Xenophobia : Kliptown seminar 22 May 2008

By: Mpho Putu

This note serves to inform the reader about the community Seminar on Xenophobia. The purpose of the discussion was to get the community to raise their concerns over the horrific violent incidents which plague our country and cities and also to look for ways to prevent such senseless activities to happen in the Kliptown Community


The meeting was organised by Boundary Crossing Meeting, held at the Sky Centre – Kliptown, Soweto, South Africa 22 May 2008:

Present
40 Residents – see registration list, 4 representatives from the CSVR, Mpho & Thami – Boundary Crossing and Lindiwe – taking notes.


Opening and introductions

The meeting opened with Mpho Putu (Boundary Crossing) welcoming the participants and briefly outlining the purpose of the meeting. Then Thami opened with a word of prayer, followed by those present introducing themselves.

Purpose of the meeting
Mpho, who also facilitated the discussion, opened discussion by first introducing Boundary Crossing and the work it does, as well as detailing the purpose of the meeting.
Stating the purpose of the meeting he mentioned the following, the urgent need;
• For a dialogue on xenophobia, following the recent attacks in Alexandra, which led to similar attacks in other parts of the country;
• To surface underlying issues and begin to think about possible short and long-term strategies to deal with this situation;
• Flowing from diverse views, to devise possible strategies and programmes to stop similar outbreaks in Kilptown

Questions posed to facilitate discussion included the following:
1. What are your thoughts on and concerns about the recent spate of xenophobic attacks in the country?
2. Have you had a personal experience of the attacks?
3. Put yourself in the shoes of a ‘foreigner’ refugee and imagine how you feel if you were them/ what would pre-occupy your mind?
4. What do you think a ‘foreigner’ is? Who do we consider as foreign?
5. Is being a foreigner a crime?
6. What do you think is the main courses of these attacks?
7. Who are the people behind these attacks? Do we know them?
8. What would happen if these attacks also happened in Kilptown?
9. What would it take and what are you prepared to do, to stop the occurrence of these attacks in Kilptown?

What are your thoughts on and concerns about the recent spate of xenophobic attacks in the country?
• Concerns were raised about the amount of blood being spilled, and number of people loosing their lives, some of the comments raised included “particularly because South Africa has a history of blood shedding which we thought was by now a thing of the past,” and “how much more black blood must be spilled?” as well as and “why can’t we learn from history and realise that killing does not achieve results”
• Concerns about the way in which these attacks contribute to the already high and escalating levels of violence in the country;
• The creation of conditions from which hate stems – (especially hatred of people with dark skins, regardless of their nationality –as one participant said “because dark skinned South Africans are also being killed”) which gives rise to the sort of violence that in the 90’s was termed ‘black on black’ this time phrased as ‘African on African’;
• The senseless selective victimisation of African foreign nationals, that betrays deep seated and internalised hatred of the self “because if you look around no one is attacking people from China, or India, or Europe”;
• Beyond this being seen as ‘black on black’ or ‘African on African’ it is also emerging as a ‘poor on poor’ – “why is it that we are targeting people as poor as ourselves?”
• Who is behind these killings “when one looks at the way the police carry on, one is tempted to believe that they are carrying out some instruction to make this worse, instead of better”
• “True enough there may be some criminal elements amongst the foreign nationals, but there are also criminals amongst South Africans also, this is no reason to ill-treat all of them”
• “What we have failed to consider is the important role played by foreign nationals (both the skilled and unskilled ones) in our communities. We fail to see just how much we really need each other. We also fail to acknowledge just how keen foreign national are to do the work that South Africans are not prepared to do”
• “Left unattended this situation can become worse. Now it’s the foreign nationals that are being targeted, how soon before it is the Zulu’s, or those from Limpopo, and if that happens, how soon before we go back to being the divided nation we once were?”
• Concerns about possible retaliation that could worsen the situation, as one participant said “We have overlooked the potential of foreign nationals retaliating and the fact that most of them have military training, and that if they did indeed retaliate this could so easily spark of civil war”

Have you had a personal experience of the attacks?
This exercise, which was meant to collect personal narrative, and serve as basis for the next item of discussion yielded the following results
• None of the participants had had first hand experience of this kind of violence, but a number shared a couple of anecdotes from incidents they had witnessed or heard of, these included, the story of a;
o Man from the hostel: who when attacked went looking for help in a neighbouring community, but ad people close doors on him, because ‘he was from the hostel” and as such not part of greater community;
o Pregnant woman in Dobsonville: who had been beaten in full view of bystanders, who ‘in not wanting to get involved’ did not come to her aid;
o Woman’s neighbour: a foreign national, who was also a street vendor, who had not left her house to buy stock, from fear that if she went out would be subject to attack.

Put yourself in the shoes of a ‘foreigner’ refugee and imagine how you feel if you were them/ what would pre-occupy your mind?
This exercise, which was designed as an act of compassion and meant to engender a sense of empathy, yielded the following responses: If I were a foreign national:
• “Fear would creep in – and I would live my life in constant anticipation of being attacked”;
• “I would experience escalated concern about family members and friends, to the point of debilitating paranoia”;
• “My movements would be limited and would live a life no different from a person under house arrest, and even I would still be concerned about how safe I was in my own house”;
• “My livelihood would be affected, due to my inability to work or go to work, for fear of impending attack, even in my own home, where I would feel myself not guaranteed any safety”;
• “I would feel caught ‘between a rock and a hard place – and be torn between facing danger to my life whether or not I went back home or stayed in this country. This would give way for the development of suicidal thoughts”; (this statement was made in particular reference to Zimbabweans.
What do you think a ‘foreigner’ is? Who do we consider as foreign?
• A person who comes from another country;
What about those who have been here for over 10 years?
• According to the law – anyone who was not born in this country;
• A participant raised the absurdity of how this measure was applied selectively to black foreign nationals and not as much to other foreign nationals, a number of participants suggested different ways of applying the test and suggested, ‘we should start thinking more of those who are not from the continent as being foreigners, “people from this continent are our brothers and sisters”; “we should move towards crushing the boundaries in our minds, and work towards extending love and acceptance to our brothers and sisters.”

