Former president Thabo Mbeki. Picture: Gallo Image/Denvor de Wee
Former president Thabo Mbeki has warned that what the world saw in connection with England’s worst rioting in 13 years could happen here in South Africa, fuelled by “xenophobic Afrophobia.”
In a newsletter published on Monday, Mbeki quoted writer Jason Cowley who had said the riots had revealed an “England atomised, an England in pieces”.
“(When the riots broke out, they revealed) an urban nightmare of division and hatred, a high-summer descent into what Saul Bellow called the moronic inferno…”
In July, riots broke out in the UK after three girls − aged nine, seven and six − were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, northwest England.
False rumours spread on social media that the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker. After a vigil was held in the girls’ honour, the following evening, attendees attacked a nearby mosque.
The suspect was later identified as mentally disturbed 17-year-old Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales.
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The former president drew parallels between the UK and South Africa, referencing the reaction to the candidacy of former Miss South Africa finalist Chidimma Adetshina, saying the country could also engage in what he called a “moronic inferno”.
Cowley said: “The excluded were not the far right but the people of peripheral England for whom democratic politics is not working, who don’t vote for Labour or any other party: the neglected, the ignored, the impoverished, the reviled, the mutinous. What do you do about these people and their anger, suffering and despair?”
Mbeki said that much like England, South Africa must find ways to include those who feel “excluded and abandoned in a new national story which resonates strongly with our own reality”.
“Whereas forty percent of these boycotted the 4 July elections in the UK, in our case the number was sixty percent during the 29 May elections!
“As in the UK, these are not right-wing people. However, they feel that democratic politics is not working for them. In many instances in the past, they did not vote for the ANC or any other party. They continue to belong among ‘the neglected, the ignored, the impoverished, the reviled, the mutinous’,” Mbeki said.
Mbeki warned that the UK riots could ignite similar “riotous rampage among our own people!”
“Given the sordid response to the Miss South Africa candidacy of Miss Chidimma Adetshina, it could easily happen that such negative forces in our country could use xenophobic Afrophobia to engage in the moronic inferno to which Jason Cowley referred.”
Mbeki further warned that “should such a grouping arise,” negative forces would be encouraged because those “who take great pride in demanding ‘Mabahambe!’,” and others of their ilk, are now sitting in both parliament and government.
“Here we must also underline the xenophobic Afrophobia as an important part of the political agenda of the counter revolution.”
One proponent of this is current sport, arts and culture minister Gayton McKenzie and his Patriotic Alliance party, which boasts nine seats in parliament.
McKenzie hit back at Mbeki’s comment on X.
“If standing with the South African who had her whole identity stolen and not with Chidimma makes me a counter revolutionary, if calling for those who are here illegally taking jobs and running havoc to “Abahambe” makes me a counter revolutionary, I am a counter revolutionary proudly.”
Mbeki said that South Africa must also underline the “xenophobic Afrophobia” as an important part of the political agenda of the counter-revolution.
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