Trouble sees itself in South Africa

South Africa has become the first Africa country to form a political party whose ambition is to drive out foreigners from South Africa. The name of the party is South Africa First, S.A.F. Specific foreigners are mentioned: Nigerians, Zimbabweans and Pakistanis. The claim of the creator of the party is that with South African unemployment at 34% all new jobs created go to these foreigners. In addition these foreigners are not only criminals dealing drugs and turning South Africa girls to prostitutes, they also hijack buildings and become slum landlords. And when asked if South Africa did not owe these Africans moral support for the historic support they provided during the struggle, the creator of the party said he never heard of these South African exiles committing crimes where they sought refuge. With all this clarity on his mind and in the public domain, the party held a public rally in Pretoria on Friday, February 24, 2017. The rally visited sensitive political points including the ministry of Home Affairs. This is the ministry, claims the creator of South Africa First, which grants asylum status to these foreigners.

The countries where nationalists, for want of any other political label and an unwillingness to call the South African creator of SAF an alt-conservative, have arisen, these same reasons have been drummed up for their action. But in none of them exist unresolved internal political and economic historical conflicts. In the United States of America the low level civil war is a thing of recent. Asa result, political institutions are already kicking in to assert the rightness of due process. In the United Kingdom, it is really impossible to imagine a British nationalism that would not be thrown into chaos by Irish nationalism, Scottish nationalism, Welsh nationalism and English nationalism. So, Great Britain might exit the European Union while Scotland, Northern Ireland and London stays inside the union. Very little will change here except the collective European agenda of keeping foreigners from war zones out of Europe, union or no union. The creator of SAF claims that there are no wars in Nigeria, in Zimbabwe and in other African countries like DRC and Mozambique. Is this true?

The South African difference is that there are unresolved political and economic historical issues. After over three hundred years of internal, settler colonisation, the like of which did not exist in the rest of Africa, freedom came without resolving the political and economic historical problems that led to the struggle of the Africans in the first place. There is the matter of land. Neither the emotional nor the economic aspects were resolved. The emotional aspect cries for resolution. To own and hold a plot of land in my place of birth! How and why is this impossible? The economic aspect seems insoluble until you speak to the EFF. When freedom came in 1994, these issues were not thrashed out between the newly liberated citizens of the new South Africa black and white. Into the mix arrived the season of migration to South Africa. Remember that whatever infrastructure existed, was created for the 10% of the population of the country. Come 27 April 1994, that infrastructure must now deliver to 100% plus the new arrivals from the rest of Africa. These African refugees, being Africans moved to the townships where South African blacks like them eke out a living of sorts on the edge of white abundance.

Statistics are not available to show the number of foreigners who have sought refuge in South Africa, whether as economic refugees or people fleeing from war, mayhem and general political chaos in their own countries. A new addition to the list comes from a Nigerian who arrived in India and claimed he was seeking refuge from Nigeria’s darkness and lack of electricity. People have arrived in South Africa from every conceivable country in the world. They include Europeans fleeing from the collapse of the Soviet Union and the affected Eastern European countries. They include people from Asia including India. An Indian family is defending itself against the accusation of taking over the state through its relationship with the president of the country. The people who have arrived in South Africa since 1994 include people from North and South America and Canada. Many of these new arrivals are qualified certified economic performers capable of adding value to South African lives. Many are also known criminals. The newly flourishing genre of crime writing mentions the Mafia of Italy, the Triads of China and The Japanese Gangs in their narratives. Crime is paying just as crime writing is paying. Among those arriving in South Africa are people from Ghana and Nigeria, young people from the two Congos and people from North Africa.

All these new arrivals can be split into two groups, a white group and a black group. A possible third group of Asians confuse and maybe assigned to the local coloured communities. Not much noise is made about the white arrivals from Poland, from Ukraine, from Georgia and the broken countries of Eastern Europe. Just like the period of white privilege and apartheid rule, the coming into South Africa by white people was usually welcome because the boost the white population. What is not welcome is the arrival of black people. Instead of being seen as positive, they are seen as leaking pipes draining away the little that black people have.

Years ago, on refugee day, the then mayor of Cape Town invited me, not Trouble, to speak to the refugees. My address was short and to the point of the relevance and positive nature of black arrival in South Africa. We all must join the South African Black in their struggle for more freedoms in the land of their birth. Economic freedom and freedom from discrimination. These are the struggles of South Africans. These must be the struggle that other Africans must join, not fight a civil war with their brothers and sisters.