Hello rafiki 😊
Welcome to the Not an Afterthought newsletter, where we lead the conversation on using technology to drive effective change that makes Africa not an afterthought.
On Friday the 15th, Kennedy Wandera, a journalist at the Voice of America news, hosted a Twitter Space that sought to explore why xenophobia was skyrocketing on the continent.
In 2019, The Guardian reported xenophobic attacks in Ghana. Ghanaian traders attacked and locked up shops owned by Nigerians. Some Nigerian traders resisted, and a brawl ensued.
In 2015, mobs in South Africa attacked workers from Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. It left several people dead and the South African government ended up deporting over 400 Mozambicans.
In 2007, Mozambicans attacked a Burundian national in Nampula and looted his shop. The locals also destroyed the bus he was using for transport, claiming that he was trafficking children.
These are just a few cases, but xenophobia in the continent, which is violence against perceived outsiders or foreigners, is growing and becoming more brutal.
The increasing brutality is evidenced by a recent attack in South Africa. A week ago, Elvis Nyathi, a Zimbabwean national was severely beaten and burned alive in Diepsloot, a township near Johannesburg.
The offending vigilante group was looking for foreign nationals.
The Elvis Nyathi case was a big point of discussion and it brought nuance to an issue that often, the rest of the continent, sans South Africa, intellectualizes and forgets to humanize.
That is the goal of this piece. To draw from part of the 7-hour conversation and hopefully give you, me and the entire continent a bit of perspective.
Trying to Humanize the Situation
A South African lady narrated her personal experience with an undocumented immigrant.
The illegal immigrant from Zimbabwe broke into her house at 2 a.m, stole her gadgets, including a Mac computer and raped her. She reported the issue to the police but the police had little recourse. How could they find a person who thanks to their illegal nature didn’t exist?
A couple of days later, the same person broke into her mother’s house (the lady’ mum) and raped her sister.
At the time, they did not know it was the same person. Two years later, after the intervention of locals who went out of their way to trace the individual, they realized that the same man raped both of them and a lot of other women in the area.
True, this is one person’s story, but South Africans in the Twitter Space confirmed that it happens a lot. Some illegal immigrants take advantage of their anonymity to commit crime.
Some of the examples South Africans pointed out include:
In Pretoria, Zimbabwean serial killer, kidnapper, robber and rapist, Wellington Kachidza pleaded guilty to robbery, kidnapping, exhortation, murder, rape and contravening the immigration act (he was an illegal immigrant).
Late last year, a Zimbabwean man, Themba Dube was arrested for allegedly luring women with the promise of employment, kidnapping and killing them. The authorities have recovered seven bodies thus far.
There are more cases, and each subsequent case is more chilling than the previous one.
Some of the experiences narrated in the Twitter Space were personal anecdotes that are difficult to substantiate with hard data. Still they speak to the wider situation—that the grievances expressed by South Africans hold water.
The rape, murder, and sheer impunity that some undocumented immigrants visit on South Africans is heartbreaking.
That is the nuance South Africans are desperately asking the rest of the continent to understand. That they have been harmed one too many times. They are angry and wary of letting in more illegal immigrants.
What if among all the genuine immigrants there is an insincere one who will kidnap, kill or rape South Africans?
Put yourself in the shoes of South Africans. Imagine inviting a needy person into your home only for them to spit on your kindness and harm you. How angry would you be?
Now, does this give South Africans the moral authority to hurt immigrants, illegal or otherwise, in retaliation? Only South Africans can answer that.
But here is something to consider. It is circumstances that force people to leave their country. Nigerians, Zimbabweans, Mozambicans and all other Africans that make up the immigrant community in South Africa did not gather somewhere and decide to destroy their countries.
Their leadership failed them and they are only trying to survive. No one is exempt. Leadership can fail its citizens anywhere.
How would you like to be treated in a foreign country if the leadership of your country failed you and you had to flee to save your family?
Still, South Africa belongs to South Africans First
South Africans have the right to admit whomever they please. They also have the right to demand that immigrants enter South Africa legally.
Whether that will reduce crime, no one knows. Some studies have shown that undocumented immigrants have the lowest crime rate compared to legal immigrants and native born citizens. Other studies have inconclusive results.
