Attacks on Foreigners in South Africa: More Than Just Xenophobia? (2008)

On 11 May 2008, violent attacks against non-citizens began in Alexandra before spreading rapidly across Gauteng and then elsewhere in the country. This article explains what helped translate long-term concerns over people's physical and economic insecurity into a murderous anti-foreigner campaign. It argues that the attacks are in part the result of an extended series of actions that has generated a segment of the population that is institutionally and socially excluded from legal protection. Rather than protection, almost every engagement with purported agents of law places non-nationals further outside of it. Following a pattern seen elsewhere in the world, South Africa has de facto suspended elements of its normal legal order vis-a-vis refugees, asylum seekers, and undocumented migrants through both commission and omission. Under these circumstances, the right to space and life cease to be delimited by constitutional principles. Rather, people are stripped to 'bare life', alienated from their hitherto inalienable human rights. In this condition, they are not only subject to the states' unbridled and potentially arbitrary power but, by being stripped of their identity as legal beings, their lives and livelihoods also exist at their neighbours' whim. They must just leave, they are corrupting and undermining our culture and development. Elderly woman, Thembisa 25 August 2008 1. INTRODUCTION On 11 May 2008, violent attacks began in Alexandra before spreading rapidly across Gauteng and then elsewhere in country. After a slow initial reaction, the South African government responded strongly, if not entirely effectively. With the police overwhelmed, the government called on the armed forces to help quell the violence. By the time it was over, at least 62 people had lost their lives. Two thirds of those killed were non-nationals. The others were South African citizens who had married foreigners, refused to take place in the violent orgy, or were born in Limpopo or Mpumalanga. Another 670 were wounded, dozens were reported raped, and thousands verbally assaulted. Well over 100 000 were displaced with tens of thousands returning to Mozambique or fleeing elsewhere. Property worth millions of rand was destroyed or illegally redistributed by the perpetrators. After a two week melee, South Africa returned to its remarkable but customary levels of crime and violence. Responses during and after the violence were confused and contradictory. Initial statements from the national government and some local officials blamed criminal masterminds. Minister of Safety and Security at the time, Charles Nqakula, went further, denying that there was a crisis at all. (1) When it became clear that this was not a once-off outbreak, the government explained the violence as the work of 'sinister forces', occasionally evoking late-apartheid era violence with reference to a 'third force'. (2) Ronnie Kasrils, Minister of Intelligence at the time, later admitted these were 'misguided'. (3) Indeed, statements from perpetrators and other township residents made it clear that the frustrations and anger behind the violence were their own. By definition there were criminal elements involved. In some instances, there were also instigators from neighbouring townships. But while not everyone supported the killings, almost all could agree that there were 'too many' foreigners in the country. As fearful and distrustful as many South Africans are towards the non-nationals living in their country, there is clearly much more going than just xenophobia. If the concern is with improving the security of all South African residents, the real question is not--'why are foreigners so disliked?' Few societies universally embrace those from elsewhere. Rather, the task is to explain why, from a myriad of potential fault lines, anti-foreigner sentiments became a node for such violent mobilisation. Addressing this task means examining the underlying institutional and social structures that shaped the violence. …