A Poisonous Brew

Recent incidents of xenophobic violence have raised fears of a repeat of the anti-migrant pogroms of 2008, with a poisonous brew of prejudice and criminality seeming to bubble beneath the surface of our society.

Should widespread violence against immigrants from other parts of Africa take place again, the shame on South Africa will be immense. It will be unworthy of a country which only five years ago welcomed the world with open arms for the football World Cup.

The government and its security organs seem acutely aware of this. There can be no better explanation for the unpersuasive intimation that the recent attacks were committed by criminals with no regard to the nationality of the victims, a suggestion that appears to be at odds with witness accounts.

South Africa is shamed by mobs that attack, rob, evict, rape and even murder those who sought a refuge from suffering. How can this be in a society where a majority of people profess to have faith in God? How can this be in a country whose vast majority of people are warm and welcoming?

Jesus warns that those who do not welcome the stranger face “eternal punishment” (Mt 25:31-46). Our Lord leaves us in no doubt that xenophobia—the hatred of foreigners—is a grave sin. Christians who join the mobs in attacking foreigners, or even tolerate or justify such violations, are grievously offending against God.

Pope Francis has a particular concern for the condition of migrants worldwide. Shortly after his election he visited Lampedusa, an island off Italy that serves as an entry point for Africans trying to reach Europe. There, in words that have application throughout the world, he said: “We pray for a heart which will embrace immigrants. God will judge us upon how we have treated the most needy.”

Xenophobia must be as intolerable — to Church and society — as racism, sexism or homophobia. It is a repugnant bigotry wherever it takes hold; more so in South Africa which still suffers from a bitter legacy of prejudice, inequality and hatred.

It is distressing that some South Africans are not only failing to defeat but are perpetuating the sins of blind prejudice, in violation of God’s will and the state’s Constitution alike.

And on whom will the mobs turn when all the foreigners have been driven out?

What an awful hypocrisy is being committed in this country which is led by many who once themselves were strangers in a strange land, including President Jacob Zuma. Many of those who helped liberate South Africa from apartheid found hospitality in African countries, some of which suffered cross-border raids by apartheid forces as a consequence.

Many migrants to South Africa have escaped conditions every bit as hellish as any which South Africans may have experienced. They did not come to South Africa “to take our jobs”; they came to South Africa to stay alive.

It is important to note that immigrants tend to create employment and benefit the economy, rather than feed off it.

What an indictment on our country that there are people who managed to flee the hell of countries like Somalia, only to find persecution, even violent death, in what they had hoped would be a place of refuge. We must be ashamed.

And what an indictment on South Africa that the state is failing not only to provide protection to immigrants, but in many ways is party to their suffering by the creation of sometimes insurmountable bureaucratic obstacles.

The government may be right is saying that the attacks on immigrants are initiated and led by criminal elements. But it is also true that the actions of many of those who are taking part in mob attacks are predicated on the government’s inability to address the systemic and hopeless poverty that exists in those communities where these attacks are taking place.

The criminals are exploiting the frustration and anger of people, directing that rage against immigrants.

This explains the phenomenon, but it can never serve to justify it.

For South Africans it must be clear that any xenophobic attack is an attack on the country and its people.