Migrants from several African countries have been camping outside the offices of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for just under a month. Aline Bukuru from DRC told News24 that refugees from several African countries had decided to camp outside the UNHCR offices due to ongoing xenophobia and the threat thereof in South Africa. An urgent court application to remove refugees has been postponed by the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria to 13 November. On Wednesday, the heard that the parties cited in an application by the do not agree with their draft order. The home associations, Waterkloof Homeowners' Association and Brooklyn and Eastern Areas Citizens' Association, representing residents in the two upmarket suburbs have approached the court seeking to prohibit the refugees from staging a sit-in. (Photo by Gallo Images/Alet Pretorius)
Even by the standards of double-speaking politicians, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and its leader, Julius Malema, seem seriously schizophrenic when it comes to the messages they put out about Africa.
The EFF is beating the drum of African unity – yet, last week, Malema almost came to blows with an MP from Mali, threatening to kill him.
The Malian MP said later that Malema was trying to destabilise the Pan-African Parliament, where the incident took place.
Yesterday, though, everyone had kissed and made up, apparently, as the EFF tweeted: “We need a United States of Africa. A borderless continent, with one currency and one parliament. We are one people.”
Across town, in campaign mode, was ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba, visiting a market and lamenting that South Africans couldn’t trade there because it was exclusively taken over by foreigners.
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Pan-Africanism – the vision of a united Africa, highly appealing to people so long brutalised by colonial powers – has always been a distant dream for the countries of this tormented continent.
Continental unity – and the belief that Africans are “one people” – is far from reality.
This is particularly noticeable in South Africa, where xenophobia has become a growing phenomenon.
South Africans are right to be concerned that their opportunities for a better life are being prejudiced by the uncontrolled influx of migrants – the majority of whom are not refuges or fleeing persecution, but are moving here for economic reasons.
No amount of liberal or socialist hand-wringing will negate that reality. And it is something which is going to become a significant hot-button issue.
It is already being used by people like Mashaba to drum up support and is seen by many as the reason the EFF has failed to live up to its promise as a radical alternative to the ANC.
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