Xenophobia is an attack on democratic life and must be stopped (Part 1)

food allegedly emanating from some of the spaza shops run by foreign nationals. When one examines the evidence, it’s clear that a lower threshold is applied in making a claim of criminality against people who are foreign nationals. That lack of basic respect must end.

It is important that we do not restrict our commentary on Gayton McKenzie’s statements to whether or not he should remain a member of the Cabinet. McKenzie might be removed from the Cabinet, although it seems unlikely in the light of the low weight that is placed on xenophobic statements. 

But the problem of xenophobia remains. It will continue to be a serious question in that there is no clarity as to why or whether xenophobia is wrong, or whether we are confronted by xenophobic incidents in South Africa.  

It’s important that we have people grow up in a country that does not condone any statements that are part of racism, and which does not require that the victim should be a citizen.

There are certain values, mainly in regard to apartheid manifestations, but it does not seem to be a recognised moral question in people's minds to see xenophobia as serious wrongdoing. That must be remedied, because to voice xenophobic statements and behaviour is to spit on the freedom of all South Africans because, as mentioned earlier, freedom is universal. Excluding some means we do not have freedom.

Naming

Consequently, while the remedying of the question of xenophobia can be treated separately, it may be that it will not start to happen until the democratic foundations of the country are restored more generally.

Commentary on xenophobia is inhibited by the hypersensitivity of ANC politicians who insist, as many autocrats have done in the past, on demanding that xenophobia is not called by that name. For example, then Police minister Nathi Mthethwa on 15 July 2010 said “there is no such systematic thing as xenophobia in the country” and that violence against foreign nationals was perpetrated by “criminal elements”. 

Just prior to this, the South African Communist Party stated that “these are not xenophobic attacks... but acts of criminality”.

It is simply crime in some cases, but generally there is a simple failure to treat xenophobia as a hate crime or other form of criminality.

Feminists such as Adrienne Rich  and African-American writers like James Baldwin  have recognised the power of naming more generally, the name having a crucial impact on how a struggle or other phenomena are understood. 

Liberation movements were called terrorists by their opponents, and much of the discourse of the ANC and other liberation movements demanded that they be called by their name, freedom fighters, or alternatively a more neutral term like insurgents or armed militants. 

The power of naming is important for any attempt to combat xenophobia to succeed, because of statements to the media and other anti-xenophobic agencies by government spokespersons after xenophobic attacks not to call them xenophobia, but instead to call them “crimes”. Such instructions are made aggressively, one suspects because the publicity is bad.

McKenzie’s threats against civil society and those fighting xenophobia are threats against our democracy. In a recent interview with The Africa Report, he said “I will get rid of illegal foreigners. I will close this type of charity because we need patriotic charities in our country. I will close down the charities that are anti-government, that are anti-South African.” 

When asked if that included the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation, he said: “I’ve never heard them speak about the poorest of the poor not having jobs. They must go to hell. I said it. They should go. They are a disgrace to the memory of Ahmed Kathrada.”

We need to assert that in actions against xenophobia, we are in fact claiming our rights as heirs to South African freedom, as heirs to constitutionalism, the foundational values of the new democratic South Africa. These are being buried every year, and this very silence that we are now experiencing after the new xenophobic utterances of McKenzie is more important than the name “Gayton McKenzie”. 

It has great importance as a claiming of democratic life and values in South Africa.  

Combating xenophobia in the rest of the world

The question of xenophobia and combating it is in this context one of the true claims of fidelity to non-racialism, to tolerance and internationalism in South Africa. Beyond South Africa, both the late Pope Francis and the new Pope Leo XV have aligned themselves with anti-xenophobic forces and preached mutual respect.

Pope Leo, from his earliest statements in masses and other occasions