Today I was listening to my grandmother have a chat with her friend. They spoke about the usual things old people talk about – the weather, the lack of money and politics. As I was listening, I heard my grandmother tell her friend that South Africa is on a downward spiral and that soon we will be were Zimbabwe is right now. I thought to myself, “she is onto something here.” It was the next thing she said to her friend that bothered me. I heard her tell her friend that the way to slow down South Africa’s fast degradation is to not allow immigrants into the country. More especially, Zimbabwean immigrants. She also said that some South African leaders support this view and she is right. This got me thinking: why is it that when South Africa is in economic distress, xenophobia levels rise and the first we do is blamed the “foreigners”? Why is it that Africans cannot stand with Africans?
This week Zimbabwe headlined the news for being the first ever country to have a hundred and fifty percent fuel hike. As expected, Zimbabwean citizens were enraged. This ridiculous increase in fuel would have detrimental effects on their daily lives. It is no secret that Zimbabwe has been an unstable political, social and economic scene for years. Many people in Africa and around the world blamed Zimbabwe’s dilapidated state on the authoritarian leader, Robert Mugabe. The world rejoiced in 2017 when Mugabe was replaced by Emmerson Mnangagwa; Zimbabweans became something they had not been in a very long time – hopeful. This is why this staggering fuel hike was upsetting to Zimbabweans. They realized that their hopes of a free and prosperous Zimbabwe were a long time away. The world also realized that Zimbabwe had traded out one tyrant for another. If it was not clear in the Zimbabwean 2018 elections that Mnangagwa is not the person who is going to free Zimbabwe, it is clear now. Violence broke out in Zimbabwe and protesting civilians were shot (sound familiar South Africa?). More worryingly, as the situation escalated, internet use in Zimbabwe was shut down and the world had very little access to Zimbabwe. This is horrifying. It makes me wonder how such silencing can happen in the 21st century. We have watched Zimbabwe suffer for years and I really wonder: how such silencing can happen in Zimbabwe, when it has South Africa as its neighbour. South Africa, which is one of the leading countries in Africa. South Africa, which knows oppression better than most countries. I cannot fathom.
Perhaps I am overlooking international laws and I am overestimating diplomacy. After all, South Africa can’t just go sweeping into a sovereign Zimbabwe and save the day. This does not change the conditions in Zimbabwe. All social institutions are barely functional. People cannot afford food, health care and other basic needs. Who would stay in such a country? Who would want to raise their children in such an environment? It is not at all surprising that Zimbabweans leave the country and many of them do come to South Africa seeking refuge. We are the closest escape after all.
This is where it gets disgraceful. As a nation, we are terrible host, we treat foreigners with the upmost contempt and this is because we say they sabotage our economy. This might be true but we are directing our frustration to the wrong places. Most immigrants in South Africa are illegal. This is a fact. And most of these immigrants make a living by being informal shop owners. This means they are not registered and they do not pay tax. They sell products at lower prices and take away consumers from legitimate South African businesses. The questions we should be asking ourselves is how do they get into the country in the first place? It is safe to assume that most illegal immigrants get into the country through bribery and corruption. The other question we should ask ourselves is why are immigrant businesses thriving more than South African ones? There are a few answers to this question, which all address the systematic issues involved but the most immediate answer that comes to my mind (and it is quite reductive, I’ll admit that) is that South Africans are not ambitious enough. Immigrants are just simply more willing to go way further than South Africans - for way less. This is to make the point that: the issues we blame “foreigners” are in actual fact, internal issues. If we looked into our own systems and governance and repaired that, immigrants wouldn’t be able to exploit these issues.
In the conversation between my grandmother and her friend, my grandmother’s friend tells my grandmother how some of these illegal immigrants from Zimbabwe get into the country: she says that they buy quite a few chickens and they cut them into pieces. They put these pieces of chicken on a stick. Then, they go to the Kruger National Park and they find a crocodile. They bail the crocodile with the meat and they climb on its back. The crocodile helps them cross the river. Throughout the ride, they feed the crocodile the meat from the stick. I cannot help but wonder what happens if the meat runs out or the crocodile gets full mid-ride… I am quite sceptical of this theory. It is not only laughable but downright outrageous and dangerous. However, I have heard of refugees taking a multiple day ride on a skimpy boat, to cross the Red Sea, in hopes of escaping Syria. I have heard stories of people who live in the back of trucks and cargo boxes for days in hopes of escaping Afghanistan. I have heard of people fitting themselves in between a mattress’ base to sneak into South Africa in hopes of escaping Sudan. Some of them suffocate to death, some of them drown some of them make it. I can believe this outrageous crocodile story. For people in some countries, an outrageous idea seems much safer than staying.
In a poem by Warsan Shire, Home, she speaks of the desperation of immigrants. She says something that I think we should all pay attention to: “no one leaves home unless home is the mount of shark.” This is to say, no one leaves their country unless leaving is the only option for survival they have. And as Africans, we should stand with each other (this was Biko’s main emphasis and they killed him because he was on to something). Don’t mistreat that Zimbabwean or Sudanese or whomever because firstly, you and them have been victimized by the same person, the white man. We should be fighting the same system together. And secondly, they would have not left home unless home had not spat them out, as Warsan Shire puts it. Instead, hold your own government accountable for its failings and be warmer to your African brother or sister – mainly because it is the humane thing to do. But also because, as Warsan Shire again puts it, you never know when it might be your country’s turn.