Is being a foreigner a crime?
In response to this question the responses included
• No being a foreigner is not a crime – but a clearer perspective needed to be developed in order to understand what was going on “South Africans are not fighting against ‘all foreigners indiscriminately’, they are fighting against illegal foreigners, ‘those who came into the country without papers’, – and even then not all of them, but mostly those who commit crimes against locals, with the knowledge that because they are not documented, their whereabouts and who they are can never be traced”

What do you think is the main courses of these attacks?
• False perceptions – about foreign nationals being criminals – because in reality crime is not the preserve only of foreign nationals, there are South Africans who are also criminals, the blanket criminalisation of foreign nationals as such is not a valid exercise; about foreign nationals taking jobs – because in reality foreign nationals do the work that South Africans would not want to take and do it at pay rates that South Africans would not accept;
• Jealousy: at the unity that foreign nationals are able to forge once they settle in local communities, their ability to pull their resources together and better their lives, even under the bleakest of conditions.
• Frustration at having being failed by the government: giving rise to situations where scores of people, both unskilled and those with university degrees remaining unemployed, despite claims of growth in the economy, as well as the government’s neglect of the poor by not providing enough services in communities that most need them. Inability to access opportunities (mostly economic), even though the government repeatedly states that they exist. One participant spoke about “…just how so much has been said in this country, with little actually being done, to improve people’s conditions”

Who are the people behind these attacks? Do we know them?
• Given that no such attacks have taken place in Kliptown, this is a question that could not be answered concretely;
• In instances where communities may have been incited to violence, there was no telling who they really were and no telling if they indeed came from Kliptown;
• Messages issued by the government, through the media, were also seen as partly responsible, in the way in which they could potentially ‘influence those who were looking for reasons to start similar attacks’;
• Known criminals in the township could also take advantage of this situation.
• More than ‘who’ could start these attacks, attention needed also to be given to the ‘what’ could spark them of – people need to look at the effect of the seemingly unhurtfull jokes they tell about foreigners, that allow for the festering of prejudices, that have the likelihood of sparking off attacks.


What would happen if these attacks also happened in Kilptown?
Some of the responses elicited by this question included
• There would be damage to what little property people already own – not only of that of foreign nationals, but also that of locals – due to the close proximity in which ‘houses’ stood to each other;
• There would be an increase in incidents general violence, but rape in particular;
• Criminals would take advantage of the situation and further run the community down;

What would it take and what are you prepared to do, to stop the occurrence of these attacks in Kilptown?
Some of the proposed solutions included:
• A need to look at developing pre-emptive strategies that will not only impact on Kliptown but the rest of Soweto – because, as one participant said ‘it feels like the country is waiting to take its cue from Soweto, if there was an uncontained out break in Soweto – it would only be a matter of time before the whole country was on fire”
• The need to form structures, in addition to efforts already started by a few members of the community, to go into schools and other public forums to raise consciousness about xenophobia as well as dissuade them from engaging in similar practices;
• The need to set up ongoing discussions – to ‘break the silence’ on this and other issues, so that the community of Kliptown can begin to pro-actively engage with its issues, instead of re-acting to them;
• Set up a campaign that also involves the local municipality, the short term objectives of which would be to;
o Set up a meeting with the police and local councillors to call a bigger meeting, for further discussion on xenophobia;
o Take the message to schools – directed at both students and teachers;
o Establish dialogue across people of all nationalities in the community;
o In the near future, organise a silent protest march.
o Find ways of working in other communities where attacks have already happened, to quell them and offer support to those affected;
o Elect a working committee to co-ordinate the campaign’s activities.
Appointment of a working committee: the following people were appointed to the working committee
• Muzi Shabalala ( Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation - CSVR)
• Dudu Nkothane (Kliptown Community)
• Anna Ngobeni (Kliptown Community)
• Nomalizo Matshaya (Kliptown Community
• Sindi Sibanyoni (Kliptown Community
• Mpho Putu ( Boundary Crossing)
• Lucky Mataki (Pimville Community)
• Nkululeko Shelembe (Soweto Kliptown Youth –SKY)
• Martha (Kliptown Community)
• Thami Thomo ( Boundary Crossing)

Conclusion and Way forward
The meeting gave their commitment to the process that was begun and recommended regular follow up meetings for feedback purposes, but also for the community to keep watch on itself and discuss change in strategy as they faced up to the realities of what may or may not happen in future.

The meeting agreed to meet at least once a month from the date of this meeting.

Suggestions to increase the impact of these forums
Increased publicity of future meetings: to attract the participation of as many people as possible, because as one participant stated “the few who attended this meeting cannot be held accountable for the actions of those not present”;
Broader consultation: to make sure that every one was on the same page;
Involvement of local authorities: so that they, as government can be part of whatever proposals suggested.

The Community Rally was proposed for the 24 May at the Walter Sisulu Square, Kliptown. Invitations were to be send to Community organisations, community members, Community Radio Stations (Eldos FM, Jozi FM), the Kliptown SAPS and local councillors.

Recap and evaluation of meeting
Asked if they had found the meeting at all useful and if it had shifted the way they thought about xenophobia, the meeting agreed on the usefulness of the meeting and a number of those present mentioned its usefulness in shifting their perceptions.