Xenophobia: Is it too late?

The senseless xenophobic slaughter in Alexandra could have been averted a very long time ago, had public representatives played an honest role and played open cards with citizens. There are various reasons for the unprecedented influx of illegal immigrants into South Africa - from Eastern Europe, Israel, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, many parts of West Africa, and all over the SADC countries. Some have fled because of political unease, religious tension, starvation and the search for the proverbial greener pastures.

The ANC government allowed millions of foreigners into the country, especially from the African continent. The rationale was that many African countries had given South African exiles succour during the times of apartheid tyranny. So, in effect, the new government was paying back these countries.

But the new government was also supposed to contend with more immediate and pressing matters at home: past wrongs had to be redressed, infrastructure had to be strengthened and extended to those the apartheid regime had deliberately marginalised, the housing and health sectors had to be improved, and more and better sanitation and water facilities had to be provided. Electricity had to be supplied to millions of new households.

Such a mammoth infrastructural upgrade, taking in large communities across the country, could not cope at the best of times; with countless millions of immigrants, for whom zero provision had been made, there just was no way in which the country would cope.

Adding to the malaise, the immigrants brought along with them some unsavoury and unacceptable practices: many were drug pushers, thieves and fraudsters (read many Nigerians), and Pakistanis, in particular, "married" local women fraudulently, with the active connivance and co-operation of corrupt officials of the local home affairs department.

The newcomers, in most instances, were better educated than the average black South African. Many had entrepreneurial skills, which our people simply lacked, and the relative ease with which they appeared to start small and medium-sized businesses was bound to leave the sour taste of jealousy in the mouth.

In many poorer and less sophisticated communities - such as the North West villages of Mafikeng, Sannieshof, Delareyville, Ditsobotla and Mooidorpie - Pakistanis and Somalis, mainly, took over non-performing shops and displaced the original owners. That was viewed in a very dim light by the affected communities, and latent xenophobia was stoked to the surface.

This week's Alexandra uprisings were just a further manifestation of the simmering hatred. The foreigners are being accused of stealing jobs from locals and contributing to the high prices of food and other commodities.

The government's abject failure to address the uncontrolled entry into South Africa is chiefly to blame, and the arrogance of many foreigners doesn't help either.

The way things look, it may be wishful thinking to imagine that somehow the phenomenon of uncontrolled immigration can be capped.