{"id":23306,"date":"2019-09-11T11:50:53","date_gmt":"2019-09-11T18:50:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=23306"},"modified":"2019-09-11T11:50:55","modified_gmt":"2019-09-11T18:50:55","slug":"on-xenophobic-violence-press-release-by-pan-african-network-in-defense-of-migrant-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/?p=23306","title":{"rendered":"On xenophobic violence: Press Release by Pan African Network in Defense of Migrant Rights"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n
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10 -September -2019<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The entire continent is watching in pain, confusion and\u00a0anger\u00a0as\u00a0South Africa struggles to contain massive\u00a0social implosion\u00a0\u00a0and manifestations of profound\u00a0\u00a0contradictions. The loss of all life and disunity among Afrikans is everything that progressive formations including the Pan African Network in Defense of\u00a0\u00a0Migrant Rights (PANiDMR) stand against.\u00a0The symptoms of these contradictions have most recently\u00a0\u00a0leaked into\u00a0\u00a0attacks among\u00a0\u00a0the\u00a0marginalised and\u00a0\u00a0neglected underclasses, where precarity and\u00a0desperation co-exist.\u00a0\u00a0State responses include deploying \u2018social cohesion\u2019 programmes as a catch all attempt to mop up these violent social conditions.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The recent attacks\u00a0\u00a0on 13 Africans in South Africa form part of an undercurrent of historical fissures. The nature of\u00a0\u00a0violent\u00a0\u00a0interstate, attacks that have been witnessed in the past seven days pre-date the end of the\u00a0colonial apartheid\u00a0\u00a0dispensation. In the 1980s what is\u00a0\u00a0now often described as Afrophobia or Xenophobia\u00a0was\u00a0mischaracterized\u00a0\u00a0under a blanket of\u00a0\u00a0political violence.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

The\u00a0historical DNA of South African political contestation\u00a0is embedded in ways of addressing difference that\u00a0\u00a0is situated in the theatre of vanquish and\u00a0\u00a0party political extremism. The bloodshed across urban South Africa in the 1980s and 1990s pre-1994 was partly stoked by various political interests, played out on Black bodies. The necklacing in African communities was the most vivid and vicious instrument to enforce political discipline of real or imagined infractions and betrayals. It was also a marker of deep inter-community distrust\u00a0primarily\u00a0among political and ethnic communities. The specter of being labeled as\u00a0\u00a0\u2018other\u2019 was sometimes\u00a0\u00a0sufficient cause for comrades to sell each other\u2019s lives in return for their own. The inherent trauma that communities are still carrying with them was largely airbrushed by the\u00a0\u00a0\u2018Rainbow\u2019 narrative even though it is clear that centuries of dehumanizing behavior was not going to go away as\u00a0\u00a0new flag was raised.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

This occurred in the context of the South African\u00a0state machinery\u00a0that\u00a0\u00a0systemically dehumanized and brutalized African people in this country. The colonial imagination legislated and constantly enforced the idea that African people are sub-human interlopers in a racialised\u00a0and privileged \u2018White\u2019 world. This was prescribed\u00a0through structural enablers like labour, education and land legislation all of which created an intergenerational cohort of African people who would always\u00a0\u00a0be\u00a0\u00a0a marginal , sub class of work horses. In the era of growing unemployment , this too has created a subaltern formation that are fully disposable and for whom the State has no tangible plans beyond\u00a0\u2018social cohesion\u2019 to bring from the margins.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There are further problems emerging from this. Firstly, South Africa has done very little to alter the social and economic\u00a0\u00a0pathways made available to the African majority in this country. White priviledge through land, economic ownership patterns, social relations and life outcomes has been left virtually intact.\u00a0\u00a0In tandem to this , multiple countries in the global South and across Africa were virtually disemboweled by structural adjustment and ongoing incursion of capital into State power. Instances of civil war and ongoing wars that some States wage against their nations – both often with the \u2018 invisible hand\u2019 of Western interests – have resulted in weakened States and limited economic opportunities.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

