Political and economic problems in Zim: Contributory factors to growing xenephobia in southern Africa

AS the political unrest in Zimbabwe is continuing with no end in sight, I have no doubt in my mind that the gross human rights violations being perpetrated by the government led by Africa’s intellectual dictator, Robert Mugabe, has led to the mass exodus of Zimbabweans into neighboring African countries. As powerless immigrants, Zimbabweans end up being victims of xenophobia and hence are used as political footballs.

As a Zimbabwean who lived and worked as a journalist in South Africa for many years, I witnessed how over the years the opinion that South Africa and Botswana have become increasingly xenophobic. During my stay in South Africa, I observed that the high levels of societal intolerance towards non-citizens was largely due to the large of influx of Zimbabweans seeking political asylum, and a place of rest after escaping political persecution in Zimbabwe.

On arrival in South Africa, many of the Zimbabwean immigrants resort to working on farms and do other low-paid jobs shunned by South Africans in big cities like Johannesburg, Pretoria, Cape Town and Durban. The attacks on foreigners by South African citizens deteriorated in the late 1990’s to the extent that the South African Human Rights Commission had to launch the famous “Roll Back Xenophobia Campaign” on the 15th of October 1998 in Braamfontein, Johannesburg. The campaign was aimed at finding solutions to tackle the growing xenophobia in South Africa, which was targeted at other African nationalities. The campaign was also intended to educate members of the public and the Press about the importance of immigration in an effort to curb the deep dislike of non-nationals by South African citizens.

I remember the challenges that I had to face during the times that I had to use public transport like the popular minibuses in Johannesburg. In order to avoid victimization, I had to know the basics of one of the local languages, Zulu, to communicate with the minibus drivers especially when inquiring about the fare and requesting to be dropped at my destination. I had to learn basic Zulu because speaking in English in a minibus in South Africa would be inviting hostility from the driver and fellow passengers, who normally consider a black person speaking in English to be proud or snobbish. At times I was at pains to explain to my brothers in South Africa that I came from a neighboring African country just across the Limpopo River, where other African languages were also spoken.

However, the truth of the matter is that the cruel system of apartheid is to blame for the xenophobic mindset prevalent in certain sections of the southern African community. During the pre-independence era, the architects of the cruel system of apartheid launched a deliberate campaign that was aimed at isolating black South Africans by making them believe that as South Africans, they were not part of the global African community and had nothing to do with Africans from other countries. It’s very common today, to hear some South Africans referring to immigrants from Zimbabwe, Malawi or Mozambique as “Those people from Africa”, as if South Africa is not part of the continent.

In a nutshell, I believe most of my South African brethren are not to blame for xenophobia. The architects of apartheid like the late Daniel F. Malan, who was the prime minister of South Africa from 1948 until 1954, are to blame for planting among South Africans the xenophobic seed, which in my opinion is the lowest common denominator of political appeal in Africa today. I say this because some politicians in southern Africa capitalize on xenophobia when campaigning for votes during elections. They attribute the economic problems in their own countries to the influx of immigrants. The controversial apartheid policy was introduced by Daniel F. Malan who was a strong believer in a strict white supremacy and a very rigid hierarchal society.

In Botswana, another southern African country, Zimbabweans and Mozambicans residing in the capital, Gaborone and other cities like Lobatse are being rounded up by the police and deported for no clear reasons. Many immigrants are being severely assaulted by some natives of the country, who accuse them of taking their jobs, “stealing their wives” and spreading HIV/AIDS. Despite the frequency of the xenophobic attacks on black foreigners in Botswana, what I established during my frequent visits to that country on tours of duty is that the authorities in that country give a blind eye to the incidences. The United Nations has since attacked the Botswana government for its treatment of Zimbabweans living in that country. The Tswana government has gone as far as canceling long-term work permits for Zimbabweans saying they now have qualified people to fill their positions. In Malawi, a country which is popularly referred to as the “Warm heart of Africa”, immigration laws have been tightened in recent months in an effort to prevent immigrants from neighboring countries from entering the country.

However, the politics of xenophobia is not only common in southern Africa, but also in countries like the Ivory Coast, where the issue resulted in an uprising on the 19th of September in 2002. The fierce uprising engulfed the former French colony into a state of chaos and panic. It was xenophobia that gave birth to the Ivory Coast uprising which was a clash between the Muslim northerners, who are mainly immigrants from neighboring West African countries like Mali and Burkina Faso and the indigenous population of the South. Scores of people died during the uprising.

The deep hatred among the people divided on ethnic lines was a result of the policies of the late former president of Ivory Coast, Felix Houphouet-Boigny, who with good intentions introduced a political phenomenon that was to become increasingly significant in the multi-party era. He encouraged millions of Africans from neighboring countries to settle, inevitably handing over to them some of the country’s economic power. These immigrants are now the victims of xenophobia.

In my opinion, if the current immigration trends in southern Africa continue, we cannot therefore overrule the possibility of an explosion of a nationality time bomb caused by xenophobia in countries like South Africa and Botswana. What happened in the Ivory Coast could happen in South Africa and Botswana, since the citizens of these countries are now competing for scarce resources and jobs with foreigners. South African farm workers are currently reported to be very unhappy with the hard working Zimbabwean farm workers, whom they blame for frustrating their negotiations with farm owners for higher wages. As a result of desperation, the Zimbabweans are agreeing to work for very low wages on the farms.  If the problem of the deadly politics of xenophobia is to be solved, I feel regional leaders like South Africa’s Thabo Mbeki have to refrain from quiet diplomacy and make an effort to put pressure on President Mugabe to stop  starving his own people, and to put his house in order. For if President Thabo Mbeki continues with his quiet diplomacy stance, he will therefore continue to have problems on his own doorsteps

It is my belief that if the gross human rights abuses continue in Zimbabwe, the mass exodus of Zimbabweans into neighboring countries will continue unabated. The strange irony which I am observing is that in the early 1980’s, Zimbabwe was a haven for asylum seekers from South Africa and the Great Lakes region, but now the tables have been turned and the citizens of this former great nation have been forced into exile and reduced to Stone Age scavengers. President Mugabe, who was frequently arrested and tortured at the height of nationalistic politics in Zimbabwe during the sixties and seventies, is now the persecutor of journalists and political opponents. It appears there will never be an end to paradoxes in the Zimbabwean politics of today.