The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
It was looking ugly there for a few days, with mobs of South Africans in townships randomly murdering several dozen ÒforeignersÓ (migrants from other African countries) and injuring several hundred. But now President Thabo Mbeki has acted decisively: he has announced the establishment of a panel of inquiry into the violence. That should fix it. Just in case he gets impatient while waiting for the panelÕs report, however, I can tell him what it should say. It should say that the root problem was his own governmentÕs refusal to control or even count the number of people arriving in South Africa from other African countries. The mere fact that the commonly used estimate is Òthree to five millionÓ illegal immigrants says it all: the authorities really have no idea how many foreigners are in South Africa. But the higher estimate is probably closer to the truth, for some four million people have left Zimbabwe alone to seek work abroad, and almost all of them have gone to South Africa. This Òopen bordersÓ non-policy had high motives. Many of South AfricaÕs current leaders spent decades in exile during the fight against apartheid, and the migrants come mostly from the countries that gave them shelter at that time. How can they turn away people from those countries now that the shoe is on the other foot? It is an honourable sentiment, but more easily experienced if, like South AfricaÕs current leaders, you lead a secure life in one of the nicer northern suburbs of Johannesburg. If you happen to live in Alexandra township (not all that far from those pleasant suburbs) amidst violence and poverty, and you do not have a job, itÕs a little harder to access such noble emotions Ð because one-tenth of the people in the country are illegal immigrants, and lots of them do have jobs. None of this justifies murder, but it does begin to explain it. Thabo Mbeki was incredibly foolish to assume that he could just let foreigners flood into the country and not expose them to a popular backlash. The South African media are filled with self-flagellating editorials that all basically ask ÒWhat kind of people are we if we can behave like this?Ó The answer is: just ordinary people under pressure and behaving badly. The South African poor have been amazingly patient as year after year went by Ð 14 years now since the end of apartheid Ð when so little has changed for the better in their lives. The black poor still loyally vote for the African National Congress (ANC), but their anger was going to burst out sooner or later. By holding the door open to so many illegal immigrants, the government has guaranteed they would be the primary target. Maybe this is some Machiavellian plan to divert popular anger from the government itself, but probably not. ItÕs just that the leaders donÕt see what has been happening to ordinary people. How else could Thabo Mbeki go on defending Robert Mugabe, the destroyer of Zimbabwe, when MugabeÕs misdeeds were the main reason that this enormous wave of illegal immigrants struck South Africa? Justice Malala, whose column appears in the online version of South AfricaÕs Sunday Times, nailed it when he wrote: Ò(Our) people are behaving like barbarians because the ANC has failed Ð despite numerous warnings Ð to act on burning issues that are well known for having sparked similar eruptions across the globe.... ÒThe Mbeki governmentÕs refusal to even acknowledge the crisis in Zimbabwe has resulted in as many as three million Zimbabweans walking the streets of South Africa....MbekiÕs resolute refusal to address the crisis in Zimbabwe Ð and his friendship with President Robert Mugabe Ð has brought them here.Ó Such plain talk is recognizing realities, which is the first step towards addressing them. And where the despairing poor of South Africa should be addressing their anger is not at helpless Zimbabweans but at the president who let this catastrophe happen.
