2008 South Africa riots.html



2008 South Africa riots
Part of the history of South Africa
Map of South Africa
Date 12 May 2008- ??? Location Gauteng, Durban, Mpumalanga South Africa Result 62 people dead, several hundred injured, voluntary deportation of immigrants to home countries, destruction of immigrant-owned property

Prior to 1994 immigrants from elsewhere in Africa faced discrimination and even violence in South Africa, though much of that risk stemmed from the institutionalised racism of the time rather than xenophobia. Post 1994 and democratisation, and contrary to expectations, the incidence of xenophobia increased. Between 2000 and March 2008 at least 67 people died in what was identified as xenophobic attacks. In May 2008 a series of riots left 62 people dead; although 21 of those killed were South African citizens the attacks were apparently motivated by xenophobia.

Recent history of xenophobia in South Africa

European immigration

Restrictions on immigration can be traced back to the Union of South Africa, with the different states adopting different policies on foreigners. A prejudice against immigrants from eastern and southern Europe (measured against the welcome of those from western and northern Europe) has been documented. In the Cape Colony the Cape Immigration Act (No 30) of 1906 set as requirement the ability to complete an application form in a European language (including Yiddish) and proof of £20 as visible means of support.¹

Mozambican and Congolese immigrants before 1994

Between 1984 and the end of hostilities in that country an estimated 250 000 to 350 000 Mozambicans fled to South Africa. While never granted refugee status they were technically allowed to settle in the bantustans or black homelands created by the apartheid government. The reality was more varied, with the homeland of Lebowa banning Mozambican settlers outright while Gazankulu welcomed the refugees with support in the form of land and equipment. Those in Gazankulu, however, found themselves confined to the homeland and liable for deportation should they enter South Africa proper, and evidence exists that their hosts denied them access to economic resource. ²

Unrest and civil war likewise saw large numbers of Congolese immigrate to South Africa, many illegally, in 1993 and 1997. Subsequent studies found indications of xenophobic attitudes towards these refugees, typified by their being denied access to the primary healthcare to which they were technically entitled.³

Xenophobia post 1994

Despite a lack of directly comprable data, xenophobia in South Africa is perceived to have significantly increased after the installation of a democratic government in 1994. According to a 2004 study published by the Southern African Migration Project (SAMP):

"The ANC government – in its attempts to overcome the divides of the past and build new forms of social cohesion... embarked on an aggressive and inclusive nation-building project. One unanticipated by-product of this project has been a growth in intolerance towards outsiders... Violence against foreign citizens and African refugees has become increasingly common and communities are divided by hostility and suspicion."⁴

The study was based on a citizen survey across member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and found South Africans expressing the harshest anti-foreigner sentitment, with 21% of South Africans in favour of a complete ban on entry by foreigners and 64% in favour of strict limitations on the numbers allowed. By contrast, the next-highest proportion of respondents in favour of a total ban on foreigners was in Namibia and Botswanna, at 10%.

Foreigners and the South African Police Service

A 2004 study by the Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) or attitudes among police officers in the Johannesburg area found that 87% of respondents believed that most undocumented immigrants in Johannesburg are involved in crime, despite there being no statistical evidence to substantiate the perception. Such views combined with the vulnerability of illegal aliens led to abuse, including violence and extortion, some analysts argued. ⁵

In a March 2007 meeting with home affairs minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula a representative of Burundian refugees in Durban claimed immigrants could not rely on police for protection but instead found police mistreating them, stealing from them and making unfounded allegations that they sell drugs. ⁶ Two years earlier, at a similar meeting in Johannesburg, Mapisa-Nqakula had admitted that refugees and asylum seekers were mistreated by police with xenophobic attitudes.⁷

Violence before May 2008

According to a 1998 Human Rights Watch report immigrants from Malawi, Zimbabwe and Mozambique living in the Alexandra township were "physically assaulted over a period of several weeks in January 1995, as armed gangs identified suspected undocumented migrants and marched them to the police station in an attempt to 'clean' the township of foreigners."⁸⁹ The campaign, known as "Buyelekhaya" (go back home), blamed foreigners for crime, unemployment and sexual attacks.¹⁰

In September 1998 a Mozambican and two Senegalese were thrown out of a train. The assault was carried out by a group returning from a rally that blamed foreigners for unemployment, crime and spreading AIDS.¹¹

In 2000 seven foreigners were killed on the Cape Flats over a five week period in what police described as xenophobic murders possibly motivated by the fear that outsiders would claim property belonging to locals.¹²

In October 2001 residents of the Zandspruit informal settlement gave Zimbabweans 10 days to leave the area. When the foreigners failed to leave voluntarily they were forcefully evicted and their shacks were burned down and looted. Community members said they were angry that Zimbabweans were employed while locals remained jobless and blamed the foreigners for a number of crimes. No injuries were reported among the Zimbweans.¹³

