Civil violence will rise again, warns report

A hard-hitting post-mortem report on xenophobic violence released this week, warns "civil violence will rise again". It is the result of the work of several NGOs and volunteers who probed the crisis that was sparked in May 2008. The report - titled "Humanitarian Assistance to Internally Displaced Persons in South Africa: Lessons Learned Following Attacks on Foreign Nationals in May 2008" - was penned by Wits University's Forced Migration Studies Programme.

It says civil violence is likely to rise again, whether against foreign nationals, or among South Africans, and neither the government nor civil society is ready to provide effective protection, or relief.

During the violent attacks an estimated 20,000 foreigners were displaced in the province and more than 60 foreigners and locals were killed, mostly in Gauteng, where the violence started.

The report said lack of experience and established systems, lack of government leadership, the fragmentation of civil society and confusion regarding foreigners' rights marked the humanitarian response to the violent attacks.

Nkosikhulule Nyembezi, advocacy programme manager for the Black Sash, was instrumental in helping establish and promote many institutional structures to address the xenophobic violence.

He said: "This period was a critical one in the history of South Africa. What stood out is ordinary South Africans opened their hearts and wallets to assist foreign nationals fleeing from attacks - the many volunteers who prepared and served meals in the shelters, the ordinary residents who went door to door to recover looted property and return it to the owners.

"They stood out as a tangible message that the majority of South Africans denounced the attacks."

Nyembezi said the integration of foreign nationals in communities would not be easy, given the competition for scarce resources due to poverty.

Elroy Paulus believed it was imperative for the government and all relevant agencies to work together. "It cannot happen any other way. How it happens in the future, is the fundamental issue."

He said it was important not only to "help out the foreign nationals" - but to have a more developmental approach.

He recalled when the violence broke out in Du Noon, near Milnerton, they took down several affidavits from victims.

"One affidavit stood out for me and caused me great concern. One couple - the father a Mozambican and the mother a Xhosa woman - fled Du Noon with their baby, the clothes on their backs, a pram and a bottle of infant milk formula. When I asked the father what he had decided to do, he said: 'I just want to go home to Mozambique and I want nothing to do with them.'

"When I enquired what he meant with "them" - he explained he was referring to his child and wife, not the community he fled from, as I had assumed. This was a chilling revelation."

Jody Kollapen of the SA Human Rights Commission also shared his concern that "we may have inadvertently exported xenophobia into Africa, especially when many people fled the violence in South Africa with no counselling or debriefing".

Thandiwe Zulu, regional director of the Gauteng Black Sash Office, concured that in all instances the government came to the party very late. When she arrived at Ekhuruleni Town Hall in Germiston she saw an Anglican priest running around trying to assist with water, food and other basic needs, while local government officials just took down names. No government interventions were immediately apparent to provide material and urgent needs.

"In the future, the release of emergency resources and a rapid government response is critical. A dedicated fund needs to be made available and not taken from other resources set aside to help vulnerable South African communities."

The South African Civil Society Information Service, an agency that promotes social justice, warned that South Africa needed to lobby against corrupt governments in Africa.

Executive director Fazila Farouk said humanitarian assistance was a short-term solution and would not deal with the problem at a systemic level. Many people were here out of desperation, not out of choice.

"Local civil society must be strengthened to apply pressure on the South African government to use its position on platforms like the SADC, Nepad and the AU to lobby against corrupt governments, and promote good governance and developmental states across the board. Africa has the dubious honour of hosting most of the world's longest-serving presidents.

"It's unconscionable that the South African government has long been holding Robert Mugabe's hand while his corrupt policies drive people south."