Xenophobia

The xenophobia violence which take place over the last 3 weeks seems to have simmered down.
If you don't know what I'm talking about, where have you been? The attacks by South Africans in the townships on immigrants have been blamed on xenophobia.
Seriously?
Xeno might have been the cause, but the violence which led there from most certainly was not... its more something along the lines of racism, greed, ignorance, hate.. take your pick.

Why do I say this? Think about it, when you see photos of school kids running out of a Somali's store carrying bags and bags of groceries, what do you call it?
How about when you see people who are able to go out and earn a living carrying a freezer chest out of a foreigner's store?
How about seeing people attacking another person all because he/she is darker than you?
What about video footage showing a horde of people attacking a Mozambican because he was willing to work for R10 less then the South Africans?
What about people burning another human being or attacking little kids?

Whats the reason for the attacks?
1) Apparently the foreigners are stealing our jobs.
Really? They are willing to work for less money and the shocking thing is... they actually work, the whole day.
South African workers are lazy...Yes, a fellow Saffa calls you lazy. Many local workers tend to work inefficiently, take long breaks and work slowly. Mind you, we do have hard workers.
Foreigners, many employers say, work harder, take shorter breaks and generally work more efficiently, causing employers to prefer hiring foreigners.
Foreigners are also willing to work for less.
South Africans have set a benchmark when it comes to the amount they are willing to work for, e.g. R100 a day, when an employer looks to hire and offers only R90, they would rather go without until they are offered the R100, even if this is three days later. Whereas the foreigner will take the R90.

2) Foreigners are stealing our customers.
In the townships, the Somalis etc sell their goods at far lower prices than many of the supermarkets and local sellers do.
The reason being that the Somalis come together and buy in bulk for cheaper. The locals prefer to buy for themselves and therefore sell at higher prices.

3) They are committing crimes.
Sure there is the perception that many drug sellers and counterfeit sellers are Nigerians. Maybe its true...I dunno. But I was robbed by 2 South Africans and many other South Africans have been robbed by South Africans.

4) The foreigners are receiving houses before the locals.
I dunno if that's true, but if it is, then the locals are lynching the wrong people... they should go over the government.
The government they voted for (I can assure you that the "mob" voted for the ANC) is the government we got. They voted for the ANC because they still believe that they are in the "struggle".

The black South Africans tend to believe that they fought the struggle and are struggle heroes and want to be treated as such (kind of reminds me of the Zim war veterans, many of which don't look like they were alive then).

The current call for Mbeki's head is understandable. Where is he now? I believe in Japan. His country burns and his touring (Nero comes to mind, doesn't it?). I don't think he alone should be axed.
His whole government should be axed because a situation like this doesn't materialise over night. His whole domestic policy seems to have backfired, and his legacy of an African Renaissance is crumbling.

As bad as the situation currently stands, seeing the protests in Nigeria is rather hypocritical.
Some Nigerian refugees here in South Africa have destroyed a refugee camp, destroyed the water lines, preventing Aid workers from assisting fellow refugees and beating fellow refugees who have asked for assistance all because they don't want help from the SAF government.

Not all South Africans are bad, we have raised funds, had collection drives and opened up homes and communities.
We just want to help and say sorry...

Only to be met with "All South Africans are racists."