In the last week of 2005 and first week of 2006 at least four people, including two Zimbaweans, died in the Olievenhoutbosch settlement after foreigners were blamed for the death of a local man. Shacks belonging to foreigners were set alight and locals demanded that police remove all immigrants from the area.¹⁴

In August 2006 Somali refugees appealed for protection after 21 Somali traders were killed in July of that year and 26 more in August. The immigrants believed the murders to be motivated by xenophobia, although police rejected the assertion of a concerted campaign to drive Somali traders out of townships in the Western Cape.¹⁵

Attacks on foreign nationals increased markedly in late 2007 and it is believed that there have been at least a dozen attacks since the start of 2008.¹⁶ The most severe incidents occurred on January 8, 2008 when two Somali shop owners were murdered in the Eastern Cape towns of Jeffreys Bay and East London and in March 2008 when seven people were killed including Zimbabweans, Pakistanis and a Somali after their shops and shacks were set alight in Atteridgeville near Pretoria.¹⁶

May 2008 riots

Spread of violence

On May 12, 2008 a series of riots started in the township of Alexandra (in the north-eastern part of Johannesburg) when locals attacked migrants from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe, killing two people and injuring 40 others.¹⁷

In the following weeks the violence spread, first to other settlements in the Gauteng Province, then to the coastal cities of Durban¹⁸ and Cape Town.

Attacks were also reported in parts of the Southern Cape,¹⁹ Mpumalanga,²⁰ the North West and Free State²¹.

Causes

A report by the Human Sciences Research Council identified three broad causes for the violence:

• relative deprivation, specifically intense competition for jobs, commodities and housing;
• South African exceptionalism, or a feeling of superiority in relation to other Africans; and
• exclusive citizenship, or a form of nationalism that excludes others.²²

Refugee camps and reintegration question

UNHCR tents at a refugee camp on Olifantsfontein, Midrand, Johannesburg

After being housed in temporary places of safety (including police stations and community halls) for three weeks, those who fled the violence were moved into specially established temporary camps.²³ Conditions in some camps were condemned on the grounds of location and infrastructure²⁴, highlighting their temporary nature.

The South African government initially adopted a policy of quickly reintegrating refugees into the communities they originally fled²⁵ and subsequently set a deadline in July 2008, by which time refugees would be expected to return to their communities or countries of origin.²⁶ After an apparent policy shift the government vowed that there would be no forced reintegration of refugees²⁷and that the victims would not be deported, even if they were found to be illegal immigrants.²⁸

Domestic reaction

South African government

In response to the violence President Thabo Mbeki announced he would set up a panel of experts to investigate the riots. African National Congress leader Jacob Zuma, condemned the attacks, saying "We cannot allow South Africa to be famous for xenophobia" in a speech in Pretoria while announcing his new 'Time Machine' project.²⁹

On May 21, Mbeki approved a request from the SAPS for deployment of armed forces against the attacks in Gauteng³⁰. It is the first time that the South African government has ordered troops out to the streets in order to quell unrest since the end of apartheid in 1994³¹.

The Home Affairs department's spokesperson, Mansele Tau, denied that his ministry was deporting any guest or immigrant residents from the country and that there was any significant rise of applicants for voluntary deportation, but stated that the ministry would help with any paperwork for individual applicants whenever the occasion merited such a response³².

African National Congress

The ANC's leadership, including ANC president Jacob Zuma, condemned both the attacks and the Mbeki government's response to the attacks; Zuma also lamented the usage of his trademark song Umshini wami by the rioters³³. Secretary-General Gwede Mantashe called for the creation of local committees to combat violence against foreigners³⁴³⁵.

The Gauteng provincial branch of the ANC has alleged that the violence is politically motivated by a "third hand" that is primarily targeting the ANC for the 2009 general elections³⁶.

Democratic Alliance

In a weekly newsletter published to the website of the Democratic Alliance (DA) party, Cape Town mayor and DA leader Helen Zille pointed to instances of crowds of rioters singing "Umshini wami", a popular ANC rally song associated with the 2007 party leadership campaign of current ANC president Jacob Zuma³³, and noted that the rioters also hailed from the rank and file of the ANC Youth League, which also backed Zuma in his leadership campaign; she alleged that Zuma had promised years before to his supporters to take measures against the immigration of foreign nationals to South Africa, and that Zuma's most recent condemnation of the riots and distancing from the anti-immigration platform was not enough of a serious initiative against the participation of fellow party members in the violence³⁷. Both Zille and the parliamentary leader of the DA, Sandra Botha, slammed the ANC for shifting the blame concerning the violence to a "third hand", which is often taken in South African post-apartheid political discourse as a reference to pro-apartheid or allegedly pro-apartheid organizations.

However, Zille was also criticized by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel for the Cape Argus's quote of her saying that foreigners were responsible for a bulk of the drug trade in South Africa³⁸.

