We helped South Africans. Why won’t they help us? May 25, 2008
Posted by Rethabile in human rights, politics, south-africa.Tags: xenophobia
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South Africa has a long history of movement of labour within the country and within the region. Have we forgotten that workers from Malawi, Zambia, Mozambique, Lesotho and Swaziland risked their lives to mine the minerals that built our country’s economy?
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To that I would like to add the fact that when our brothers in South Africa were in need, we were there for them. My country welcomed many refugees from South Africa fleeing Apartheid, especially after the June 16 events.
On top of that, our countries, “the Frontline States,” (1) were frequently attacked by South Africa, with the complicity of the United states, for harbouring ANC, PAC and brothers and sisters belonging to others parties. During these attacks, our nationals were also killed, but we saw it as a loss to war. We were waging a war and supporting our siblings across the border.
Why is it that now these same siblings hack and murder us when we need them? We helped them when they were in need for ideological reasons. Why won’t they help us when we’re in need for survival reasons (food, livelihood, a roof, etc.)? It is indeed true that…
A: The collapse of apartheid and the advent of democracy in South Africa was regionally supported by a group of southern African states called the Frontline States. These were Angola, Botswana, Lesotho, Mozambique, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and, from 1980, Zimbabwe. The Frontline States were formed in 1970 to co-ordinate their responses to apartheid and formulate a uniform policy towards apartheid government and the liberation movement. For the liberation movement in South Africa, the formation of the Frontline States was a welcomed development and a new front in the fight against apartheid.
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B: Support from the African frontline states was crucial, and it came at great human and economic costs.
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C: At the height of apartheid racism and discrimination parents even had mea and ways of reminding themselves that they are human beings and they belong to Africa. This included naming their children in a manner that maintained this memory. Phyllis Naidoo writes about a South African couple who were exiled in Lesotho and named their first child “Le Rona Re Batho” (We too are people). This forms a theme of a real story where the father to Le Rona Re Batho was killed together with about 44 other South Africans and Lesotho nationals in a raid by the apartheid forces of the time. These were people who were crying out proclaiming that they were also people and deserved to be treated like human beings. The same cry is made by those who have suffered through these senseless xenophobic attacks- “LE RONA RE BATHO!”
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I hear you on this. The more I too think about it the more upset and confused I get. It’s not just the sheer brutality and selfishness of those carrying out these acts of violence but the lack of action to protect innocents and arrest the guilty by the state (police, ANC & government) makes them complicit in the violence. It’s unforgivable and as you say only 14 years since the end of apartheid.
It’s as if after struggling for years to help your kin get out of prison then they turn round and spit in your face or in this case set you on fire or crack your head option with a machete.
A friend has just sent me this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbUSy-hkiH8 together with a poem that I will post as soon as she’s given me permission to do so.
There’s a lot of incomprehension in my heart about this. How low can humans go, really?
It is really sad. But we should not loose sight of the underlying reasons, that mostly created by big divide between rich and poor. The government, mostly under the leadership of Pres Mbeki, has been silent for many years about real, hardhitting social issues, such as AIDS, poverty, job creation etc. They implemented legislation to create a new elite middle-class throught Black Empowerment deals without taking into consideration the counteless millions not benefiting from that. Building worldcup stadium directly next to informal settlements is not going to change one iota in these people’s lives. And sadly immigrants are an easy target.
It is atrocious how short people’s memories are. The Frontline states stood up against apartheid – in the spirit of uBuntu one would not expect South Africans to turn on their neighbors – alas, the underlying causes are overriding what is considered common curtousy and decency.
It’s probably not much consolation to say that the majority of us are grateful for the shelter refugees from here received from the frontline states, and are ashamed of the behaviour of our fellow citizens. But I really do believe they are a small minority. The trouble is that a few people can still do a lot of damage.
Steve you are so correct. Images splashed around the world will certainly create the impression we are all involved. I can gladly say we help where we can – we have taken in our gardener and his young family, and helped to obtain flight tickets back to Malawi. The roads will be to dangerous, he believes. This will also be the first time he flies. It is incomprehensible, the variety of fearful emotions this family is exposed too. All as a result to start a better life.
It is heartening also to see so many South Africans unite against this atrocity and abuse, and helping our fellow man. Ironically, most of us are still being considered to be racists because of the superficial and arificial boundary of our skin.
I have been watching the images and reports flicker across screens and be splashed across newspapers and as a South African I am aghast and ashamed. I cannot believe that people who fought so vigorously and so long for human rights now feel it is OK to trample on the human rights of others who happen to come from the other side of an artificial line on a map. I see the army silhouetted against burning townships and I feel as if I went to sleep and woke up in 1986.
But I also agree wth Steve – the vast majority of South Africans are aghast at what is happening and comdemn it. A friend of mine who is a Johannesburg City Councillor is helping to co-ordinate relief for the refugees who are currently sheltering at polics stations and churches and she says it is incredible and inspiring to see the amount of support that the majority of ordinary people have given to the refugees.
If anybody is in South Africa and wants to help, here are some details:
“Our list of needs (in no particular order) with the ongoing need for food and blankets:
Nappies, rubbish bags, Oros for the kids, any first aid items (large surgical gloves), medicines like Panado syrup and Immodium etc, toys, sanitary towels, soap and face cloths, tooth brushes and toothpaste, pilchards and eggs, margarine/butter, Purity baby food, baby bottles, baby formula, disinfectant, washing up liquid.
DELIVERY POINTS FOR AID:
Linden Community Policing Forum have agreed that residents in the area can drop off donations to the Trauma Centre at the station in Boundary Road, Linden OR Randburg Methodist Church at the corner of Bram Fischer Drive and Grove in Blairgowrie OR
Blairgowrie Residents Against Crime at 5 Jean Road, Blairgowrie OR
Rosebank Union Church at St Andrews and William Nicol Drive, Sandton OR
Bedfordview Methodist in Van Buuren Road, Bedfordview OR
Also Methodist Church in Primrose
MONEY DONATIONS CAN BE MADE TO:
Randburg Methodist Church
Standard Bank Randburg
A/C: 021649995
Branch Code: 01800590
REFERENCE: REFUGEES
OR
You can donate money through: http://www.easigiving.co.za/randburgmethodistchurch, or http://www.easigiving.co.za/xenophobia.(www.backabuddy.co.za, and http://www.easigiving.co.za)
Whatever the root cause of these senseless attacks, the fact remains that they are just that – senseless. We (the frontline states) have taken a lot of smack in the past to harbour, protect and provide a humane livelihood for our brothers from Azania. It does not help matters that Mugabe to the north is destroying, has destroyed Zimbabwe resulting in the millions of Zimbabweans seeking a better life in South Africa. It is a chance for liberated South Africa to reach out, just as we reached out to them.
Disease and poverty breeds despair, discontent, bitterness,…and the list goes on. In America, they call it “black on black” violence, self-destruction and self-hate. My late grandmother would just quote the Bible and call it a sign of the times.
Rethabile, I have linked this page to a post that I wrote. Thanks for your insight on this unfortunate situation. Khotso~