No Pokomos in Polokwane

[Onyango Oloo]

(a poem by Onyango Oloo in Nairobi, April 19, 2015)

Saw



a bullet
proof vested
South African cop
Burly in his blue tunic
Smiling
idiotically
like
the Cheshire feline
of yore
for the eager
media cameras
Parading
before
the daylight inferno
In the middle of which
a young African
not from South Africa
on all fours
was crouching
stolidly
As he was
roasted alive
by a vengeful
foaming
frothing
mob
of black skinned
homegrown
delirious
xenophobes
Meting out
cowardly
injustice
to yet another
Amakwerekwere
Another African foreigner
What
was that bile
they were spewing
what was
that venom
they were spitting
what was that hate
They were baying
Something
like
No Pokomos in Polokwane
No Bembas in Bloemfontein
No Kikuyus in Kimberly
No Dinkas in Durban
No Malawians in Mpumalanga











In 2015 , just like 2013
and other recent years
domestic South Africans
hound and hunt
Africans
they deem foreign
They spit
the Amakwerekwere venom
at their African siblings
These Abantu
Who were once insulted
As Kaffirs on their own streets
In their own mother’s land
Today
These Abantu
devoid of Ubuntu
want none
of their sisters and brothers
From our Mother Land
Calling liberated South Africa
home to all of us Africans
Shame on you
Nephews and nieces
of Mkhulu Madiba
Shame!
Shame on you
Sons and daughters
of Zuma and Mbeki
Shame!
Shame on you
Sisters and brothers of
Chris Hani, Cheryl Carolus
Ruth First, Solomon Mahlangu
Basil February and Dulcie September
Shame!
Shame on you neighbours
Of Mac Maharaj and Ahmed Kathrada
Students of Jeremy Cronin and Bram Fischer
Shame!
Shame on you
cousins of Umkhonto we Sizwe and SACP comrades
Shame!
Forgetting who Patrice Lumumba was
Today you set on fire
Congolese refugees
seeking sanctuary
Not knowing what
the Tongogaras and the Mugabes
did for your country
You want to
knobkerrie to a bloody pulp
frightened Zimbabweans
Not remembering
how your stalwarts
were sheltered in Ethiopia
You make a blood sport out
of knifing fleeing Somali shopkeepers
Shame on you
xenophobic South Africans
shame!
I remember as a 16 year old in ‘76
Growing up
In Mombasa, Kenya
1976
the year of Oscar Petersen
1976
the year of the Soweto Uprising
1976
as a Kenyan teenager proud that
my compatriot Mike Boit
The best 800 metres runner
in 1976
Mike Boit the world beater
of his generation
Mike Boit opted to sacrifice
Olympic gold and a world record
At the 1976
Montreal games
By boycotting the Olympics
because South Africa’s
looming liberation
was more valuable
than a gold medal and world record
More recently
With Jamaicans, African-Americans,
Sri Lankans, Palestinians
Trinidadians and Guatemalans
We marched in the 1980s in North America
through Yonge Street in downtown Toronto
On our way to Nathan Phillips Square
for yet another rally
organized by Canada’s anti-apartheid movement
Chanting
down with Botha and De Klerk!
Free Mandela! Free Sisulu
Unban the ANC! Unban PAC! Unban SACP!
A few years down the road
After many demos and protests
Rallies and marches
In the spring of 1994,
almost exactly
twenty one years ago today
We ululated,
we danced half naked
In Côte-des-Neiges and Notre Dame de Grace
and all over Montreal, Quebec
Intoxicated with joy
Celebrating
with millions of South Africans
That just the previous day
Nelson Mandela was sworn in
as the first Black President of the new South Africa
And ANC was the new democratic government
in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town
Today you xenophobic South Africans
Who were toddlers
and runny nosed pre-teens
When Africa and the world
was fighting for your freedom
Today
you contemporary xenophobes
Have forgotten
how Africa
paid with blood, bombings and sanctions
For the prosperity
which you now think
Is your prerogative
to keep from your fellow Africans
Shame, shame
shame on you xenophobic South Africans
Shame!
Shame on you xenophobes!
Were you not sheltered
In Zambian urban estates
and Tanzanian rural villages
By the same people
you
Today
ignorantly
declare persona non grata
In Johannesburg and Pietermaritzburg
Shame on you
xenophobic South Africans
For turning worse
than the racist KKK goons
in the deep American South
Shame on you
xenophobic South Africans
For imposing de facto
Jim Crow on Kenyans and Ugandans
You ungrateful
xenophobic South Africans
You have conveniently
forgotten
How Mzalendo Samora Machel
was blown out of the sky
As Mozambicans paid the ultimate price
Donating their guerilla hero
for South Africa’s freedom
Shame, shame,
shame on you
xenophobic South Africans!
All over the African continent
In Accra, in Lagos, in Algiers
In Ougadougou, in Cairo
In Khartoum, in Antananarivo
In Kampala, in Luanda
In Yaounde, in Port Victoria
In Cape Verde, in Guinea Bissau
In Sao Tome and Principe
We all chanted
Amandla Nga Wethu!
We danced the toyi toyi
We intoned the earnest lyrics
Of your famous national anthem
Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika
With angry clenched fists
Over our determined chests
Praying with you
For freedom in your life time
Today you same
xenophobic South Africans
That we fought side by side with
Today you chase us
like rats
along the Durban beaches
Today you want to
hurtle us to our
ultimate untimely doom
From the 12th floor
of those Hillbrow
apartments in J’oburg
Where you used
to chuck your
dilapidated fridges and decrepit furniture
In that annual superstition
around New Year’s Day
Shame, shame
shame on you
xenophobic South Africans
I ask my SACP comrades
My brothers and sisters
Where are you
Dee Mashinini
Where are you
Comrade Sacky
Where are you
Comrade Mzala
fellow exiles in Tanzania
My fellow communists
and Radio Freedom programmers
who eagerly shared
Sechaba
and the African Communist
outside the ANC offices
in Mnazi Moja, Dar es Salaam
Tell me comrades
Tell me, Lucian
Tell me, Che Mathlako
Comrades
What happened
What happened to Uhuru na Uzalendo
What happened to Ubuntu
What happened to
Socialism and revolution
Pan Africanism and Internationalism

Tell me comrades
What happened
to the minds and souls
of millions of South Africans
Tell me comrades
When did xenophobic South Africans
lose their minds?

[Onyango Oloo]

An Open Letter to Zuma by a prize winning Mozambique author:



bookslive.co.za/blog/2015/04/20/award-winning-mozambican-author-mia-coutos-open-letter-to-jacob-zuma-on-xenophobia-crisis-we-remember-you-in-maputo/Open Letter

Maputo,

17 April 2015

Mia Couto

To: His Excellency President Jacob Zuma

We remember you in Maputo, in the 1980s, from that time you spent as a political refugee in Mozambique. Often our paths crossed on Julius Nyerere Avenue and we would greet each other with the casual friendliness of neighbours. Often I imagined the fears that you must have felt, as a person persecuted by the apartheid regime. I imagined the nightmares you must have experienced at night when you thought of the ambushes plotted against you and against your comrades in the struggle. But I don’t remember ever seeing you with a bodyguard. In fact it was we Mozambicans who acted as your bodyguards. For years we gave you more than a refuge. We offered you a house and we gave you security at the cost of our security. You cannot possibly have forgotten this generosity.

We haven’t forgotten it. Perhaps more than any other neighbouring country, Mozambique paid a high price for the support we gave to the liberation of South Africa. The fragile Mozambican economy was wrecked. Our territory was invaded and bombed. Mozambicans died in defence of their brothers on the other side of the border. For us, Mr President, there was no border, there was no nationality. We were all brothers in the same cause, and when apartheid fell, our festivities were the same, on either side of the border.