KwaZulu-Natal provincial government

Bheki Cele, community safety minister of KwaZulu-Natal, blamed the Inkatha Freedom Party, a nationalist Zulu political party, for stoking and capitalizing on the violence in Durban³⁹. Both Cele and premier S'bu Ndebele claimed that IFP members, particularly residents of the Dalton hostel, had attacked a tavern that catered to Nigerian immigrants en route to a party meeting. The IFP, which is based primarily in the predominately ethnically-Zulu KwaZulu-Natal province, rejected the statements, and had, on May 20, engaged in an anti-xenophobia meeting with the ANC⁴⁰.

Intelligence community

Both the Minister of Intelligence, Ronnie Kasrils, and the director general of the National Intelligence Agency, Manala Manzini, backed the Gauteng ANC's allegations that the anti-immigrant violence is politically motivated and targeted at the ANC³⁶. Referring to the attacks by hostel dwellers on tavern patrons in Durban which set off the violence in Durban's townships and publicized allegations of one rioter that he was being paid to commit violent acts against immigrants, Manzini stated that the violence was being stoked primarily within hostel facilities by a third party with financial incentives.

Also, Manzini rejected that the violence was strictly xenophobic, stating that Shangaan and Venda people, both of whom are pre-colonial citizen residents in both the territory of South Africa and surrounding states, were also victimized by the violence.

However, the NIA was criticized by the ruling ANC's National Executive Committee for not warning about simmering tensions and focusing more on the ANC's internal struggles⁴¹.

International reaction

Zimbabwean politicians and diaspora

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai, in temporary exile in South Africa, expressed concern about the attacks on his countrymen and appealed to South Africans to treat the immigrants with sympathy rather than vilification.⁴² South African labour union federation COSATU also criticised the government's response and policies. Officials appealed to locals in an attempt to quell the violence.⁴²

The Zimbabwe Exiles Group criticised the South African government's response, in particular Thabo Mbeki, and accused him of being "more concerned with appeasing Mr. Mugabe than recognising the scale of the problem caused by the flood of Zimbabweans into South Africa."⁴³

Mozambique and other countries

A FRELIMO parliamentary deputy, Lidia Geremias, demanded for a South African government response to the riots that would be similar to the response of the German government against neo-Nazi attacks against Mozambican immigrants and guest workers in Germany⁴⁴.

The Mozambican government sponsored a repatriation of Mozambican immigrants from South Africa to their home country by bus; according to Leonardo Boby, Deputy National Director of Immigration, over 3,275 repatriates were registered by the Mozambican Foreign Affairs ministry since the exodus began on or around May 19. At least 4 bodies of Mozambican residents killed by rioters were repatriated for burial⁴⁵. This program has not kept up with the actual exodus of Mozambican immigrants and guest workers, which totals over 9,000.

Malawi has also began repatriations of Malawian nationals in South Africa. No such effort has been forthcoming or anticipated from Zimbabwe, Somalia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo or Nigeria, from whence millions of immigrant residents hail.

African Union

The African Union chairman, Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete, condemned the violence in a mini-summit convened in Arusha, Tanzania, where Thabo Mbeki was in attendance⁴⁶.

UNHCR

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees expressed concerns about the violence and urged the South African government to cease deportation of Zimbabwean nationals and also to allow the refugees and asylum seekers to regularize their stay in the country⁴⁷.

Possible post-violence ramifications

Economic and social

The large outflow of immigrant labour in the immediate aftermath of the attacks raised concerns about the impact on industries such as mining, agriculture and service industries that make widespread use of foreign labour. As of June, however, immigration statistics showed a net inflow of immigrants, especially from neighbouring Zimbabwe.⁴⁸

Tourism

A number of countries, including Germany, the United States and Sweden issued travel advisories warning in May⁴⁹, although tour operators continued bus tours of the affected townships, declaring the situation safe.⁵⁰

2010 World Cup

The May 2008 riots renewed fears that the 2010 FIFA World Cup slated to take place in South Africa may be relocated, although FIFA reiterated that the contingency plan for a re-location of the event will only be activated in the case of a natural catastrophe. The organizing committee for World Cup 2010 has condemned the violence⁵¹.

The welcome the world cup tourists would receive was questioned⁵², as was the support from other African countries for what has been billed as a pan-African event.⁵³

Political

The violence could slightly damage relations between South Africa and the governments which are represented by immigrant communities in the country, as South Africa may or may not attempt to win back the expatriates which fled the country in droves during the violence. It is not certain if any involvement by supranational organizations such as the SADC or the African Union will take place.

References

External links

• IOL - Xenophobia Special Report
• M&G - Xenophobia Special Report
• NEWS24 - Xenophobia Special Report
• The Times - Xenophobia Special Report
• Boston Globe Photo Essay
• Article on the Pogroms in Indian Journal
• Statement on the attacks by Radical South African shack dwellers' movement
• Michael Neocosmos's 'From Foreign Natives to Native Foreigners: explaining xenophobia in contemporary South Africa', Dakar: Codesria, 2006
• Journalists who documented the death of Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave help repatriate his body
• Reports on Xenophobia from the Forced Migration Studies Programme at Wits University in Johannesburg