SAAIR: Looting of shops owned by foreigners xenophobic

Dorianne Arendse

The South African Institute for Race Relations (SAIRR) believes that the recent looting of shops owned by foreign nationals in the Western Cape is xenophobia and not acts of criminality as said by the Minister of Police Nathi Mthetwa. Speaking to VOC's Breakfast Beat on Wednesday morning spokesperson at SAIRR, Catherine Schulze said the Institute was receiving information that casual threats and insinuations of violence against foreign African migrants were increasing.

"The environment is frustrating and the information as all the information at hand was anecdotal. It was very difficult to find hard facts on the extent to which the threats were escalating. However the Institute is not predicting an outbreak of violence as there was not enough information at hand to make such a prediction," said Schulze.

She said that the SAIRR was cautioning that the environment that gave rise to the 2008 attacks was largely unchanged. "Poverty, unemployment and incomes indicators had not shifted significantly since 2008, while high levels of crime and violence were an everyday reality in many poor communities. At the same time, reports of increased threats, some disguised as jokes and idle banter, created and enabling environment for a renewed series of attacks."

Task team

Last week an inter-ministerial task team was set up deal with the socio-economic factors which may have led to the rumours being circulated in various townships in the province. "We were notified about some foreign nationals who were hiding at various police stations in the province. We went there on Monday to find out exactly what the story is. We have always had a stance that these are criminal acts which are been perpetuated along racial lines. While we might be sitting here and thinking that it is xenophobia, if people have legitimate concerns against certain foreign nationals they must not be a blanket approach. So we cannot say that all foreign nationals are stealing our jobs, some foreign nationals are taking our jobs," said Zweli Mnisi the spokesperson for the Minister for Police.

She is of the opinion that there is no point in Government denying the presence of xenophobic prejudice in the country as attacks had continued to occur since 2008, although not on the same scale as those of that year. "We were told previously that police were unable to devote resources to determining the exact extent of these attacks. We are urging government and the ANC to use their leadership positions in the country to change the perceptions that many black South Africans harboured towards foreign African immigrants. We described this discrimination as possibly the most prevalent form of overt racism in the country."

Unfounded

However, Mnisi felt that the statement made by the SAIRR was unfounded. "We prefer intellect and we have always said that this is a societal challenge. We would not like to debate these things in the media. If people have evidence of this then they must come forward with the information and give to the police, they must not be denialists. What this does is it creates a situation where people just spread rumours to create anxiety. This is why the integrated plan which was outline by the Minister last week is not just a government plan it encompasses society as well. We appeal to organizations to issue statements that are unfounded."

He said that reports were first surfaced that foreigners were leaving the Western Cape in droves but an investigation by intelligence official had proved this to be far from the truth. "First and foremost we were told that some people were leaving in droves in the Western Cape because of xenophobia. When we sent our intelligence down there, some of them- not all of them- said they were seasonal workers. We are not thumb sucking this information, we are on the ground," he explained.

Mnisi said that when shops are looted and burnt down the perpetrators are not arrested and charged for acts of xenophobia. "When you burn a shack, when you kill people there is no section of the law to say it is xenophobia- it is a sheer criminal act. That is why as police we have said we will act on these things. When we arrest people we do not arrest them on a charge of xenophobia, there is a charge that says you have burnt property or you have killed people. That is what we charge them with."