It does not matter though what the studies say, or which side of the fence you might be on. The spirit of Ubuntu is reciprocal. It is about hospitality and respect—hospitality on the part of the host and respect from the visitors.
When there is a breakdown in that system, one cannot blame one party for feeling aggrieved.
What About The View That Foreigners Are Taking Away Jobs from South Africans?
One gentleman noted that as a regional sales manager for Coca-Cola company in 2008, he observed a 98% shift in shop ownership from South Africans to foreigners of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Somali descent.
Another gentleman who identified as a member of operation Dudula said that illegal immigrants did not contribute to tax or empowerment of the country. Instead, they added strain to South Africa’s public resources and essential services.
He emphasized that operation Dudula was not against other Africans. Instead, it was trying create awareness that when foreigners accept less pay, it affects the wage negotiation framework leaving a lot of South Africans unemployed.
It is important to acknowledge that it is a valid supposition. The same thing happened in Britain. In 2004, after Poland joined the EU, Polish immigrants flooded Britain. Poland’s economy was smaller and the Polish were willing to accept less pay because it was enough.
In contrast, British citizens could not accept similar pay because their economy was bigger and the money was insufficient. As a result, it left a lot of British citizens unemployed.
Pivoting to data, statistics from a 2019 Stats SA report, which the host Kennedy Wandera highlighted, noted that foreign-born immigrants are more likely to be employed in South Africa.
However, the report also noted that foreign-born immigrants are more likely to be employed in the informal sector and the labor doesn’t often conform to the decent work framework.
Counter Arguments From Doctor Wole and Intellectual Brian Tamuka Kagoro
Dr. Wole (Wole Ojewale, PhD) put the blame on the limited perspectives of people.
This is an age where people can live in Dakar and work for a company in South Africa. People can take your job in the digital Space. You need to compete globally because in reality, no one is taking anybody’s job. —Wole Ojewale, PhD
He noted that one had to think with global sensibilities, to survive in this time and age.
Data from World Bank backs up Dr. Wole’s take. A World Bank 2018 labor migration analysis noted that for every immigrant employed in South Africa, two jobs were created for South Africans [src]
Brian Tamuka Kagoro, a Pan-African entrepreneur, a consultant and intellectual, echoed Dr. Wole’s sentiments.
He pointed out that the bulk of South Africa’s top 15 corporate entities, which accounted for more than 60% of the tax paid in South Africa accumulated the majority of their earnings outside South Africa.
MTN, for instance, made only 3 million dollars in South Africa in 2022. However, the company made over 9 million dollars across the rest of the continent [src]
He further explained that the tax to GDP ratio in South Africa was only 26%. That means that taxpayers in South Africa only contribute 26% to the wealth of South Africa. It implies that illegal immigrants are not causing a significant strain on the economy.
Brian blamed Apartheid as the real culprit behind xenophobia.
Apartheid limited black labor physically, intellectually and socially. The immobility made local laborers feel threatened by any other kind of labor.
Takeaway
This is not an issue with an easy answer.
What is true, however, is that no one can find a sustainable solution until they fully understand the problem. That means looking at the issue from all perspectives.
Labeling South Africans xenophobic or immigrants criminals does not get Africa anywhere.
Sure these are names we can sling at each other in anger, but then what?
South Africa still has an unemployment rate of 46%.
74% of youths in South Africa are unemployed
A lot of the countries in SADC region have a struggling economy
It is fact that people only leave their countries out of desperation. As long as South Africa has a more vibrant economy than the rest of SADC countries, immigration will still be an issue, legal or otherwise.
The only way forward is to solve for both unemployment and illegal immigration That can only happen if problem solvers understand the issue from all angles.
I hope this piece has at least given you a starting point. May you find a solution that will play a role in making South Africa, SADC countries and Africa Not an Afterthought…
Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed the article and think others might as well, kindly share.
If this is your first time here, here are a couple of issues that you might have missed.
Building and succeeding in Africa: How Safaricom Did It
Winning Lessons For Startup Founders From The Man Who Built Nike
The Bitter Truth: Real Change in the Continent Will Not Come From African Leaders or Governments
For feedback, constructive criticism or a private chat, please shoot me an email at nafterthought@gmail.com. Alternatively, leave a comment.
Rising Xenophobia: What is Fueling Extreme Anti-Immigrant Resentment in Africa?