17
Apr
The Citizen’s editorial of 14 April on South Africa’s on-going xenophobic killings was spot on, but for one thing. The killings in South Africa are not an on-and-off thing. They have been going on since that country turned democratic in May 1994 under the iconic Nelson Mandela.
The negative publicity that South Africa is getting now is simply because the killers have claimed more lives—just as they did in 2008.
Africans, mostly from Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe—have been killed in that country since May 1994. That such killings have not received the kind of publicity the present xenophobic killings are getting is simply because the number of those killed was less than 10.
The problem is more than just the failure of South African leaders (most of whom lived in the then Frontline States of Mozambique, Zambia, Tanzania and later Zimbabwe) to tell their people the role the Frontline States played in that country’s new democratic dispensation.
Having lived in South Africa from September 1994 to December 1996, I will try to share my experiences and reflect on why I think what is going on in South Africa is here to stay until and unless attitudes and, more importantly, the growing South African economy embraces the black majority.
The democratically-elected South African government, which has since May 1994 been led by the African National Congress (ANC), continues to reap the fruits of its failure to implement what it had for years claimed it would do to ensure that the majority blacks also enjoy the fruits of their economy—which had been the preserve of a white minority.
What Africa and the world is witnessing in South Africa should not be viewed as a problem confined to that part of the continent but rather a problem that will engulf other African countries, including Tanzania, if their leaders carry themselves in the same way South African leaders have—enriching themselves at the expense of the black majority.
The flashes of violence that we have witnessed in northern and southern Tanzania, in which some of our people have been burning property belonging to investors (local and foreign), are probably the beginning of what we are seeing in South Africa now.
The only difference between South Africa and Tanzania is that blacks in the former have been “hardened” by years of apartheid, during which they were suppressed and oppressed, with women and children bearing the brunt.
This explains why South Africa leads the world in violence and rape against women and children.
After being suppressed and oppressed at work, the South African man takes out his anger on women and children through violence, rape and sodomy. I have touched quite extensively on these issues in my second novel, Damned Traitors, that was published 2012.
The xenophobic killings in South Africa can be attributed to the country’s security forces. Despite being well trained and armed, they are riddled with corruption. This also explains why the only thing they can do is collect the victims rather than deal with the perpetrators of the crime.
Let us also not forget that this is one of the very few African countries that are littered with weapons, especially handguns. This is worsened by the fact that South Africa has more than two companies that produce weapons to international standards, not to mention the many shops that sell firearms.
At its democratisation in April 1994, the country had the largest number of guerrillas from the African National Congress (Umkhonto we Sizwe), the PAC and Bantustan governments. Half the guerrillas declined to join the defence and security forces and opted to be paid their pension instead.
South Africa’s security officials find it hard to handle most of the criminals because they were trained abroad—including in Mazimbu, Morogoro and Mgaogao in Iringa—and they are battle hardened.
Most of the guerrillas refused to join the defence and security forces after they discovered they could earn more money through crime, including contract killings.
This is why you sometimes find very well-appointed offices in South Africa’s major cities that claim to deal with minerals but are actually the offices of contract killers who are not only well dressed—complete gold chains—but also drive top of the range brands such as BMW and Mercedes Benz.
During my stay at Radio Channel Africa at the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) in Johannesburg between 1994 and 1996, you needed just 1,000 Rand to get a contract killer. All they would ask is whether you wanted the target killed in public or private.
I came to know this through my sources within the newsroom shared by the French, English, Swahili and Chichewa services located on the fourth floor of the 32-storey SABC building. Our studios and music libraries were on the first and second floors of the basement.
The positive side of contract killing in South Africa is that it has almost succeeded in rooting out conmen. The contract killers and other perpetrators of crime thrive and are hardly ever arrested.
The other problem that has made it very difficult to arrest criminals is the continued existence, since apartheid days, of a conspiracy of silence. I was told by friends at Channel Africa not to say a word even if I witnessed a crime because, more often than not, someone would be hanging around the scene of the crime with the aim of dealing with volunteer witnesses.
Most of what I have narrated here was in place during my time in South Africa. If things have changed, it can only mean criminals are more sophisticated than they were during my time, making the lives of non-South Africans even more precarious than ever before.
If you have a business in South Africa and you are still safe, it could be that they still do not know your status. Once they know who you are and what business you are in and you are black, it is just a matter of time before they get you.
Malawians hardly get caught up in the cross-fire because, since the days of Ngwazi Kamuzu Banda, their country was in cahoots with the racist South African regime.
That’s because they know how to get along with indigenous South Africans. They learnt the 11-plus languages, including Afrikaans.
This is what I found out from my bosom Kenyan friend, Martin Mule, whom I worked with at Deutsche Welle in Cologne in early 1990s along with our Malawian friends. And then there was Channel Africa pioneer Mzee Mkandawire, who brought on board other Malawians.
They spoke all 11 South African vernaculars plus Afrikaans. If the South African police arrested you and realised that you were a foreigner who could speak local languages, he would say, “Ah, you smart Makwerekwere”. South Africans use the word Makwerekwere, which is derogatory, to refer to Africans are not South African or front, Botswana, Namibia, Lesotho and Swaziland.
My contract as a radio producer and announcer at Radio Channel Africa was open-ended, meaning I could have continued to work there until the retiring of 65 had I wanted to.
But in November 1996, I decided to resign and leave for home sweet home—Tanzania—after I was targeted more than once by armed gangsters who appeared to have been tailing us as soon as we drove away from my flat located close to Pretoria Street in Johannesburg at 3am.
I was in a cab belonging to a Johannesburg Rose Cab company and was being driven to the studio to prepare news in readiness for the 5am bulletin for our radio listeners in East and Central Africa.
If you have read this far, you now understand why blacks from other parts of the continent don’t feel at home in South Africa. Having worked in Germany for more than three years as a journalist, I can say that I always felt safer in that country than in South Africa.
It is no wonder then that one sometimes comes across Tanzanians who are not amused that their government helped a number of African countries during the era of liberation struggles.
Source: http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/oped/Why-Xenophobia-might-not-end-in-South-Africa/-/1840568/2687506/-/item/2/-/728y99/-/index.html