Hate thy neighbour? Making sense of the anti-foreigner turn in SA politics
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Well-known South African author and commentator Sisonke Msimang examined 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 a thick account of what it all means.
McKaiser argues that while 1994 represents a genuine rupture in South African political history, echoes of apartheid South Africa cannot be ignored, such as the dompas system that sought to regulate who can live and work in particular parts of the country. Msimang, agreeing with the analogy, added other insights such as the marking out of some bodies as legitimate and others not. The dehumanising of the apartheid-era 'othering' is being reproduced in this moment of anti-foreigner violence and populist politics.
Msimang conceded that legitimate popular discontent with the material conditions under which millions of impoverished black South Africans live, account in part for the anti-foreigner turn. However, she cautioned 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 our class, language and geographic differences.
McKaiser and Msimang both argue that South African 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 African National Congress, they caution, is pulling a fast one by showing solidarity with citizens in this moment as a way to avoid being judged for a failing bureaucracy they should take responsibility for.
Msimang ended 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.
McKaiser argues that while 1994 represents a genuine rupture in South African political history, echoes of apartheid South Africa cannot be ignored, such as the dompas system that sought to regulate who can live and work in particular parts of the country. Msimang, agreeing with the analogy, added other insights such as the marking out of some bodies as legitimate and others not. The dehumanising of the apartheid-era 'othering' is being reproduced in this moment of anti-foreigner violence and populist politics.
Msimang conceded that legitimate popular discontent with the material conditions under which millions of impoverished black South Africans live, account in part for the anti-foreigner turn. However, she cautioned 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 our class, language and geographic differences.
McKaiser and Msimang both argue that South African 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 African National Congress, they caution, is pulling a fast one by showing solidarity with citizens in this moment as a way to avoid being judged for a failing bureaucracy they should take responsibility for.
Msimang ended 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.