For centuries Mozambican migrants, miners and peasants, worked in neighbouring South Africa under conditions that were not far short of slavery. These workers helped build the South African economy. There is no wealth in your country that does not carry the contribution of those who today are coming under attack.
For all these reasons, it is not possible to imagine what is going on in your country. It is not possible to imagine that these same South African brothers have chosen us as a target for hatred and persecution. It is not possible that Mozambicans are persecuted in the streets of South Africa with the same cruelty that the apartheid police persecuted freedom fighters, inside and outside the country. The nightmare we are living is more serious than that visited upon you when you were politically persecuted. For you were the victim of a choice, of an ideal that you had embraced. But those who are persecuted in your country today are guilty merely of having a different nationality. Their only crime is that they are Mozambicans. Their only offence is that they are not South Africans.

Mr President, the xenophobia expressed today in South Africa is not merely a barbaric and cowardly attack against “the others”. It is also aggression against South Africa itself. It is an attack against the “Rainbow Nation” which South Africans proudly proclaimed a decade or more ago. Some South Africans are staining the name of their motherland. They are attacking the feelings of gratitude and solidarity between nations and peoples. It is sad that your country today is in the news across the world for such inhuman reasons.

Certainly measures are being taken. But they are proving inadequate, and above all they have come late. The rulers of South Africa can argue everything except that they were taken by surprise. History was allowed to repeat itself. Voices were heard spreading hatred with impunity. That is why we are joining our indignation to that of our fellow Mozambicans and urging you: put an immediate end to this situation, which is a fire that can spread across the entire region, with feelings of revenge being created beyond South Africa’s borders. Tough, immediate and total measures are needed which may include the mobilization of the armed forces. For, at the end of the day, it is South Africa itself which is under attack.

Mr President, you know, better than we do, that police actions can contain this crime but, in the current context, other preventive measures must be taken. So that these criminal events are never again repeated.

For this, it is necessary to take measures on another scale, measures that work over the long term. Measures of civic education, and of exalting the recent past in which we were so close, are urgently needed. It is necessary to recreate the feelings of solidarity between our peoples and to rescue the memory of a time of shared struggles. As artists, as makers of culture and of social values, we are available so that, together with South African artists, we can face this new challenge, in unity with the countless expressions of revulsion born within South African society. We can still transform this pain and this shame into something which expresses the nobility and dignity of our peoples and our nations. As artists and writers, we want to declare our willingness to support a spirit of neighbourliness which is born, not from geography, but from a kinship of our common soul and shared history.

[Onyango Oloo]

Emmanuel Emoabino (EmmaBlaq) is a Nigerian actor from Edo State, Nigeria. He is based in Ghana. He studied engineering at Ambrose Ali University Ekpoma and says"but obviously I’m not an engineer. I’m an actor, a writer and a producer.”

This is his message to South Africans on the xenophobia currently raging in that country:


www.facebook.com/emma1.blaq/videos/vb.1019169521/10205148953736324/?type=2&theater

[jakaswanga]

Apr 19, 2015 17:45:09 GMT 3 Onyango Oloo said:

(a poem by Onyango Oloo in Nairobi, April 19, 2015)

Saw



a bullet
proof vested
South African cop
Burly in his blue tunic
Smiling
idiotically
like
the Cheshire feline
of yore
for the eager
media cameras
Parading
before
the daylight inferno
In the middle of which
a young African
not from South Africa
on all fours
was crouching
stolidly
As he was
roasted alive
by a vengeful
foaming
frothing
mob
of black skinned
homegrown
delirious
xenophobes
Meting out
cowardly
injustice

and what would you say of Marikana?







if they treat their own workers thus, why would not the burly in blue tunics smile as the amakwerekwere are torched?

Mariakana, what is that again you ask?

jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/7330/south-african-270miners-charged-killings

jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/8028?page=1 --brutality watch south african police.

disciplined into animal cruelty by centuries of routine animalism, the force continues to excell in inhumanity. Black or white wearers, the same animal core.

[b6k]

Comparing a policing action to a vigilante situation really does no good. The boys in blue were justified to use maximum force in the example you give above. Zulu civilians are not in the current ZA Situation...

[Onyango Oloo]

Xenophobic "gang leader" boasts of killings, warns of further bloodshed:


www.facebook.com/Atmjeff/videos/1034852439876531/?video_source=pages_finch_main_video

[Onyango Oloo]

Apparently the so called "gang leader" is NOT even South African, but Ugandan. Here is what someone says about him:

It's unfortunate that this stupid human is a Ugandan, father of two and living in Sweden. I am sharing this video on the Ugandan Police Page. He is not South African. Let's make so much noise to get this fool incarcerated for this. Here's evidence already. I wonder what would make anyone pretend to be South African, then go ahead and post such vile message. I am so ashamed as an African and Ugandan. He has a facebook page Peng Peng Peng Vibes, where I got this picture below.

[Onyango Oloo]

Opinion Piece: "Labeling South Africa turmoil 'xenophobia' scapegoats poor blacks"




edition.cnn.com/2015/04/20/opinions/south-africa-violence-inequality/index.html






Cawo Abdi is an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota. Her book, Elusive Jannah: The Somali Diaspora and a Borderless Muslim Identity, which focuses on Somali migrants in the United Arab Emirates, South Africa and the United States is forthcoming with the University of Minnesota Press, 2015. The views expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

As we approach April 27 when South Africa marks the anniversary of the first post-apartheid elections held that day in 1994, we are faced with yet another wave of deadly attacks against African migrants. Outrage triggered by this violence is being heard loudly throughout social media with "#WeAreAfrica" showcasing the need for a common front against this affront.


These recurring attacks against migrants and their property might be read as one more indication of how the rainbow nation's dream has faltered. That vision not only symbolized a multi-ethnic South Africa, but one where living in dignity is shared across racial and class lines.

Attacks against newcomers in South Africa are often reduced to attitudes of hate and resentment towards other black Africans. The national and international headlines use "xenophobia" as if any one word can convey the multifaceted crisis within which this phenomenon occurs.

Labeling this turmoil as xenophobic fails to convey the conditions in which African migrants are scapegoated for the persistent legacy of apartheid in the post-liberation era.

This word also does not tell us that extreme poverty now exceeds that experienced under apartheid.

And it certainly does not account for how extreme inequality is now fully embraced and normalized by a new black elite joining the "white-haves" of yesteryear.

The question of why foreign blacks are targeted and not foreign whites is also repeated ad nauseam, as if the majority of black citizens and African migrants share any common spaces and experiences with white South Africans or white foreigners.

Contact between the majority of African migrant groups and native black South Africans mostly occurs in under-developed informal settlements and townships. In the interaction and competition between these groups in these spaces, we need to be wary of the simplistic treatment of South Africa's ailment as xenophobia.

Such labeling does not and cannot explain the totality of the contact, competition and conflict between native poor black South Africans and foreign African entrepreneurs.


Attention as to how such interactions occur in an environment where a vast portion of South Africa's black majority experiences segregation, persistent and relative poverty, and high crime rates in post-apartheid South Africa is paramount. Neglecting access to social rights, such as water, electricity, education and other services, is tantamount to violence by political leaders against the poor.

Condemning and prosecuting those who incite violence is essential to maintaining law and order and protecting those vulnerable because of their nationality. But the evictions, harassment and ultimately brutal killings of foreigners cannot and should not be separated from the daily brutal violence poor South Africans in informal settlements and many townships experience.

It cannot and should not be separated from South Africa's status as one of the most unequal societies in the world; it cannot and should not be separated from the fact that South Africa has one of the highest homicide levels in the world.

