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Well-known SA author and commentator Sisonke Msimang examines the multiple meanings and implications of violence against foreign nationals as a guest on Eusebius on TimesLIVE. In the first part of the conversation, they develop an account of what it all means.
McKaiser argues that while 1994 represents a genuine rupture in SA political history, echoes of apartheid SA cannot be ignored, such as the dompas system that sought to regulate who could live and work in particular parts of the country. Msimang, agreeing with the analogy, adds other insights such as the marking out of some bodies as legitimate and others as not. The dehumanising of the apartheid-era “othering” is being reproduced in this moment of anti-foreigner violence and populist politics.
Msimang concedes that legitimate popular discontent with the material conditions under which millions of impoverished black South Africans live accounts in part for the anti-foreigner turn. However, she cautions against the use of explanatory models to turn a blind eye to naked bigotry. Going further, she argues that Afrophobia unites many South Africans across class, language and geographic differences.
McKaiser and Msimang both argue that SA political parties are preying on legitimate discontent, tapping into the frustrations of South Africans by whipping up anti-foreigner sentiment. Citizens should put the state on trial, they argue, and not foreigners as such. Even the governing ANC, they caution, is pulling a fast one by showing solidarity with citizens as a way to avoid being judged for a failing bureaucracy it should take responsibility for.
Msimang ends the episode with a brief sketch of a pan-African cosmopolitanism that we should forge against the violent and exclusionary politics of othering and hating our neighbours.
To listen to previous episodes, go here.
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