorado that we dream of in other climes.