A mantra of xenophobia wishes away the fact that the everyday lives of those in vulnerable positions in this society (the poor, the disabled, women, children, the elderly) are filled with violence similar -- if not worse -- than that facing African foreigners eking out a living in the midst of abject poverty.


Labeling South Africa's poor blacks as ungrateful and amnesiac to the history of hospitality other Africans bestowed on their exiles under apartheid does a disservice to both the local poor whose citizenship rights are marginal at best and the resilient migrants in search of asylum and dignity.

Such labeling only serves politicians and the elites who are sealed off by barbed wire surrounded by a security industry that outspends and outnumbers South Africa's police force. It allows corruption to persist while the political leaders who are implicated in this violence scapegoat "criminal youth" to further fill an overflowing prison industry.

Religious and civil society leaders' recent mobilization saying "not in our name" in reaction to violence against migrants should be applauded. But religious, civil society and student groups also have an obligation to organize and denounce the inequality and the violence that is the everyday lot of the extremely poor in South Africa. Pervasive misery and corruption in the midst of a nation with so much potential should not be tolerated.

Neither a hashtag of outrage #WeAreAfrica nor the expedience of the label "xenophobia" can wish away the angst, violence and the impending crisis in South Africa. Migrants' security and dignity is part and parcel of a greater security and dignity for all South Africans, which seem deferred for now.

[Onyango Oloo]

"Of course killing people is wrong, but we still want them out of the country”


www.thedailyvox.co.za/xenophobia-we-have-to-battle-for-even-less-resources-with-even-more-people/


Over the past few days, the eThekwini Municipality has seen protestors for peace and protestors against it, people calling for an end to xenophobia, and people openly supporting xenophobia. This inhumane anti-foreigner stance, which is clearly not uncommon in South Africa today, has boggled middle-class South Africa. Qiniso Mbili asked SANELE WANDA, who lives in Umlazi, Durban, why he believes foreigners should return to their countries.

I am from uMlazi and I do piece jobs here and there. I used to work as a security officer here in the Durban city, but my job got snatched away from me by a foreigner who promised my boss to do the same job at half the salary.

When foreigners get jobs they never join unions and this opens them up to exploitation. It is during this process where the power of labour federations is dumbed down to almost no effect.

When my boss fired me, he told me he had to shed staff because business was not coping; he told me the best he could do for me is to halve my salary. I had been earning R1,600: there was no way I was going to accept R800 as my monthly salary; I had been already suffering with my initial salary.

I do not condone the violence which South Africans are using, but again I do not blame them. People have been saying for a long time that these people must go; the government knows that we want them out. More and more of them keep entering the country while the resources are on the decline – now we have to battle for even less resources with even more people.

Not all of them are drug dealers, but it is a known fact that they dominate the drug market. We are tired of acting like we don’t mind all of this.

South Africans are divided into two groups right now: the xenophobic and the anti-xenophobia groups. If you look closely into these two groups you will realise that the xenophobic group is dominated by the working class and the other by the middle class and better.

The reason for this is that we, the working class, are the ones who feel the consequences brought by the foreigners. Most of these foreigners don’t live in the suburbs; they live with us in the township. They sell the drugs to our kids; we have to compete with them for jobs. The middle class and higher [class] don’t experience any hardships with them; hence, they don’t mind them being here. You can even see that this peace march is dominated by whites and black people who are well off.

A march like this is a carpet under which the real problem is being pushed. The government should not beg the people to stop what they are doing; it needs to give them a reason to stop. Give us jobs and strengthen the fight against crime so that we have less to complain about. I am strongly against this march as it minimises our grievances to barbarism; the government knows what’s wrong and needs to fix that.

This anger that we direct to the foreigners stems from a number of things that are wrong with this country. For example, one thing that gives the impression that all foreigners are illegal immigrants is the fact that our border security is weak. People are beating up foreigners because they have all the time in the world to do so since they are unemployed. Fix things like that first.

Of course killing people is wrong; that is not the way to do it – but we still want them out of the country.

When we fought against apartheid, we wanted to live better lives. There were almost no foreigners back then, now that that battle has been won, they flooded our country to enjoy the same rights and resources that we fought for. Now we can’t even enjoy the fruits of the freedom that we fought for. The fruits of freedom are only reaped by the rich and politically connected. South Africans are angry because they expected that life would be better after the apartheid regime was defeated. We want foreigners out of the country because we think that life will be better after they have gone.

When the people realised that the apartheid regime was unfair, they made their opinion known – this was long before they got up in arms and fought for what they wanted. In order for the government to realise that we were serious we had to resort to violence and fight fire with fire. This set a precedent for South Africans and now they know that when their voices are undermined, they should resort to violence.

- As told to Qiniso Mbili



Editorial Note: The Daily Vox condemns all forms of xenophobia. Much of what Sanele Wanda says about the reasons for xenophobia has been thoroughly debunked; however, we also believe that the reality of people’s perceptions must be aired, in order for us to understand why this violence against foreign nationals persists in our communities.

____________________

[Onyango Oloo]

Haroon Meer: We Will Reap What We Sow

www.thedailyvox.co.za/xenophobia-we-will-reap-what-we-sow/





There’s been a lot of middle-class hand-wringing about recent events, from the toppling of Rhodes to the latest outbreak of xenophobic attacks. But complacent South Africans who manage to drive the latest cars, yet don’t pay workers a living wage, have some soul-searching to do.

HAROON MEER argues that when the revolution materialises, we will absolutely deserve it.

The combination of the Rhodes Must Fall campaign and the recent eruption of xenophobic violence has left many South Africans following the news with trepidation. The romantics say that this casts a shadow across our fabled rainbow, while those who left our shores many years ago join those who probably should have, to remind us, once again, that we are five minutes from becoming Zimbabwe. Letters have been written to singers, editors, presidents and kings with a fairly predictable theme: “First Rhodes, then foreigners, then us? We are good people and we don’t deserve this!”

Except we do.

Let me be very clear: I don’t want “bad stuff” to happen. I certainly never want to be on the other end of an angry mob, but I’m writing today because I’m amazed that the mob hasn’t risen up yet, and will totally understand it when (or if) they do. Because we will absolutely deserve it.

Nobody ever thinks they deserve it, but here are some “truth razors” for us to swallow: Start a business in the UK or Australia and you will be forced to pay your staff a living wage. If your business plan can’t generate a profit while being fair to your people, then your business fails. You need another business or another business plan. If you can’t afford to have a full-time maid, you either earn more or you learn to do your own dishes. But not here and not us.

Apartheid got us hooked on the idea of a workforce that can be paid below the poverty line, and it’s a habit we have not managed to shake. From factories, to shopping centres, from Sydenham to Sandton, we, the middle class, have largely been dining on the backs of a workforce that can never break free. This would be bad enough if we were just breaking even, but we aren’t. We are managing the expensive school fees and we are managing the fine German automobiles. We are managing the latest cellphones and we are managing satellite TV. Even though these are considered luxuries in most of Europe, our businesses seem to manage them. What seems harder to manage somehow, is paying people who work for us a living wage.

I know the arguments that will rapidly follow – how times are tough and how we “at least provide employment to those who will take it”, but this is an insidious piece of self-deception.

If our businesses cannot run while paying a fair wage, then we don’t have a viable business. If we can’t pay a fair wage but can keep driving BMWs, then we don’t have good souls. We have become so immune to the plight of the poor in our country, that we discuss the oppression of taxes and the tyranny of tolls while being waited on hand and foot by an underpaid blue-collar class that can never escape their “station”. They are invisible to us, until the problems in their ghettos overflow into our suburbs.

