I am interested in the Zimbabwe Government's attacks on the South African Government following the horrendous xenophobic attacks on black foreign nationals, including some Zimbabweans, in South Africa this past week. Whilst all right minded people have condemned those perpetrating these shocking attacks against innocent people, ZANU PF has condemned the South African Government itself and its people as a whole.
Zimbabwean Prosecutor General Johannes Tomana had this to say in the ZANU PF mouthpiece The Chronicle on Friday April 17: "South Africa is guilty of breaching international law and unless they do something to address the violations, they will stand condemned in front of all right minded international citizens". He went on to say that the "SA Government must account for the culprits and address the injury which has been afflicted on those that have been victims of this barbaric behaviour".
An opinion piece in the government controlled Herald on Wednesday morning continued this theme. It states that South African leaders have at best been indifferent and even makes that startling allegation that some Cabinet Ministers have "encouraged" the attacks. To quote from the article it states that "South African leaders have tried to condemn the attacks but have been far from convincing".
It attacks President Zuma himself saying that he "has condemned violence with one corner of his mouth while the other has been tacit in approving the violence". The article ends by bemoaning that there have been no threats of sanctions by the West for (and I quote) "horrific acts that (the SA) government encouraged as did Lindiwe Zulu, the Small Business Development Minister, and Nomvula Mokonyane, the Minister of Water and Sanitation".
The attack on Zulu follows her remarks last week in which she is reported as saying “Foreigners need to understand that they are here as a courtesy and our priority is to the people of this country first and foremost . A platform is needed for business owners to communicate and share ideas. They cannot barricade themselves in and not share their practices with local business owners.”
Mokonyane has been criticised for comments made In January, when she used Facebook to lament the spread of foreign-owned and -managed spaza shops in townships around the country. She said township communities "cannot be a site of subtle takeover and build up for other situations we have seen in other countries".
Aside from the breathtaking hypocrisy displayed by ZANU PF which itself has repeatedly breached international law in its 35 year tenure, particularly through the Gukurahundi and Murambatsvina attacks by the State on innocent civilians (none of whom have ever been compensated by the State), it is important that we interrogate what appears to be an official attack by the Zimbabwean Government against the South African Government and people.
At the outset I must highlight the obvious point that some South African leaders' actions are indefensible, particular King Zwelithini, whose shocking comments clearly fuelled the violence. But can that criticism be extended to the South African Government and the South African people as a whole?
It seems to me that if anything both the South African Government and certainly the vast majority of her people have bent over backwards to accommodate Zimbabweans in the last 35 years of ZANU PF misrule. I say 35 years because this goes back a long time. When the Gukurahundi started in January 1983 the 5 Brigade targeted Ndebele speaking men aged between 16 and 40 living in the rural areas - if found they were killed in cold blood. That is why the Gukurahundi has been termed a genocide.
That action lead to the first flood of young Ndebeles to South Africa - literally thousands sought refuge in South Africa then and most have remained there all this time. That was of course during the apartheid era but the fact remains that black South Africans then willingly welcomed these refugees and allowed them to make South Africa their home.
In the last chaotic 15 years of ZANU PF rule hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans have sought economic or political exile in South Africa. President Mbeki a few years ago estimated that some 3 million Zimbabweans had sought refuge in this manner, and no-one has ever disputed that figure. In 2007 and 2008 alone I know, as the former Minister of Education, that some 20,000 Zimbabwean teachers sought refuge in South Africa.
The fact is that the vast majority of these hundreds of thousands of people have been accommodated, indeed welcomed, by both the South African Government and her people. Go anywhere in Johannesburg - certainly any restaurant - and you will find Zimbabweans everywhere, working, living, in fact enjoying life. In those same restaurants you will not find any brooding resentment against these Zimbabweans, at least I have never been aware of it. The attacks on Zimbabweans have been done by a small minority of people and do not appear to be supported by the vast majority of South Africans.
It is also a fact that there have not been wholesale roundups of Zimbabweans by the South African government - their general policy has been to accommodate Zimbabweans. Those who have applied for refugee status have, by and large, had their applications dealt with fairly and sympathetically.
Indeed the great irony is that because of the policies of the South African Government, Zimbabwe has never experienced the "pressure cooker" effect of people stuck in the country as happened in East Germany, which lead to the overthrow of the regime there. Zimbabwe has had the safety valve of South Africa and Botswana which has allowed thousands of disgruntled young Zimbabweans to leave and that has dissipated pressure on the ZANU PF regime, helping keep it in power.
When seen in this light can we say that the statements of President Zuma and even Lindiwe Zulu are unreasonable? It is correct that the South African Government's first priority must be its own people. Is it unreasonable for Zulu to hope that foreigners will share knowledge about their business practises? Can one truly say that those comments "encouraged" these "horrific acts"? Was it really Minister Zulu's intention to encourage xenophobic attacks of this nature by making these statements? Is it fair to lay the blame on South Africa as a whole as sought by Tomana?
Whilst those who have perpetrated these horrors must urgently be brought to justice, we need to understand the root cause of the problem. As far as Zimbabweans are concerned the fact of the matter is that most Zimbabweans would never have gone to South Africa in the first place were it not for ZANU PF's violent and chaotic rule.
It follows that the only long term solution, as far as Zimbabweans living in South Africa are concerned, is for the Zimbabwe Government to get its act together to create an environment within Zimbabwe conducive for Zimbabweans to return home. That means that sensible economic policies, investment friendly economic policies, must be implemented - not the hostile, self serving, policies which have chased away Zimbabwean entrepreneurs and foreign investors.
It also means that ZANU PF needs to turn its back on its violent practices of the last 35 years. Many Zimbabweans living in South Africa FEAR coming home - they fear arbitrary arrest and being disappeared. That is why they would rather remain in South Africa, because for all the xenophobic attacks they still feel safer there than in Zimbabwe.
One final comment needs to be made about the efforts made by the Zimbabwean Government to help the victims. In a blaze of publicity the Zimbabwean Government has dispatched some 6 buses and a haulage truck to South Africa to repatriate victims. A report in yesterday's Herald said that they had been welcomed back by Matabeleland South Governor.
Whilst this action is welcome the reality is that this is just a drop in the ocean in terms of what is needed. There are literally millions of Zimbabweans in South Africa and repatriating 400 of them provides no long term solution. In fact if anything the danger of grandstanding is that it distracts everyone from confronting the root of the problem - which is ZANU PF's own economic policies and its negative attitude towards democracy in Zimbabwe.
This article first appeared on David Coltart’s Facebook page.
