A lot has been made last week of South Africa's deportation of 125 Nigerian's carrying fake yellow fever vaccination certificates and Nigeria retaliating by themselves deporting 131 South Africans in a tit for tat diplomatic spat.
In fact two particular websites like the AllAfrica.com got so carried away with this story that it carried a headline that says:"Nigeria: How South Africa Was Tamed" and the other site called the Nation wrote" "the South African Folly" highlighting South Africa's reputation for its repeated discriminatory, hostile and inhospitable treatment of Nigerians living in South Africa.
However the buck doesn't stop with Nigerians. The Zimbabwe Diaspora wrote article saying that since October 2011,more than 15000 Zimbabweans have been told to ****off and got deported as border controls in South Africa got tighter.
And those Zimbabweans wanting asylum in South Africa are currently struggling to get the border passes they need to apply for asylum status. That's largely due to corruption practices by border officials in South Africa. That's despite the fact that more 250 000 Zimbabweans had been granted leave to remain the South Africa.
China's ChinaDailyUSA also reported just yesterday how 32 of its citizens got killed in South Africa and several of the killings were due to armed robberies,traffic accidents etc.Of the 201 dangerous incidents that occurred involving Chinese people living in South Africa,161 occurred just in Johannesburg alone according to the South Africa Chinese Community and Police Cooperation Centre (SACCPCC).
That's just the tip of the iceberg as many Chinese don't report these crimes because of fear of repercussions.More than 300 000 Chinese live in South Africa and of that number a 100 000 live in Joburg.
Are we South Africans just fed up with all these foreigners living in our country,taking our jobs like they say here in England especially in places up North and parts of Essex?
Why is South Africa so xenophobic? Do communities have legitimate grounds for protest against these foreigners with their false documentations? Although all violence against foreigners and immigrants or anybody for that matter is utterly wrong and never legit,its the know-it-all arrogance by the current incompetent ANC Government that's really ****ing people off and therefore they not taking their frustrations out on the politicians instead,but on the migrants in our country.
However going back to the title of Contagion or Continent control-what's really going on between South Africa and Nigeria? Was it just a diplomatic spat exposing strained relations or is more than that?
Possible squabbles between the two countries...
1.As economic rivals,both South Africa and Nigeria are jockeying for bigger and greater political influence on the African continent. South Africa claimed that Nigeria is one of 40 countries on the African continent that's a hotbed for the mosquito-borne virus,called yellow fever. Nigeria arrogantly claims that this not true and that since 1995,the WHO of the United Nations has certified Nigeria as yellow-fever free zone,and that South Africa should rather worry about its high TB and HIV/Aids rates of infections instead.
2.A lot gets publish in the press of how fast Nigeria's economy is growing compared to ours and like always the media keep talking its k^k about how Nigeria GDP is gonna overtake ours in 2014.Currently according to CIA Fact book it stands at $414billion,whereas South Africa's stands at $554billion.
3.Then there was the matter regarding the AU Commission position. South Africa had push for Home Affairs Minister,Dlamini-Zuma to get the post,whilst Nigeria supported current chairman Jean Ping,and calling on South Africa to nominate some other SADC member and not a South African for the position.
4.It was Nigeria that threatened to send in troops into the Ivory Coast to help dislodge defiant President Laurent Gbagbo in 2011 when he refused to concede to an election defeat, while South Africa on the other hand favoured peace talks instead which proved fruitless and pointless. It was South Africa who swayed the AU toward endorsing a similar strategy in Libya under Gaddafi, while Nigeria endorsed the quick-fire rebel-backed officials who took over after Col. Moammar Gadhafi's demise.
5.In 2005 Japan, Germany, Brazil and India pushed for an African country to join the United Nations Security Council and the motion failed as both Nigeria and South Africa wanted that same position. Insisting that they both just have to have a louder voice in the world. Its only one seat in the Security Council, not two you fools.
Nigeria have every right to feel aggrieved by South Africa...
It was Nigeria that provided South Africa's ANC members with large scale bonhomie of good-heartedness and good-natured friendliness in the 1970' and 80's and led the African antiapartheid campaign by furnishing the then exiles with passports and military training,and this is the thank you Nigeria gets now that these same exiles are in government in South Africa.Danm decent of South Africa wouldn't you say.
References:
1.AllAfrica.com
2.The Wall Street Journal.
3.ChinaDailyUSA.
4.The Zimbabwe Diaspora.
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