http://africanspotlight.blogspot.com/2010/07/xenophobia-in-south-africa.

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Unpacking xenophobic violence under currencies in South Africa

Independence in 1994 for South Africa meant a lot to the previously dominated. Their
expectations and hopes for jobs, land, economic empowerment were taken to a much higher
stage. Little did they know that, the independence to an ordinary black South African only meant
political emancipation.

It came with universal suffrage, several freedoms for example media freedom and other universal
human rights, but more importantly, independence in South Africa saw the drafting of the best
constitution in the world. 1994 whistled the end to apartheid rule, but ironically do date the
country is plunged in an inescapable net of contradictions and problems.

The way South Africa developed since 1994 is as complex as its present contradictions. There
were forces of national development on the one hand, advocating for economic development
ahead of anything else. It is beyond doubt that South Africa is the richest country in Africa. But it
essential to note that their economy developed alongside a net of recurrent apartheid
contradictions.

The economy is as strong as the socio-political weakest link. We need to ask: How did the
economy develop,? And Why was it successful?. This was possible because of one reason; the
country adopted capitalist strategies for development and imposed a liberal open market
economy informed by basic natural economic laws of demand and supply.

It is this unregulated economic system that brought with it contradictions between the economic
development and the widening digital divide. The weakness of this system has a special feature
that makes it unique: the accumulation of all unprecedented historical contradictions then
possible in an apartheid State.

Contradictions of a regime of apartheid exploitation at the dawn of teenage South Africa,
attempting ever more ferociously amidst mounting mass disapproval to rule, with the aid of
deceitful black political leadership, over an enormous peasantry of the unemployed and the
proletariat citizenry. Contradictions of large scale capitalist and apartheid exploitation in major
cities, mining regions, crop fields, and tourism.

An awesome contradiction between the stage of development of the fashionable elite against the
medieval state of black peasants. The exacerbation of class struggles throughout the socio-
economic structures, struggles between employers and employees. All these conditions led to
the present scenario where the marginalized groups of society were left with no proper
education, uncouth health facilities, no jobs, no infrastructure development in their areas, no
food, and list goes on.

Beneath the beautiful, glamorous looking of the tall buildings and wide roads, lie an ugly
monstrous state of segregation and poverty. Almost 87 per cent of the land in South Africa is
white owned. The white minority still control the economy. There has been and still is an uneven
economic development which saw the widening gap between rich and poor.

The economic system still offers the weakest link in the countrys stability. South Africa has thus
far accumulated large sums of contradictions, for, as it is, it is still the most advanced and at the
same time most backward nation in Africa. The economic system leaves the poor and
marginalized with two distinct options:

a) Uneducated- one has to look for a job in the white owned farms and mines so as to earn a
living,
b) Uneducated- one ventures into criminal activities

Having taken the first option, one is haunted by sheer and unbearable segregation at the work
place characterized by inhuman and indecent wage, poor housing conditions, no medical aid
facility, no money to pay for childrens school fees. The worker is always hungry for better life. A
hungry man is always an angry lion. Brutalizing the immigrant might to this worker to be solution
for earning a better living condition.

For those who take the second option, the path is difficult and their life is always unstable,
haunted by the blood of the defenseless victims they robbed and killed, a life of misery when you
know you are always on the run. At this instance criminality ceases to be a voluntary profession
but a profession that you are recruited en masse.

Since 1994, South Africa brewed these basic types of citizens. Given any opportune time to
revolt, such forces will prove uncontrollable. The discussed under currencies in South Africa
were not giving enough permission for a full blown revolution, but at any moment an insignificant
spark will bring the cock to roost.

Now that the world cup 2010 has come and gone, a lot should be expected from the angry mob
anytime. With dangerous signs of upcoming xenophobic violence in the mirror, foreigners are
living hearts in pants for fear of eviction and trauma and worse being forced back to their troubled
homelands.

The times are dangerous. The Zuma presidency is going to be practically tested vis--vis the
promises they made to the electorate. With just over a year in power, there are no visible signs of
any progress to the promised land. Extra-ordinary times always require extra-ordinary and bold
decisions. Failure to which, the country will drown in a socio-economic and political roller coaster.

It is also time to understand why so little has been said about the growing injustice. The
institutions charged with executing such tasks are also part of the intricate system. The media
have openly turned a blind eye to problems. The media both public and private have failed to
challenge the status quo. Basically this is due to the political economy of the media.

Who owns the media and which ideology does he or she support. The public media which has a
direct responsibility to represent and interpret issues on behalf of the people has failed because
they are state owned and therefore cannot challenge the same shareholder that is the
government.