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Misplaced solutions
05/06/2008 08:31 - (SA)
Kgomotso Matsunyane
All I wanted this week was go back to my simple life where I write about my single, middle class woman angst, and let this xenophobia mess disappear into a vortex, but it hasn't. It's getting messier, albeit somewhat calmer.
Fascinating how the surburbanites, who were so quick to criticise the people of the informal settlements for mistreating "foreigners" are now all in a huff and a puff about a camp closer to home.
Some of the letters responding to my report backs from Jeppe Police Station were saying "Charity begins at home, so I can't help foreigners before I help my own people". Fair enough, if you really do in your daily life already help out your "own" people. But when I challenge many people to tell me how they've been helping out, I've been met with a deafening silence.
I never talk about what I do in my own capacity for my community, because I think to do so would be tacky and I consider it my civic duty, so advertising it takes away from my ultimate intention, which is to make a difference - however minute the impact. But maybe if more of us talk about what we do every day, it would encourage others to do the same.
Feeling overwhelmed by trying to help the larger group, I have been focusing my energy on helping out a smaller group of women at the camp. Sometimes all people want is to talk and to share.
Still happening
One of the women at the camp, I'll call her Ann, was so sick as to not be able to get up to queue for her own food. She was so listless I did not think she could survive for too long. Her biggest problem was her inability to feel warm, so I got my mom to donate an old duvet and some pillows to help make her more comfortable.
When I saw her two days ago Ann was a better picture of health, even though she still spent the vast majority of the day horizontally.
On Friday Ann's husband left her to go check out the scene "outside". He disappeared for four days, and Ann asked me to try and find him by phone. Cell phones are one of the only items that a lot of the displaced have, a life-line to family and friends outside the camp.
Her husband finally came back yesterday, all black and blue from a beating. Maybe Zimbabwe is a more viable option after all.
The camp is slowly but surely emptying out. The refugees were supposed to be relocated on Sunday, but it didn't happen. Again they were to be moved on Tuesday, but this also did not happen. By the end of the week, buses are expected to come in and take more people back to their respective countries.
Terrible message
I'm convinced that the mass bussing of people back to their respective countries is a misplaced solution. It means those who believe that foreigners are a nuisance and must be removed from our society, have in fact succeeded. It might be a temporary reprieve, but in the long run it sends a terrible message - both locally and to our neighbours.
As we're getting close to observing June 16th, a significant day on our political and historical calendar, I can't help but think of all the young South Africans who left their homes 32 years ago, with the apartheid government hot on their heels, to seek refuge in Botswana, Mocambique, Swaziland, Lesotho, Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya - and the people who housed, clothed, and marched with them to bring down the evil empire.
I think about all South Africans living abroad at this very minute, and I wonder how they are feeling the pinch of being foreigners in a world increasingly hostile to emigrants, and how they would react to being viciously kicked out of their newly established havens.
Here's what I find curious: In a year where you battle to find one person who voted for Thabo Mbeki anymore, those who voted for apartheid are feeling so vindicated and so empowered that their voices are getting louder, and more disturbingly, prouder.
What's up with that?
Kgomotso Matsunyane is a writer, producer and partner at T.O.M. Pictures, an award winning TV and film production company in Jo'burg.
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to the union building I say....
