Every African country is in some kind of turmoil, the Africans wherever they are suffer, in turn, wherever they go. I am a foreigner and I am a xenophile (a person who has friends and enjoys company of people of foreign nationallities). I am from Lesotho and I have friends and family who are foreigners in South Africa. I hope to be a welcomed foreigner when I visit other countries such as Mozambique, Namibia, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Chile, China, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Botswana, Zambia and Zanzibar.
We all know other foreigners who have also started a life here, example DJ Fresh is from Botswana and he is happily married to Thabiso. He is a great guy minding his own business, employing and enriching South African lives. We also know of the less successful ones who had no choice but to leave their homes and start afresh.
I am tormented by what has been happening in the past couple of months in a country I have grown to love and regard as home. First, it was in Pretoria – foreigners were bludgeoned, harassed and alienated from that community. Then came Diepsloot, more attacks, more deaths and more victims… AND now, sadly Alexandra has it’s own woes and people are being tragically displaced. Didn't anyone see that the storm is brewing and will soon explode?
Where are we going wrong? What has the MEC or the Primiere of Gauteng done about these incidents? I see another “quite diplomacy” arousing on our own frontyard with no intervention from government. Oh puhleesse! I don’t expect Sam Shilowa in the township stopping the people but it would be nice to see him attending to the issue.
South Africa has the hopes and dreams of hosting the 2010 soccer world cup with a magnitude of foreigners bringing money to support it. If I was a foreigner planning to come support this dream, I would change my mind and buy tickets to Hawaii instead. Why would I support a nation filled with such hate? Why are the xenophobic attacks happening in the economic hub of South Africa with no clear government intervention? What guarantee will I have that when I set foot in the country I will not be hauled, mauled, beaten and humiliated for being foreign?
What is needed to assist the people that have such hate to be tolerant? My dear husband, King K, attempted to counsel and comfort me yesterday by saying “People only do what they know best. If they get educated, they will change” and I highly doubt this notion. Is the only thing we know hate?
Why are the attacks only happening on black foreigners? Are there no working white foreigners in this country? If the work the harassed foreigners are supposedly taking is what is fuelling the attacks then why is the trauma being dished only on the black foreigners. How rainbow is this nation if the xenophobic hatred is classified by race? Will the white foreigners be welcomed in 2010 with smiles and glee – dancing traditional clothed men, women and children - dancing to drums whilst our African people are being murdered?
When South Africa was in turmoil, foreigners in their own countries opened doors to many exiles providing them with shelter, education, food and everything they needed to live. Some even married the women in those countries; if my history and memory serve me well our own president’s brother Moeketsi Mbeki is married to a woman from Ghana. (But I stand to be corrected) My point is they were made to feel at home and were not mistreated because people understood their circumstances.
I doubt education or knowledge is the problem since I am seeing and hearing educated people saying the most horrendous things ever. I am ashamed of anyone who supports this, those who don’t support it but quietly pretend it is not their problem. I am ashamed of MY country, South Africa, right now. I am a sad foreign South African with children that I hoped would grow in a country I love and was proud of. Now, I wonder if my children have a future in Africa. Will they be welcomed in other countries or ill-treated due to the ish happening here?
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