Xenophobia

Andrew Layman:  PCB CEO

During last week, a topic for discussion on one of the SAfm talk programmes was xenophobia.  As is quite often the case, regrettably, some of the callers revealed all that is bad about South Africans.   Ingrained prejudices are common.   They emerge in many ways, and mostly without any recognition of prejudice on the part of the caller.   A common clue to racial prejudice is the use of “they” when speaking about government or black people: “they” do this, or “they” do the other, or why don’t “they” do this better.   Black people don’t use this pronoun in the same way.  But they do demonise Helen Zille.   On the subject of xenophobia one might have thought that she had fomented it.  At the very least she had sabotaged the country’s reputation because she had raised a concern.   The rumour was squarely attributed to her as a kind of opposition plot to discredit the country.   Since the General had suggested that the reports of impending trouble were exaggerated, these callers were showing that they are in denial, without, of course, having any real knowledge of the situation at all.   It was ironic, therefore, that a bigot of a different type should have phoned in – anonymously – claiming that Zimbabweans were thieves and they should be chased away.   They’re stealing our property, he said.    There was no proof of this at all.   Somebody in the township community had been burgled and the whole community had bought into the belief that a Zimbabwean was responsible.  One wonders whether there are any communities in which rumours take root and spread as truth so quickly.

I think the media has made a meal of this.   They have also made a meal of some other things that have popped up during the World Cup which have showed some flaws in the national striving for perfection.    Mind you, it is the government rather than the media that has elevated a journalist’s indiscretion into a conspiracy.   Even Paris Hilton didn’t command as much media coverage as the man who is alleged to have plotted to embarrass the country.   If one considers that the media is responsive to the public preference for certain news, the perverse pleasure that we get from reading or hearing about deficiencies and flaws, exposes a human characteristic that is difficult to understand.   It’s no different elsewhere in the world.  However lustily British people may sing “God Save the Queen”, they still enjoy reading about scandals which compromise the national pride.   There seemed to be some pleasure in the way that the British media vilified its soccer team.   Even while we burst with self-satisfaction and pride we are looking for the pin to stick in.

Xenophobia is also a universal phenomenon.   Governments which have been more left than right wing have yielded to the international rights movement and accepted that globalisation also means that everyone has a right to be wherever they would prefer to be.   Such liberal policies do not always enjoy the support of the populace which often resents the fact that they are expected to share their nationhood and their country’s resources with people escaping from less favourable circumstances in their own countries.   Like the death penalty, it is not the kind of topic that should be put to the people in a referendum for the outcome might prove embarrassing.   For the most part, however, whatever their innate feelings, citizens don’t chase the immigrants away; nor do they attack them violently.   In time, they even get on well together.    So it is among the South African middle class.   Here there are no xenophobic fears.   Portuguese or Greek or Zimbabwean children are not driven out of suburban schools, nor do their parents show any animosity.   

But in poverty-riven communities, where deprivation and unemployment are orders of the day, things are very different.    Here there is huge anxiety about the sharing of meagre resources with interlopers.   I suggest the situation is exacerbated by the fact that many of the immigrants, notably Zimbabweans, are better educated and better qualified.  They are also more entrepreneurial and, as employers will confirm, often have a better work ethic.   They also have fewer expectations of government, knowing when they emigrated that they have no right to expect to benefit from political promises in another country.    It is not surprising that there is resentment.  

The solution to this problem lies with the government.   Stability and harmony in poor communities, which would include neighbourliness in respect of immigrants, would be achieved by more conscious efforts to uplift poor people, including the stimulation of job creation.    Perhaps we’ll get to this when we come down to earth.     

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