It’s been 20 years since “liberation” and we still have maids who live like indentured slaves. Twenty years and yet shops and factories still thrive on un- unionised, barely paid workers.

These people have been patient for decades under apartheid and have been patient for the two decades since.. This patience cannot last forever. Sooner or later the poorest among us are going to realise that nobody has their interests at heart. They are going to realise that the rest of us have gotten so used to slave labour that we won’t give up the newest iPhone to put an end to it. They will rise up, and they will be right to, because as the past 20 years have shown, if it
were up to us, we would maintain the status quo. They will demand a revolution, and history will show that only a revolution was able to reset the table. We certainly were not getting around to it.

Can we do anything to stop this impending revolution? Maybe. There are a host of things we could and should be doing, but it’s entirely possible that it’s too little, too late. I don’t know if the revolution can be stopped once the writing is on the wall, but looking around as one of the privileged ones I can tell you that we would absolutely deserve it.

Haroon Meer is the founder of Thinkst Applied Research.

[Onyango Oloo]

Comment from the South African Communist Party:

Stop attacks on foreign nationals right now! Focus on the root-causes of our shared problems







By Solly Mapaila

On Wednesday, 15 April 2015 the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) convened a joint press conference and condemned attacks against foreign nationals in the strongest terms.

The SACP and COSATU called on their own structures to take action in their respective communities in defence of peace.

This is very important!

People have a role to play on matters that affect society. After all they constitute society itself. They are the makers of history, though, as Karl Marx says, not in the circumstances of their own choosing.

What we need to stop the anarchy is action.

This is exactly what the SACP did when similar attacks occurred in Soweto. The Party mobilised its structures to stop the despicable violence. We have been doing the same now in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, and elsewhere throughout the country.

Everyone needs to act to stop this violence! And we need to work together as a people.

World system problems, focus on the root-causes!

While intensifying action locally to stop the despicable violence, it is important we strengthen the international movement against the underlying system that reproduces the social problems.

Fundamentally, the causes are international.

Multilateral institutions must therefore also discuss the social problems created by the dominant world system they are presiding on - that is capitalism. They must take responsibility as well, but ONLY democratically! This emphasis is important.

Those institutions must themselves become transformed as is the system they are presiding on - which must ultimately be replaced in a world revolution. This is crucial for human society to be free from all forms of exploitation and their consequent social problems.

The contradictions we are facing must therefore be resolved at least at two levels. That is at their root cause level where they originate and develop from, and at the level of the social problems that they create - that is at the level of their effects. This includes stopping all backward responses to what is the negative impact of the multiple interacting crises of the underlying problem - which is the capitalist system.

But let us combat malice and unnecessary distractions!

In South Africa there are those who reduce the task of stopping the attacks to be the responsibility, all alone, of the government, or of the African National Congress (i.e. the governing party), or of the President. See, for example, “Centre lashes out at Zuma” (The Citizen, 16 April 2015).

Some of the people who do so are simply opportunistic, while others, similarly, are merely advancing a politics of narrow oppositionism in the midst of what is a serious problem to humanity.

But let us be focused at the same time. Let us keep our eyes on the ball.

The problem of private capital expansion and accumulation

Capitalism is the fundamental cause of the problems faced by humanity and the natural environment as a whole. Capital accumulation knows no morals. It has no regard to human life and nature as a whole.

Without enquiry into the motions of capital and what it does to achieve expansion in a given historical context, it will therefore be almost impossible to develop both the clarity of content and task in terms of what is going on and what must be done. But we will also not even understand why there are others who will always seek to divert our attention from focusing on the real problems by creating scapegoats.

This theoretically sums up the approach adopted by the SACP and COSATU.

The problems we are facing are an outgrowth of deeper structural processes and forces of the system of capitalism. What we see popping up on the surface - that is the totally unjustifiable attacks on foreign nationals - are a backward and inward reaction to the effects of the underlying systemic crises emanating from the expansion of capital through private accumulation of wealth on a capitalist basis.

In South Africa this already signaled the death knell of the means of income of small tradespeople and shopkeepers several years ago.

Hyper competition facing small shopkeepers and traders comes from within the country itself. It comes from big capital, from the booming malls and the penetration of the local economies of both townships and even rural areas by chain stores. It is this capital expansion in areas it had not previously taken hold of locally that has liquidated many small businesses and co-operatives. It is this configuration which makes it very difficult for existing small businesses and co-operatives to survive, and for new ones to emerge.

But there have been other factors as well.

Dealing with some of those factors in The Wretched of the Earth Frantz Fanon analyses the pitfalls of national consciousness and develops a critique of the “national bourgeoisie” in “post-colonial” societies. Those strata of the bourgeoisie, which include the locals who serve as the intermediaries of the bourgeoisie from the ranks of the former colonial powers or imperialist capital are equally interested in the merciless exploitation of the workers. But in the event of liquidating competition from foreign capital and traders they have ways, including hostile means, of attracting support from some elements among the ranks of local workers including work-seekers.

Fanon was dealing with this fifty four years ago in 1961 when he wrote:

“The working class of the towns, the masses of unemployed, the small artisans and craftsmen for their part line up behind this nationalist attitude; but in all justice let it be said, they only follow in the steps of their bourgeoisie. If the national bourgeoisie goes into competition with the Europeans, the artisans and craftsmen start a fight against non-national Africans”.

From what we see going on today in South Africa Fanon’s formulation, while remaining essentially the same, will be worded slightly different. It will replace the reference to “Europeans” by that of “foreign nationals” in general.

Fanon worryingly recounts the backward attacks on foreign nationals caused by similar phenomena in various African countries, Ivory Coats, Senegal, Ghana and Congo. During those times, this wrongfully led to, he writes, “foreigners” being “called on to leave; their shops… burned, their street stalls… wrecked”. “As we see it”, he writes, “the mechanism is identical in the two sets of circumstances. If the Europeans (NB. Recall the context given above) get in the way of the intellectuals and business bourgeoisie of the young nation, for the mass of the people in the towns competition is represented principally by Africans of another nation”.

In addition to Fanon’s observation, and this based on the recent deplorable violence in South Africa, such competition is seen as also represented by foreign nationals from some parts in Asia.

As COSATU President Comrade Sidumo Dlamini captured it at the press conference, it is only the black skin that faces the attacks and the victims include people from Bangladesh and Pakistan. There are even South Africans who are attacked. Whether this is “Afrophobia” or “xenophobia” is neither here nor there. The bottom line is that all of this despicable violence MUST STOP RIGHT NOW!

But what else does the overall international context as it stands today tell us about these social problems?

There are various attacks on foreign nationals but these are expressed in different forms in different global regions. All of this flowing from capitalist social relations of production and the consequent political conditions.

Capitalism inherently involves uneven development. It causes this through economic exploitation.

At the micro level more labour value is extracted from workers who are then paid less as a means of profit making. Internationally, this law of capital expansion consist in this. Less is injected in imperialist exploited economies, but more is extracted from them and repatriated to the core economies of the system where it benefits development.

The countries and the capitalist class which extract more from others and the workers respectively are the so-called (the) “developed” (of our time), while, those who are thus exploited are under-developed.

The uneven development and underdevelopment caused by capitalism are the main system drivers of migration flows within and across borders in our epoch. Many people do not migrate out of free will. They are coerced by the economic, social and political circumstances forged by capitalism and its consequent politics.

Capitalist uneven development, which is designed in favour of the countries which lie at the core of capitalism as the dominant world system, is driven through the under-development of countries which are located in its periphery. Not so long ago this was pushed through the colonial expansion of capital, which has ravaged much of the global South, Africa included, Latin America, South and South-East Asia but also in the Middle East where there is what others call the “Third World War” going on.