There are other issues\u00a0that include the expectation by locals to\u00a0\u00a0have first preference for jobs while many companies\u00a0choose to employ vulnerable migrants for lower wages, creating\u00a0working\u00a0toxic and inevitable\u00a0class resentment. In addition to this, porous borders with weak and often corrupted border controls, sloppy and\u00a0complicit police are adding stress to a difficult situation.\u00a0\u00a0Well documented reports of criminal rings\u00a0run by a section of\u00a0\u00a0African compatriots were a large cause of\u00a0\u00a0the\u00a0attacks in Tshwane (Pretoria) last week.\u00a0In many areas\u00a0including there, police have failed\u00a0to investigate allegations or\u00a0make arrests, which contributes to the \u2018those people\u2019 narrative rather than situating this within a failed and compromised criminal justice system.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Naturally, there will be movement in search of better lives and perhaps naturally, to\u00a0\u00a0countries that appear to offer the most hope, possibility and for some refuge from political repression.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Tragically for all\u00a0these periphalised people, the South African state has not deconstructed the machinery of \u2018othering\u2019\u00a0\u00a0the most vulnerable and as the Marikana massacre showed, is well able to unleash brutal force against Black bodies, many of whom were migrant workers.\u00a0\u00a0The exodus\u00a0\u00a0of millions of people to South Africa from across the world\u00a0illustrates a\u00a0\u00a0shared aspiration that they have towards the victory over political apartheid that South Africa still represents.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

And yet\u00a0co-ordinated and periodic combustions\u00a0related\u00a0to inadequate\u00a0public\u00a0service delivery,\u00a0organised labour strikes, student uprisings, and other demonstrations of public anger are a huge part of the character of modern South African politics. A politics steeped in\u00a0historical trauma, ongoing dispossession, a breakdown in state institutions and frenzied attempts by the government to \u2018act normal\u2019 for the benefit of international investors while the underclass of all nationalities battle for scarce resources in the most brutal ways. Local and migrant Africans\u00a0across the African continent\u00a0are exhausted by the wait for something more from our governments.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

Self-serving elites have driven many African compatriots to South Africa only to find that many\u00a0South African political actors\u00a0have fallen into a similar\u00a0abyss of myopic disregard for the masses. The statements issued\u00a0\u00a0by\u00a0President Ramaphosa in recent days lacked empathy,\u00a0class analysis and any semblance of a Pan African understanding of how deeply embedded our fates are tied together as African countries. This is an opportunity to raise a challenge to our\u00a0African leaders\u00a0to create nations that are nourishing and\u00a0\u00a0accountable. Nations that appreciate the talents at their disposal, create environments where all Africans can thrive and contribute. The retaliatory attacks on South African businesses across the continent ultimately hurt the marginal\u00a0and working classes yet again and though this\u00a0may be\u00a0a\u00a0\u00a0temporary \u2018blue eye\u2019 for\u00a0White owned corporations, it only fuels more resentments\u00a0while\u00a0eroding\u00a0authentic African\u00a0\u00a0economic and political agendas.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

\u00a0At the time of writing, 13 Africans are reported dead, 8 of whom are\u00a0\u00a0thought to be South Africans. Most regrettably, attempts by formations such as PANiDMR and Trade Collective\u00a0to obtain the names and countries of origin from relevant\u00a0\u00a0authorities have so far yielded no results. Beyond dying a dehumanising death, our family members have died namelessly. So emblematic\u00a0of the State\u2019s careless, dispassionate relationship with the underclass. PANiDMR sends heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, communities of the Africans killed over the past week and all the years before. We pray that the death toll of 13 will not rise further and renew our commitment to building a Pan African vision that affirms and valorises African lives and Black lives in and out of the Diaspora.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n

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(Photo Credit: News24<\/a> \/ Kola Sulaimon \/ AFP)<\/p>\r\n\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 -September -2019 The entire continent is watching in pain, confusion and\u00a0anger\u00a0as\u00a0South Africa struggles to contain massive\u00a0social implosion\u00a0\u00a0and manifestations of profound\u00a0\u00a0contradictions. The loss of all life and disunity among Afrikans is everything that progressive formations including the Pan African Network in Defense of\u00a0\u00a0Migrant Rights (PANiDMR) stand against.\u00a0The symptoms of these contradictions have most recently\u00a0\u00a0leaked into\u00a0\u00a0attacks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[5530,83,4822],"class_list":["post-23306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-liepollo-lebohang-pheko","tag-south-africa","tag-xenophobia","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/170"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23306"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23309,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23306\/revisions\/23309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.womeninandbeyond.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}