05/06/2008 08:47
There is a huge piece of land in front of the union buildings...maybe foreigners should be moved to that space...it was Mbeki that failed to control the borders...why must we live with foreigners in front of our houses...You think it is a pleasant view waking up in front of displaced foreigners...MOVE THEM TO THE UNION BUILDINGS - Kolobe |
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Charity begins @ home
05/06/2008 08:55
You know what Kgomotso as much as i dont endorse violence in our country & for the fact my best friend is a Zimbabwean born. I am totally against illegal immigrants in this country & people have been making their voices heard to the government to do something about this matter because they were concerned & our economic experts have been raising their concerns about the impact that will cause on our economic growth & stability, guess what 'Thabo Mbeki" never listened to the people as usual. - Siya |
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not the union buildings - they need restoration
05/06/2008 08:58
The one good thing about this xenophobia is that it has to a great extent united south africans from different backgrounds (and yes, races if you must). Small comfort as it is. That said, please dont move the foreigners to the union buildings, it would be great to see these buildings restored instead. - andrew |
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Foreigner v/s SA citizens
05/06/2008 08:59
Illegal immigrants are not supposed to be in this country, so there is nothing wrong with bussing them back to their countries, infact they were supposed to be arrested for illegally crossing the borders of this country. Presently our government has lost focus, they are trying their level best to show the outside world that they can remedy the situation. But what is the use of making minimum wage policies and allow bussines to pay foreigners paltry salaries. Is your own workforce not compromised - John |
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Government officials
05/06/2008 09:02
So long the government officials must share the responsibility & host our neighbouring brothers in their own yards,im sure they have got enough space,union building is also there to host. After they have delivered their promises to the people then & after then they will take our brothers back into our respective societies & we can all start living together in harmony & practising "African Renaissance" - Siya |
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Well said Kolobe
05/06/2008 09:11
Well said Kolobe, this is most probably the first opinion I share with you! - Hein |
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Save your own first
05/06/2008 09:14
My employee has been on the waiting list for a "house" for 12 years. 44 houses are occupied, legally or other, by foreigners in her area. Ask her what she thinks! - Al |
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How About
05/06/2008 09:17
Let these poor foreigners camp around Parliament. - Zak |
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Spot on sister
05/06/2008 09:22
We should show empathy to the displaced refugees and accommodate them next to the affluent surburbs for peace sake. It would be dangerous to integrate them to places such as Alex because our poor people are still angry. Let them be placed in surburbs on a permanent basis and in the spirit of Ubuntu, Rainbow nation and reconcilliation. Thank you for a brilliant article and for being pro-active instead of being a reactionary. - Calvin Mkhize |
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Won't end
05/06/2008 09:29
While there are poor South Africans who are still waiting for housing/amenities as promised to them by the current bunch of incompetents (sorry, I mean government) you will have an escalation in the violence. It won't end soon, in fact, all indications are that it'll only get worse, much worse. - KZ |
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My admiration goes out to you
05/06/2008 09:46
because of your humanity, and also the practical things that you do. And to "those who voted for apartheid....feeling so vindicated and so empowered that their voices are getting louder, and more disturbingly, prouder" - shame on you for wishing a return to such a barbaric system. - Dave Robbins |
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@al part 2
05/06/2008 09:46
When I started my business, it was with three Zimbos and four SAs from the same township. Guess who are still with me today? Guess who gave me endless grief, sold their houses to the Zimbos and went and sat in the sun with a brandy bottle.? Now they are all begging me for jobs again, the money and homes are gone. And guess what, I pay well and all had the same opportunities. In fact, I showed the SAs more favour initially cos they were SA. Never again!! - johnson |
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The root problem
05/06/2008 10:02
Why you see some people yearning for the days of apartheid is not because it was a good system (it was evil) but it was run by competent people who had a handle on: 1) Crime 2)Border control 3)Municipal services 4) Lower unemployment 5) taxes 6) Corruption...to name a few. For all the ANCs talk of liberation for their people, most are worse off now than they ever were before. So don't bring back apartheid but vote for a Gov who can actually do the job right. - Andrew |
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The message
05/06/2008 10:11
Telling illegal immigrants that we are not able to accomodate them may be a terrible message to their ears but it is the only sensible thing to do from our perspective. - veritas |
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Selective history
05/06/2008 10:29
For a talented person like you I find your article a little shallow, almost superficial.Your selective history lesson is typical of some form of political indoctrination and that your historic memory means you choose to ingnore a better past and remember a worst one. - psycobabble |
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Politicians
05/06/2008 10:32
They don't care about any of us. They are all like that. Worldwide. We as a people have to learn to fend for ourselves. But yes, it's easier to talk from the comfort of my desk typing away, being warm, getting a salary at the end of the month. Imagine what those people are going through, everyday. Being moved from pillar to post - and for what, trying to make living? If people want the regime back, it's ok, but will it solve our problems as blacks? NO. The healing starts with the "self". - Keneilwe |
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Backyard of the President
05/06/2008 10:43
No matter, how hard the South African can donate clothes,food,blankets,To me personally that does not impress me.Were fail to give our on South African peple food, but foreigners first, that suck big time.I hope Bheki can take this people and place them is his backyard and fed them, that is his fault in the first place. - Joezee |
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Ayeye. I told you so
05/06/2008 10:49
I always said suburbanites were quick to judge those ?barbaric" people who were dealing with a problem they have complained about and no one seems to listen. Now the refugees are going to be our neighbours we scream not in my suburb. Serves us right. The government must buy (funny they have money for this) all the new unoccuppied buildings in the suburbs and house these people. First on the list should be your suburb khomotso. We will the see your ubuntu then. - Tebzano |
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ILLEGAL Foreigners
05/06/2008 10:50
These people should not even be in this country, they are not refugees. They should be booted back to their own country. Our tax money is now being used to make them feel more comfortable in a country they should not even be in. The poor South African people get nothing from the people they voted into power. Next year, they will again voted ANC. Serves them right. - dhv |
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Agree with you
05/06/2008 10:52
What happened to the people who marched against xenophobia? Was it the case of keep them there and we will them? We do not want to see them? Why are the celebrities not changing their messages on our TV to convince the those in the surburbs to let the foreigners live close to them? I am not condoning violence but the shack dwellers only know that language. The surburbans will go to the courts to remove them? Does this mean the whole SA is xenophobic? - Pasta |
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Typical SA mentality
05/06/2008 10:58
Being born in exile my self, got educated, feed and protected by the country i was born in, SA mentality is amazing I?ll tell u, white & black. Strange enough white people always brag or threaten how they are going to emigrate when things go sour yet they are so against foreigners in this country, talking about double standards.As for black people, its the way we were brought up .. made to believe we are better than other fellow Africans which actually opposite we are the worst. - Seja |
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Question to Kgomotso
05/06/2008 11:10
Kgomotso says:"...those who voted for apartheid are feeling so vindicated and so empowered that their voices are getting louder, and more disturbingly, prouder. What's up with that?"