In many of the countries which achieved “independence” from colonialism it still remains the former colonial powers through their capitalist class forces which continued to retain strategic advantages and control over the economies of the historically oppressed.

This has deepened through the consequent neo-colonialism, but it has even entrenched under the present era of heightened imperialism - the highest stage of capitalism:

Precisely the heart of the two interacting phenomena, in varying degrees, of the continuing underdevelopment of the countries in the periphery and uneven international development!

The scarcity of the resources needed to support human life thus created in the negatively affected countries coupled with competition and imperialist machination give rise to consistent political conflicts and wars. This is part of the push factors forcing people out “of their countries” (i.e. mostly colonially partitioned territories) to look for destinations (sometimes temporary destinations) which offer the prospects for relief.

It cannot be, therefore, that instead of solidarity, the affected people are further violated through super-exploitation by capital, through the so-called “xenophobic” attacks, or through government action as we see in:

The global North.

As noted in the African Communist (1st Quarter 2015, No 188): “Today, the most militarised international border in the world is not between North and South Korea, but between the US and Mexico. According to the editorial, this is “designed to keep desperate (but ‘illegal’) work-seekers out”.

But there is “a deep hypocrisy in this” as noted the editorial. As underlined from Saskia Sassen’s research: “Tens of millions of desperate, ‘illegal’ work-seekers nonetheless still find their way into the US and Europe” in “what looks like failure from the perspective of controlling entry”, but which “is actually delivering results that particular sectors inside the US want from immigrants” - “low-paid workers”. Their ‘illegal’ status (sustained by the highly weaponised border) means they are prepared to accept low wages and precarious working conditions”.

Similar migration patterns forced upon workers by uneven development last year caused tensions within the European Union, mainly between the UK and Germany. This was triggered by the way the UK government reacted to increasing migration from the south and east of Europe. The government sought to clamp down entry to the UK and limit immigration.

If “xenophobia” is therefore the most appropriate operative word used to characterise the disgusting attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa, then the UK government not only sought to respond to xenophobic pressure but it revealed its xenophobic attitude?

The least said about France the better. In that country it is a typical electoral politics to campaign against immigration inflows. And many do not see anything wrong in doing so.

In the Mediterranean region, thousands of migrant workers risk their lives crossing the sea in attempts to reach Europe every year. And many have died or suffered serious injuries - this month only the numbers are estimated to be at least 1,000 people. The reasons pushing them to the North are the same, imperialist wars, instability, underdevelopment and uneven international development.

All of this is caused by capitalism but masked in different propagandas, “religious conflicts”, “poor governance”, “xenophobia”, “Afrophobia”, etc.

Back in South Africa.

The super-exploitation of foreign nationals similar to the one highlighted from the example of the US above has been singled out as one of the factors that sparked the recent wave of despicable attacks in Durban. But unlike the US, South Africa has a welcoming immigration policy. Which is why, in addition to its relative advantages compared to other reachable destinations it has substantive gains from continental and overseas migration streams in Africa.

But sections of both local and foreign capital (i.e. mainly imperialist) have, like that ruthless Durban based employer we shall return to, been exploiting the country’s migration pull factors.

Which is why the SACP and COSATU say the super-exploiters must be held accountable for the social consequences of their actions.

But capital not only exploits labour.

It exploits unemployment - its own creature.

As an international phenomenon unemployment can be understood in terms of the underdevelopment of the countries in the periphery as an instrument of development in the countries at the core of the capitalist world system. It can be understood in terms of uneven international development caused by capitalism.

For example the colonial exploitation of South Africa’s mineral resources was used to build industry and therefore create employment in Britain - as it did in its other colonies. The historical conditions of the current high unemployment rate in South Africa were thus created, among others in that way. And unlike in Britain, therefore education and training in South Africa did not focus on intellectual development for manufacturing development and diversification. Worse still, all of this was engineered by both Britain and the white minority supremacist regimes of South Africa based on racist national oppression of Africans in particular and black people in general. This in the context where certain privileges were reserved for whites.

The racial dimensions of capitalist exploitation in South Africa were forged in a similar manner.

In South Africa it is in this context that capital exploits the high rate of unemployment that it has created as a lever to suppress the rate of wages. This is a management strategy to maximise the rate of profit. The Durban based employer who replaced striking workers with super-exploited, so-called “scab labour”, mainly foreign nationals, sought to achieve exactly this.

The government must lay down that law on the exploiters.

Nobody must be allowed to cause problems and be left to bask in luxury.

But workers unity independently of nay nationality is essential.

Workers of the world unite!

Instead of turning against one another - fellow victims - workers must unite independently of any nationality, organise and confront capital - the common enemy that pits them against each other in a destructive competition, the race to the bottom. This requires workers to build an ever strong trade union movement. Which is what COSATU seeks to achieve.

The SACP fully supports the cause, and will work with the federation to ensure that it achieves the success it needs. The Party will continue and intensify its work to unite workers politically.

But the workers need to unite on a global basis. International solidarity and working class struggle against exploitation are fundamental to cause of freedom!

What then about the idea of introducing refugee camps in South Africa?

While it is important to ensure that all immigrants are documented, the compartmentalisation of our people through segregated settlements is just no solution.

As a people we must integrate and live with one another in peace and harmony.

The complete de-colonisation of Africa actually requires that one day we must transcend the borders set by the colonial partitioning of our continent by the colonisers.

We must eliminate all forms of false consciousness, including inappropriate definitions of what constitutes a nation. Many of our people have been divided across borders by the colonial partitioning of our continent. And in many cases a “nation” is defined according to this colonial construct.

Isolate the “xenophobes” but educate them as well!

Our work to stop the attacks must include a real drive to identify the “xenophobes” and criminals who incite and commit the violence in our communities. We must isolate and hand them over to law enforcement agencies.

But it is important to intensify political education to transform those who are still holding on to backward and inward attitudes. There might be people who support the disgusting attacks out of ignorance and lack of proper political education. But the task to deliver this education cannot be left, important as this is, to the SACP alone or even the African National Congress. The state must implement in all schools that clarion call in the Freedom Charter:

“The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace”.

It is important for the state, as part of our second, more radical phase of our democratic transition, to implement general education and socialisation broadly in society based on this revolutionary content.

Let us pay more attention to the youth.

We must rigorously intensify our efforts to address the economic problems of social inequality, unemployment and poverty which mostly but by no means exclusively affect the youth.

The National Youth Service, including military youth skills programmes, is important. It must be revitalised to skill the youth of our country and improve their employment prospects. Similarly, the Public Works and Community Work programmes are important. These programmes must be transformed towards offering sustainable and decent work.

But more decisive efforts are required to expand the productive base of our economy to absorb work-seekers and develop decent work. The colonial features of our economy must be eliminated and its productive base developed, expanded, diversified and democratised. This is an essential feature of our second, more radical phase of our democratic transition.

The massive amounts of capital acquired from our economy and which are not being re-invested back especially in productive activity to create employment must be unlocked.

Capital’s investment strike must be brought to an end!

The government has an important role to play in this, through among others legislative and regulatory reviews, including prescribed asset requirements to ensure and direct investment in productive economic activity.

There must also be deliberate measures to advantage the small business sector in general and co-operatives in particular and to give them space to thrive.

Let us all take a stance!

Let us become active and join a good cause for humanity!

Stop the attacks and violence on foreign nationals right now!

Comrade Solly Mapaila is SACP Deputy General

[Onyango Oloo]

On his Facebook page,

www.facebook.com/MarcilessRiddims








"Peng Peng" describes himself as a "COMEDIAN".



