"Anti-xenophobia initiatives taking SA by storm"

By Accra Maweya            ntlhari.accra@Gmail.com

                                                                       photo by ireport.cnn.com

Apartheid was an ideology which was introduced in South Africa in 1948 by the national government. Apartheid  did not only separate development of the different racial groups in South Africa but it also resulted in the loss of lives of both young, old south African man, women and children who fought for freedom. During the apartheid era heroes and heroines like the late president Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo, Govan Mbeki, Ahmed Kathrada, Albert Lutuli, Ruth First, Albertina Sisulu and the list goes on, fought for the freedom we take for granted today.

The national party (NP) government made laws and forced different racial groups to live separately and develop separately while in the papers they made it look like they were striving for a better and equal life for all South Africans. These laws made it impossible for equality and development to happen for black people in townships and rural areas.

Laws like the population Registration Act of 1950 demanded that people should be registered according to their racial group just so the Department of Home affairs would have a record of people according to whether they were white, coloured, black, Indian or Asian. People would be treated differently because of their population group. The Group Areas Act of 1950 was the act that physically separated people by race. This act was also used to remove people of certain groups into areas set aside for their racial group.

photo by Amalia Svejgaard 

Now everyone in South Africa has freedom to speak to whoever they like, be in a relationship with anyone regardless of gender or race simply because of the rights emended in the bill. Although we have overcome apartheid and its laws, people in South Africa still find themselves victim of oppression and violation of the irrevocable rights that every human has. The issue of xenophobia is not one that is new or shocking in South Africa. Foreigners in Gauteng and other parts of the country find themselves victim of attacks by black people in townships and city centres. 

Between 2000 up until recently, many cases of these attacks have been reported and a march was started in February last year by south African citizens all because Nigerians are stereotyped for being drug lords, prostitute pimps and thugs in Pretoria CBD. They are mostly attacked by South African citizens because they claim that foreigners are taking their jobs and are over populating their city.

Over the past few years, non-governmental organizations and anti-xenophobic violence initiative were formed to help stop xenophobia in the country. aXaSA was formed by the South African Council of Churches with the aim of eradicating xenophobia in South Africa. AXaSA is a coordinating body that works on national scale by providing a shared technologically based infrastructure to help its member organisations work more effectively both individually and collectively. Its mission is to become a national initiative to increase civil society efforts to fight xenophobic violence, to bring organizations together to add value to their work. It will seek to create infrastructure and overarching systems for more effective responses; and co-ordinate proactive reactive strategies and actions to ensure a reduction in violent attacks.

As black people of South Africa we still feel the cracks of apartheid in our lives today but the fact that the same weapon which tore apart families and ended the lives of our loved once is still used to cause segregation between people in this country is heart-breaking. It has been 24 years since the abolishment of apartheid but we have forgotten too soon. Just as much as we wanted to feel equal and have a life that was not less than that which white people had, foreigners do want the same for themselves and their children. Regardless of their country of origin ,the same human rights that a south African black, coloured, Indian or white man has are the same for anyone living in this country.

The sooner we stand united as a country regardless of citizenship, race, gender or age we stand a better chance of creating the South Africa we want to live in and a South Africa which the blood of every victim of apartheid was shared for.

photo by Krugers News