The thing about xenophobia is that it creeps up on you. Fiery attacks on the shops of Somalians or Pakistanis are relatively easy to deal with: you see the blind rage, the property goes up in flames and the haters feel they have dealt with the problem. That creeping hatred is much more insidious in education institutions because it works by stealth and explains its madness using the logic of compliance. We are simply doing what the government requires us to do, according to one or other employment equity regulation. Behind that mask of dutiful pretence on the part of schools and universities lies a dangerous resentment and combustible contempt for foreigners.
Let’s begin with the provinces that terminated the contracts of foreign teachers because they lacked permanent resident permits. Temporary teachers in critical subjects such as mathematics and physical science are on their way out. Ponder this: why would a country with the worst results in numeracy and literacy at the bottom end of the school system and equally poor results in mathematics and science at the other end jettison skilled maths and science teachers from the schools that need them most?
It’s simple, really. Research has shown that tribal resentment works in such a way that even if the dominant tribe suffers, it accepts such negative consequences for itself provided outgroups do not gain any benefits. This was shown in American communities where many poor and working-class whites resisted medical health benefits from the government because it would mean blacks and other outgroups (such as immigrants) would benefit as well. Put bluntly, you’d rather suffer, even die, than see those whom you hate sharing in the benefits of expanded healthcare. Crazy Americans? Not so fast. Let’s take a look at that logic here at home.
As government fails to deliver on employment prospects for its own people, what better strategy than to scapegoat the foreigner in your schools and community? In other words, take the pressure off yourself as government and blame the Zimbabwean in our schools.
If you go to the larger townships of SA, such as Soweto, you will find a curious trend in senior high school results. Performance in most subjects will be ordinary, except in science and mathematics. Nine out of 10, those schools had Zimbabwean or Indian (as in from India) teachers. Not because they are smarter than South African-born teachers; only that they come from more stable school systems with higher-quality standards and better-trained educators. In other words, the types of advantages we do not have in SA.
I was rewatching a video we made some time ago about the famous Mbilwi high school in Thohoyandou (rural Limpopo) and marvelled as the Indian science teacher and the Zimbabwean maths teacher took the pupils through their paces. Mbilwi has consistently won awards for its amazing performance in those gateway subjects. Those are the types of teachers our government wants to eject from the school system due to the same type of nativist resentment as white Americans, especially in the south of that country.
We would rather let our children suffer even further in critical subjects than have foreigners teach them. That is the curious political psychology at work here. What do smart countries do? They don’t target foreigners because of their immigration status (not having permanent residence); they offer them talent visas! So why are we going the other way?
One reason is that we hate ourselves or, in this case, people who look like us. Have you ever seen attacks on white foreigners? No. Apartheid has bred self-hatred in the black community, as psychologists like to remind us. But there is another reason. As government fails to deliver on employment prospects for its own people, what better strategy than to scapegoat the foreigner in your schools and community? In other words, take the pressure off yourself as government and blame the Zimbabwean in our schools.
It is good politics, if you are bereft of moral conscience. ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba knows this, as do prominent members of the ruling ANC. Don’t be fooled by our president’s reassurances to West African and other leaders that we are acting to stop attacks on other Africans in our midst. I do not for one moment believe any of this. If you want to swing votes to your party, feed off the most destructive impulse of your people, and that is to target and get rid of the foreigner.
Anyone who believes our employment problems will ease or vanish by expelling foreigners is blind or ignorant or both. Anyone who believes we will miraculously produce highly competent teachers to replace the ejected maths and science teachers from the north cannot read basic data on local educator capacities.
The problem is not that we shoot ourselves in the foot; it is that we go straight for the head.
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