Here now is the statement from the alleged "gang leader":

EBULAAYA KYEKYI
Europe comprises of many countries each with its laws.In Sweden never hurt(Animals,babies and women).Its funny my video was forwarded to the police before i even made a statement.They have viewed my video,And my video has a diclaimer"Imitating a gang leader"I presented them my work n how responsible i have been towards my country with almost 2000 videos on youtube,200 videos on facebook and almost 5k on my page.This was enough to prove myself that i am not just an ordinary person but an entertainer/journalist and Comedian.Never joke with the strength of a woman because just one word from Maama Malcolm made them belive i am a responsible dad.loving and never violent.Oyo yeka wano gemanyi gange ela bakyali bange omukyala omuzungu assobola okutassa munsiye mukaseera akazibu.Aba kuuba muna Uganda singa yaduseda.For the haters out there munansonyiwa naye i have no bad record in sweden ela sinywa ngako njaaga,Today i was told in sweden you have a right of expression as long as you dont hurt anybody.Infact my lawyer has scoped me a new acting job kinda kibanda.I know what i said was silly and i wish i can take it back but i cant and i apologised to all my fellow Africans that i offended,#‎They needed a criminal not a mult talented African like peng peng.

[Onyango Oloo]

Another Comment from the South African Communist Party:

Comrade Jeremy Cronin is SACP 1st Deputy General Secretary. Born on 12 September 1949, Comrade Cronin is a South African writer, author and noted poet. A longtime activist in politics, Cronin is a member of the South African Communist Party Central Committee and a member of the National Executive Committee of the African National Congress.He presently serves as the South African Deputy Minister of Public Works.

Condemn local xenophobic criminality outright and appreciate we’re dealing with the local impact of a global reality


By Cde Jeremy Cronin

“South Africa is the shame of the continent and a deviant in the world”, Ranjeni Munusamy wrote last week in the midst of our most recent outbreak of xenophobic violence. Munusamy’s sense of shame was a common feature of many voices on phone-in programmes and in the social media. This widespread outpouring is, at least, a positive indication that, despite everything, a great many South Africans haven’t lost their humanitarian bearings.

Even fractious, opposing political parties in a special parliamentary debate were united in condemnation of the violence, if not in their diagnosis of its underlying causes. Pieter Mulder of the FF+ said, mystically, an “evil force” was stalking through SA. Julius Malema, despite his professed Marxist-Fanonist radicalism, declined to attach any blame on the dangerous rhetoric of the Zulu king. Instead he evoked a thoroughly feudal view of the state worthy of that monarch. “The state”, Malema said, “being the elder for the whole of society, becomes responsible for all the violence meted out against our foreign nationals.” In short, blame daddy.

The most cynical explanation for the violence came from the Institute of Race Relations. Asked on SABC who or what was to blame, Mienke Steytler provided a categorical response: “People must blame government”. “Why?” the interviewer asked. “Because government creates unemployment by failing to implement a flexible labour market”, she replied.

Steytler was clearly unaware (or uncaring) that one of the immediate triggers for the latest flare up (apart from royal hate-speech) was the employment of desperate (that is flexible) foreign nationals as strike-breakers in an industrial dispute in Isipingo just days before the violence.

Gareth Van Onselen, writing in the Sunday Times, claims xenophobia is insufficiently discussed in SA. He attributes this to the invisible parameters placed on South African debate requiring, he says, matters of culture to be beyond scrutiny in the name of “respect”. (Van Onselen clearly means African culture, not neo-liberal culture, not the culture of the IMF). He proceeds: “it is time for a look at the problems inherent to black African nationalism as a political ideology. What is the long-term impact of racial nationalism on identity and to what degree does it foster and encourage an ‘us’ and ‘them’ mentality?”


Van Onselen’s breaking of an imagined taboo tells us less about xenophobia in SA and more about white prejudices that in turn have spawned a reluctance to use the term “xenophobia” in ANC circles. But the replacement term “afrophobia” also misses the mark. It’s not just foreign nationals from Africa (“our brothers and sisters”), but also Pakistani and Bangladeshi traders who’ve been targeted.

Like all political ideologies, African nationalism, narrow or broad, creates an “us” and a “them”. Our eminently liberal constitution itself establishes us-citizens and them-non-citizens and this is where the nub of the current issue lies. The 1994 democratic breakthrough brought citizenship rights to a majority of South Africans who’d never enjoyed them before. But, for the poor and marginalised, citizenship has not lived up to expectations. Instead, democracy has also brought an incoming flood of millions of desperate migrants, some legal many not. The majority are fleeing poverty, civil war, economic and environmental collapse - much of which relates to decades of structural adjustment programmes with Africa exporting more capital to the developed West than received in aid or investment.

There is the terrible, face-to-face butchery we’ve seen on newspaper front-pages with the poor bashing the poor on the grounds that “they” are taking away “our” jobs, “our” trading opportunities, “our” citizenship rights. Last week it resulted in thousands of displacements and seven deaths (three of them South Africans). In the same week 400 refugees drowned in the Mediterranean, over the weekend another 700. There’s the horror of inter-personal violence and there’s structural violence, the market-driven violence of Adam Smith’s “invisible hand”. The invisibility of the latter renders the beneficiaries of globalised, structural violence equally invisible and seemingly blameless.

And this is where Munusamy’s claim that SA is a global “deviant” is misdirected. While it must never detract from our outright condemnation of local xenophobic criminality, we need also to appreciate we’re dealing with the local impact of a global reality. We must deal decisively with our own challenges (rapid prosecution of perpetrators, for instance). But we also need to locate these challenges in a wider context.

One billion migrants now cross national borders every year, and the number is growing. There is a deep hypocrisy in the way in which global capitalism handles migrancy. On the one hand, the most weaponised international border in the world (the US-Mexico border) acts, like the Mediterranean, as a deadly buffer to staunch but not block the migrancy flow. Weaponised borders appease populist electorates at home, but little effort is devoted to inspecting work-places. Meanwhile, the dangers of crossing, and the difficulties of obtaining legal papers, serve to create a large pool of right-less, desperate workers, a key mechanism for maintaining low-wage, flexible labour markets for Californian fruit-growers, Walmart retailers, and the hospitality and fast-food chains. In Guy Standing’s inimitable phrase, migrants are “the light infantry of global capitalism.”

[Onyango Oloo]

A View from the Weekly Worker:

Weekly Worker Thursday 23 April 2015

Contradictions laid bare

There are two sides to South Africa’s ‘vibrant emerging market economy’. Peter Manson points to the underlying causes of the xenophobia



Durban: anti-migrant violence

As readers will know, a wave of xenophobia has been sweeping South Africa for the last two or three weeks and, as I write, seven people have been killed - three South Africans and four foreign nationals. Thousands of migrants have been displaced, fearing for their lives, in a series of attacks that followed the remarks made by the “king of the Zulu nation”, Goodwill Zwelithini, in March.

His majesty started by railing against those “lazy” South Africans who “do not want to work” - in fact some people “do not want to plough the fields”, would you believe. No wonder foreigners think, “Let us exploit the nation of idiots”. And, of course, those foreigners, who “dirty our streets”, are “everywhere”. According to Zwelithini, they should “pack their belongings and go back to their countries”.

Within a few days the xenophobic attacks had begun in and around Durban in Kwazulu-Natal (previously known as Zululand) and later spread to other urban centres, not least Johannesburg. But, of course, the king’s words had been “misinterpreted” - this great leader, who yearns for “peace” above all else, was apparently referring only to illegal immigrants.1

And there are certainly hundreds of thousands of those among the estimated five million migrants out of a total population of around 50 million. Mass immigration, particularly over the two decades since the ending of apartheid, has been one of the results of an economy that is not only larger, but expanding more rapidly, than those of other countries on the continent. These migrants come mainly from elsewhere in Africa, of course - not only neighbouring countries, such as Zimbabwe and Botswana, but also from as far as Somalia and Ethiopia. In addition there are those from the Indian subcontinent and China.

