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I sincerely trust that, after all the violence inflicted by the "xenophobia" attacks, and all our public displays of disgust against it, after things have calmed down, that we will make time to really listen to our fellow South Africans who are so angry about the presence of "foreign nationals" among them. We must make a serious effort to understand why they say "these people" are taking our jobs, and our houses, etc.
We also need to seriously ask ourselves if we are not contributing to the feelings of anger by fellow South Africans against "foreign nationals" in our country. The general perception among many well-to-do South Africans is that they will rather employ the foreigners, because South Africans are lazy.This perception is further reinforced by the many requests for work in newspaper advertisement columns, where jobseekers boldly state that they are "hardworking Malawian looking for job".The solution to these "xenophobia" issues will only be resolved if the aggrieved people in the townships are given the voice to express their concerns, and for them to offer their solution to the issue. The march to Constitutional Hill will be of little or no consequence if we don't go down to the aggrieved people in the townships to listen to them and to walk in their shoes.
We must never allow ourselves to become so insensitive and so arrogant that we won't make the time to listen to our fellow South Africans who ask why they, who are relegated to the scrapheaps of South African life, are expected, almost forced, to be generous with the nothing that they possess.
Why they, who have nothing to share, are expected to share their nothing, in the harsh, degrading spaces they are condemned to live in.
We must never allow ourselves to become so insensitive and so arrogant that we will dictate to our fellow South Africans on the margins how they should respond to their experience of living on the margins, with nothing to share.
We will never get rid of "xenophobia" in our country as long as we deny our fellow South Africans on the margins the opportunity to speak for themselves. We will never free ourselves from the real causes of "xenophobia" until we get down to address the underlying issues of the conflict.
We also need to seriously ask ourselves if we are not contributing to the feelings of anger by fellow South Africans against "foreign nationals" in our country. The general perception among many well-to-do South Africans is that they will rather employ the foreigners, because South Africans are lazy.This perception is further reinforced by the many requests for work in newspaper advertisement columns, where jobseekers boldly state that they are "hardworking Malawian looking for job".The solution to these "xenophobia" issues will only be resolved if the aggrieved people in the townships are given the voice to express their concerns, and for them to offer their solution to the issue. The march to Constitutional Hill will be of little or no consequence if we don't go down to the aggrieved people in the townships to listen to them and to walk in their shoes.
We must never allow ourselves to become so insensitive and so arrogant that we won't make the time to listen to our fellow South Africans who ask why they, who are relegated to the scrapheaps of South African life, are expected, almost forced, to be generous with the nothing that they possess.
Why they, who have nothing to share, are expected to share their nothing, in the harsh, degrading spaces they are condemned to live in.
We must never allow ourselves to become so insensitive and so arrogant that we will dictate to our fellow South Africans on the margins how they should respond to their experience of living on the margins, with nothing to share.
We will never get rid of "xenophobia" in our country as long as we deny our fellow South Africans on the margins the opportunity to speak for themselves. We will never free ourselves from the real causes of "xenophobia" until we get down to address the underlying issues of the conflict.