Who exactly are you referring to? The people who "voted for apartheid" are now either dead or in the old age home. Nobody under fifty years of age could have "voted for apartheid". Or are you perhaps trying to create a (completely unjustified) stereotype of white people? - Darwin |
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Lindela
05/06/2008 11:15
Why build shelters when we have a repatriation centre in Lindela.Does that mean it is no longer a crime to be in the country illegaly.If that is the case then all those people detained there should be freed, given tents,free eletricity ,food and clothes, all this whilst ordinary and decent South Africans are living in dire poverty.Point is all illegals should be sent back to their countries. period! - MAXX2 |
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Charity begins @ home??????
05/06/2008 11:16
Why do people seem to care about poor SA's now that the "foreigners" are here? Did you ever ddonate food to any of those poor SA's before these xeno attacks? HELL NO. I'll be the first to admit. We are all hipocrites. We failed "our" people a long time ago. So stop acting high and mighty saying that Mbeki must put "these people" in his backyard...you wouldn't want it either. - Keneilwe |
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Do not want to be funny, but
05/06/2008 11:16
Are you saying that it is the responsibility now of the Middle & Upper class now fix the mess the Govt has made? We do not receive free housing or subsidies from the Govt to own property you know - we work and pay for it and additionally pay quite high Municipal Taxes & Levies to keep the "suburbs" in shape. Must we now foot the bill to accommodate & maintain the living conditions for illegal immagrants too? - TB |
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We are legal immigrants!
05/06/2008 11:29
Seja, the difference between South Africans who have moved abroad and the foreigners in SA, is that we LEGALLY immigrated. I applied for a visa; I had to prove that I would make a positive contribution. I do not have access to any public funds but pay my taxes every month. I have a positive impact in the community and economy of the new country I live in. That is why we are accepted and welcomed abroad. - Mazza |
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The good and the bad
05/06/2008 11:45
There is always 2 sides to the story. Things might be bad were all our bros and sis are coming from, but things are not as rosy as well this side.
Now, with our lazy mentality and their drive to survive, there is bound to be that sense of jealousy & conflict, thats were everything started. Plus the fact that there are those who are bring filth (drugs, prostitutes, even inflated prices) to our streets, they are giving the rest the bad name.
At some point I felt like everybody must go! - eebz |
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How much/many can we handle?
05/06/2008 11:51
I agree with you 110%. When South Africa was burning some of our own people went abroad and to neighboring countries. The only difference is that they had border controls and know how much/many they can deal with. Here in SA millions are coming in and no one is doing any provisions. For instance our stats are so wrong that even if the Govt is doing planning for the public infrastructure i.e. hospital, schools and etc it will be so inadequate. Momola - Momola |
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Keneilwe ur jst missing the point bra
05/06/2008 12:23
All we saying why are we all going out of our way to help out people who are here in this country illegally instead of helping the needy here @ home (our own blood related brothers & sisters), once we have done with that then we can do the same thing with our african brother & sisters. I know it my stereo type mentality to regard all our fellow africans as illegal immigrants can you blame me for that because more than 50% of them are illegally in this country. - Siya |
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On My Porch???
05/06/2008 12:28
as amauch as I was shocked by the violent amner that these foreigners were evicted, I share the opinion of those communities that evicted them, our townships are not slums!! we bought our houses and still paying it offwhiel goverement is dilly dallyng about rendering services to the many informal settlements so to all immigrants legal or not go hoem pleeeze!! - David |
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