Many of them end up in the various poverty-stricken townships scattered all across South Africa, where shacks sometimes stretch for as far as the eye can see alongside the box-like houses of the ‘formal settlements’. Three years ago the number of shacks in the country was estimated to be 1.1 million (over 9% of households, probably some five million people), according to research published by the Housing Development Agency. It is generally agreed that the number of shacks has only marginally decreased since the end of apartheid.2

Meanwhile, the Gini coefficient, which measures social inequality, has risen from 6.4% to 6.9% over the last 10 years, making South Africa officially the most unequal country in the world. And the (considerably understated) unemployment figures stand at over 25% - and double that for youth.

In other words, there are two sides to the story of South Africa’s “vibrant emerging market economy”.3 It continues to attract investment, but it goes without saying that this is not directed towards production to satisfy the needs of the masses; rather it thrives on an enormous supply of cheap labour, disciplined by an equally enormous reserve army of unemployed. Nevertheless, the thousands of migrants who continue to pour in are willing to take their chance - anything to escape the hopelessness of life in their country of origin.

Peace-keeping

Every South African organisation, from the presidency to the trade unions, has expressed dismay at the wave of xenophobia. Jacob Zuma was so alarmed, he cancelled his state visit to Indonesia, so as to focus on the urgent problem in the shape of failing social control. For a start, he “called upon all churches to lead the nation in praying for peace and friendship”,4 before announcing that dedicated courts were to be set up to hold snap trials of those accused of xenophobic violence. Later he decided to call in the army to patrol hot spots in Durban and Johannesburg. Of course, we all know how South African state forces excel in ‘peace-keeping’ - everyone remembers the restraint shown by the police in Marikana, in August 2012, for example.5

For Zuma, “The attacks violate all the values that South Africa embodies.” He added: “No amount of frustration or anger can ever justify the attacks on foreign nationals and the looting of their shops.” After all, many migrants were legal and were helping to “boost the economy” through their hard work and skills. While “South Africa remains a country that welcomes foreign nationals who contribute to the economic growth of the country and the continent”,6 it was true that “lax border controls” were a problem, said Zuma, and he is determined to promote “orderly migration”. But he did at least remind citizens that the struggle against apartheid was facilitated by the help of other countries, who took in and provided facilities for liberation fighters: “We went to those countries without valid papers.”

As well as issuing its own statement, the ruling African National Congress was the first organisation named in the joint declaration put out by what used to be called the tripartite alliance, which consisted of the ANC itself, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions. But now there is a fourth organisation: the much less weighty South African National Civic Organisation.

Anyway, the four organisations drafted a statement that bore all the hallmarks of the SACP. This too referred to the solidarity of other Africans during the apartheid era: “We will never, for a single moment, forget this support. It is a living evidence of what a united African people can achieve to defeat their common enemy.” Turning to the underlying causes of the xenophobia, the declaration reminded South Africans of the ANC’s pledges: “The alliance and the ANC-led government has made a commitment to eradicate poverty and unemployment, and reduce inequality through radical economic transformation and other programmes.” That “radical economic transformation” will be driven by another platitudinous aim: “Business interests should be subordinated to those of the people, especially the working class and the poor.” Interestingly, however, the statement continued: “In this regard, the free movement of people is very critical to the integration of the region.”7

But in its own reaction, in the form of an article by second deputy general secretary Solly Mapaila, the SACP itself seemed to view this question as something to be implemented in the distant future: “The complete decolonisation of Africa actually requires that one day we must transcend the borders set by the colonial partitioning of our continent …” In the meantime, “it is important to ensure that all immigrants are documented”.

The rest of the article was a combination of militant-sounding phrases and abject reformism. For instance,

Fundamentally, the causes are international. Multilateral institutions must therefore also discuss the social problems created by the dominant world system they are presiding on - that is, capitalism ... Those institutions must themselves become transformed, as is the system they are presiding on - which must ultimately be replaced in a world revolution.8

However, for the time being, what is needed is firm state intervention:

The massive amounts of capital acquired from our economy and which are not being reinvested back, especially in productive activity to create employment, must be unlocked … The government has an important role to play in this … including prescribed asset requirements to ensure and direct investment in productive economic activity.

What about the Economic Freedom Fighters of Julius Malema, which has been aptly described as “black nationalist” by this paper? The important word in that phrase is the first one: black nationalist. In other words, for Malema and the EFF, what matters is black or African unity. So at EFF events, the chant has been, “Down with xenophobia, down!” “Forward, United States of Africa, forward!” At a rally in Alexandra township, Johannesburg, Malema yelled: “These borders are not our borders. These borders are imposed on us by the colonisers.”

But, despite his left-sounding militancy, Malema’s cross-class politics was revealed in the way he attempted to exonerate Goodwill Zwelithini: “I have come here to plead with you. There is no Zulu king telling you to kill people. The king has never said that. He is just speaking against criminals.”

Racism?

Throughout the South African media, the term overwhelmingly used to describe the current anti-migrant violence is, as readers will no doubt have observed, ‘xenophobia’ - although I have come across the totally inaccurate ‘Afrophobia’ too. It is worth making that point, because, if such incidents were to occur in Britain, I am certain that large sections of the left would come up with a different, and even more inaccurate, label: ie, ‘racism’.

The Socialist Workers Party is the prime culprit here, with its continual levelling of the term against Nigel Farage and the UK Independence Party in particular. In reality Ukip is merely more consistent and more extreme in its nationalistic (or indeed xenophobic) opposition to immigration than the mainstream parties. However, in its tangential comment on the violence, Socialist Worker fell into line, when it quoted one of its own South African comrades: “There is a solution to the problem of xenophobia, poverty, unemployment and extreme inequalities - it is socialism … Workers own no country, workers of the world unite!”9

I say ‘tangential’, because the article in question is a report of the April 16-17 Conference for Socialism hosted by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), which has been expelled from Cosatu for turning against the ANC and SACP, and calling for the establishment of a new workers’ party. The aim of the conference was: “Begin to contribute to laying a foundation for exploring the possibility of securing the greatest unity of socialist forces in South Africa, for the struggle for a socialist South Africa.”10

It is clear from the phrasing that Numsa is in no rush, but that did not stop the SWP’s co-thinker in South Africa from describing the event as a “historic conference” - even though there were only “around 150 delegates” present. “But there were weaknesses,” the comrade continues. “The most important was the absence of two major players who have been central to the new radicalism in South Africa - Julius Malema’s new Economic Freedom Fighters party and the platinum miners.”

What? The EFF’s absence is a “weakness”? I don’t think so.

[e-mail]

Notes

1. The relevant extract from his speech can be heard on the website of The Times ofJohannesburg: www.timeslive.co.za/local/2015/04/16/listen-to-exactly-what-king-goodwill-zwelithini-said-about-foreigners. There are English subtitles for those whose Zulu is not so good.

2. www.thehda.co.za/uploads/images/HDA_Infor­mal_settlements_status_South_Africa.pdf.

3. www.southafrica-newyork.net/consulate/why%20invest%20in%20south%20africa.html.

4. Media statement from the presidency, April 18 2015.

5. The official Marikana commission investigating the events leading to the shooting dead of 34 striking miners by Zuma’s police finally handed its report to the president on March 31. He is still sitting on it.

6. Government media statement, April 19 2015.

7. www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=10308.

8. www.politicsweb.co.za/news-and-analysis/xenopobia-govt-must-lay-down-the-law-to-the-exploi.

