Xenophobic Violence Turns Deadly in the Western Cape

GOOD Statement by Brett Herron, GOOD Secretary-General:

Millions of South Africans are justifiably angry about the poor quality of their lives, the slow progress of post-apartheid redress, and the injustice of deepening inequality.

According to the World Bank, South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. When people can’t find jobs, and live in squalor, they are left feeling that they have nothing left to lose. When you add three million immigrant jobseekers to this environment, it creates a pressure cooker, ready to explode- and it did explode.

Following anti-immigrant mobilisation across the country, a wave of xenophobic violence took hold in the Southern Cape last week.

Instead of the State, at all its levels, managing the situation, it has sat back and allowed the crisis to devolve further into loss of life.

Now we must ask, what are the Western Cape leaders doing? Here, the ruling party’s overarching strategy is essentially narcissistic: It takes credit for everything that is good, including the weather, while blaming national government for all that is bad.

It has been sitting idly by. It did nothing to stop farmers orchestrating the largest migration of people of colour from farmland since the depravations of the 1913 Native Land Act. By purging farm dwellers from their land, the farmers created increasing space for work-seeking immigrants. But rather than holding government accountable, immigrants are made to bear the cost as the easiest targets. Hate-filled rhetoric is directed at people seeking a better life, rather than those who appear to be undermining living standards in pursuit of personal gain.

South Africa’s government at all its levels must take responsibility for managing the crisis of poverty, under-delivery and exclusion. That includes managing the private sector’s employment practises and managing its own immigration policies. The DA claims to be managing the Western Cape well. When you take a drive into the Western Cape hinterland and see the sprawling shacks that have doubled and tripled the populations of rural towns, we must say “Dankie DA”, because that’s their legacy. Please can the Western Cape Government inform us what it plans to do to fix the crisis of poverty, unemployment and under-delivery in rural areas, besides brandishing its guns, which we all know it loves to do.

GOOD Manifesto on Civic Engagement: Encouraging active community participation in governance.

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