9. My emphasis, Socialist Worker April 25 2015.

10. www.numsa.org.za/article/reminder-media-invitation-numsa-to-host-conference-for-socialism-from-16-17-april-2015-birchwood-hotel-and-or-tambo-conference-centre.

This article

23.04.2015

Issue 1055

[Onyango Oloo]

Nigerian NGO asks ICC to probe Zulu King for xenophobic attacks

Adetokunbo Mumuni

2015-04-23, Issue 723

pambazuka.org/en/category/features/94535


The organisation says that it considers the use of speech by the Zulu King to promote hatred and/or incite violence against non-nationals such as Nigerians as a clear violation of the provisions of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP), a Nigerian non-governmental organization, has requested the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court Mrs. Fatou Bensouda to use her “good offices and position to investigate allegations of hate speech by the Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, which has resulted in killing, violence and discrimination against Nigerians and other African citizens living in South Africa, as well as the complicity/negligence of the country’s law enforcement agencies to prevent these crimes against civilian population.”

The organisation also urged her to “bring to justice anyone who is responsible for these international crimes prohibited under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.”

In the petition dated 23 April 2015 and signed by SERAP executive director Adetokunbo Mumuni the organisation said that it “considers the use of speech by the Zulu King to promote hatred and/or incite violence against non-nationals such as Nigerians, particularly in the media, as a clear violation of the provisions of the Rome Statute of International Criminal Court.

“Grave statements by political leaders/prominent people that express discrimination and cause violence against non-nationals cannot be justified under any law. This hate speech generated fear and hatred that created the conditions for violence and discrimination against Nigerians and other African citizens. SERAP believes that this has given rise to individual criminal responsibility under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court,” the organisation said.

The organisation argued that, “the statement by the Zulu King amounts to a harmful form of expression which incites or otherwise promotes hatred, discrimination, violence and intolerance. We are seriously concerned that crimes against humanity are often accompanied or preceded by the kind of statement made by the Zulu King.”

“Once the climate of violence has been created, direct and public incitement to crimes builds on it, exacerbating the situation by further heating up passions and directing South Africans’ hatred towards non-nationals such as Nigerians. Hate speech by King Zulu is legally tied to contemporaneous, large-scale violence and inhumane and discriminatory treatment of Nigerians and other African citizens,” the organisation also argued.

The organisation also said that, “The statement by the Zulu King has contributed to a climate of fear, demonization and dehumanization of Nigerians and other African citizens, thus violating their human dignity through humiliation and expulsion from the human community. SERAP is seriously concerned that hate speech by the Zulu King amounts to crime against humanity of persecution and has directly contributed to an infringement of the right to life, equality and non-discrimination of Nigerians and other African citizens.”

“SERAP considers the statement by the Zulu King and the apparent complicity/negligence by the country’s law enforcement agencies to prevent the violence and discrimination as amounting to active encouragement of South African citizens to develop feelings of contempt for Nigerians and other African citizens; as amounting to incitement to violence and discrimination against Nigerians and other African citizens, and to mistreat them; and as amounting to an appeal for South African citizens to separate themselves from Nigerians and other African citizens,” the organisation further stressed.

“The statement by the Zulu King and the apparent complicity/negligence by the country’s law enforcement agencies to prevent the violence and discrimination has contributed to the level of persecution against Nigerians and other African citizens. According to Professor Bassiouni, persecution in this instance is “a state action leading to the infliction upon an individual of harassment, torment, oppression, or discriminatory measures, designed to or likely to produce physical or mental suffering or economic harm, because of the victims’ beliefs, views, or membership in a given identifiable group (such as non-nationals),” the organisation also said.

The petition further reads:

“In the Mugesera case, the Canadian Supreme Court held that hate speech may constitute persecution, even if it does not result in the commission of acts of violence. In arriving at this conclusion, the court considered that a link was demonstrated between the speech at issue and the widespread or systematic attack against the civilian population. Thus, the post-World War II jurisprudence generally establishes that hate speech not urging an audience to commit imminent violence can constitute persecution.”

“The government does not have the political will to bring those suspected to be responsible for crimes under international law to justice. Given the complicity/negligence by the country’s law enforcement agencies to prevent the violence, killing and discrimination, it is unlikely that the government will take any serious action to bring perpetrators to justice.”

“Without accountability for these serious human rights crimes, the victims will continue to be denied access to justice, and impunity of perpetrators will remain widespread and the result will continue to be a vicious cycle of violence and discrimination against Nigerians and other African citizens living in South Africa.”

“SERAP believes that substantial grounds exist to warrant the intervention of the Prosecutor in this case. Under Article 17 of the Rome Statute, the Court is a court of last resort, expected to exercise its jurisdiction only if states themselves are unwilling or unable genuinely to investigate and prosecute international crimes. Also, pursuant to the Rome Statute, the Prosecutor has power to intervene in a situation under the jurisdiction of the Court if the Security Council or states parties refer a situation or if information is provided from other sources such as the information SERAP is providing in this case.”

On the basis of the above, SERAP asks you to:

• Urgently commence an investigation proprio motu on the allegations of hate speech and the accompanying killing, violence and discrimination against Nigerians and other African citizens living in South Africa, with a view to determining whether these amount to international crimes within the Court’s jurisdiction. In this respect, we also urge you to invite representatives of the South African government to provide written or oral testimony at the seat of the Court, so that the Prosecutor is able to conclude on the basis of available information whether there is a reasonable basis for an investigation, and to submit a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber for authorization of an investigation.
• Bring to justice those suspected to be responsible for serious human rights crimes in South Africa.
• Urge the South African government to fulfil its obligations under the Rome Statute to cooperate with the ICC; including complying with your requests to arrest and surrender suspected perpetrators of international crimes, take testimony, and provide other support to the ICC.

It would be recalled that while addressing Pongolo community members during a moral regeneration event recently, Zwelithini reportedly said, “Most government leaders do not want to speak out on this matter because they are scared of losing votes. As the king of the Zulu nation, I cannot tolerate a situation where we are being led by leaders with no views whatsoever. We are requesting those who come from outside to please go back to their countries. The fact that there were countries that played a role in the country’s struggle for liberation should not be used as an excuse to create a situation where foreigners are allowed to inconvenience locals. I know you were in their countries during the struggle for liberation. But the fact of the matter is you did not set up businesses in their countries.”

Zwelithini, who spoke from a prepared speech, made the remarks in the presence of Police Minister Nathi Nhleko.

[Onyango Oloo]

Other articles from the Pambazuka special issue:

Xenophobia undermines Pan African Agenda:

www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/94537

Should Durban host 2022 Commonwealth Games:

www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/94536


Political Economy of Xenophobia:

www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/94533

A Kenyan weighs in on the subject:

www.pambazuka.org/en/category/features/94538

[Onyango Oloo]

Feedback and request from Cape Town:

Dear Mr Oloo,

I saw your moving poem and blog on the WSF email circuit. My organisation, the progressive International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG), and its bi-monthly publication Workers World News, is working on a special edition centred on the xenophic violence. We often use poems in our editions, and although yours is a bit long for the purpose, we would like to try to fit it in.

We are also interested in using some of the pictures on the blog (http://jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/9336/pokomos-polokwane) but would have to get your permission or the photographer’s credits. Would you be kind enough to let us know whether any of this is possible?

We are trying to pull together the magazine next Monday, so I am hoping to hear from you this week. You can see back copies of the magazine on our website, but I attach the latest edition in pdf.

Kind regards,


Christelle Terreblanche

Researcher-Educator ILRIG
Co-editor: Workers World News
Mobile: +27 xxxxxxxxxxxx
TEL: +27 xxxxxxxxxxxx
FAX: +27 xxxxxxxxxx
Room 14, Community House
41 Salt River Road
Cape Town