The Madness In South Africa

Africa is a continent with a history of challenges in spite of the abundant human and economic resources it is blessed with and most of these challenges are either self-imposed or inflicted on it from the outside.The Continent is one of the most backwards if not the least in terms of development and this may be attributable to a lot of factors that will be a subject of discourse at another forum but very importantly, it is home to most of the black people in the world. Black Africans share a common antecedents and affinity which makes every country with the exception of those in the Northern belt of the continent fellow travellers in the social realm of the equation. Those in North Africa share their social bond with their kindred in the Middle East due largely to shared orientation, value system and other similar variables. In the same token, Black Africans see themselves as brothers and sisters with common goal, pains, aspirations, value system and challenges irrespective of the artificial geographical boundaries. It was therefore not surprising that when South Africa groaned under the claws and jaws of apartheid regime, Black Africans were in the forefront of lending a shoulder for the oppressed South Africans to lean on and every country in the continent from the Western, Central and Eastern blocs rallied round the freedom fighters by giving them hopes through material, economic and social supports. Most leaders of the struggle against apartheid from South Africa were harboured by the frontline African States just as funds for prosecuting the struggle were also provided by these countries. The pressure became so intense that the white supremacy had to give way to majority rule with the evergreen Nelson Mandela becoming the first black President of post-apartheid South Africa. Mandela served for only one term but within this single tenure, he succeeded in entrenching the values of forgiveness in leadership such that those who oppressed the majority blacks under the apartheid regime were carried along. The process of rebuilding South Africa under the post-apartheid regime also attracted the support and contributions of fellow black African nations as a way of fast-tracking the development of the Republic of South Africa and the rest is history. It is however ironic that in spite of all the aforementioned facts, South Africans today see fellow Black Africans as not only a bunch of burden but, enemies that must be eliminated and the instrument adopted to execute the war is called Xenophobia. Fellow black Africans doing legitimate business in the former apartheid enclave are targeted for elimination for the simple reason that youth unemployment in that country is high and their political leaders chose to look the other way. One fact remains sacrosanct, South Africa cannot afford to live in isolation and if it chooses to make enemies out of some people, it should be prepared to face the consequences of alienation not only by fellow black brothers and sisters in Africa but the rest of the world. South Africa’s economic interest in other African countries speaks volume and any attempt to move against such interest, assuming that other African nationals decide to leave South Africa, will further compound the woes of the South Africans, who presently are not seeing beyond their noses. There is no gain saying the fact that every nation of the world has its fair share of unemployment rate but none of such countries resorted to xenophobic madness as a means of solving the problem. The calmness of countries that lost their nationals in the xenophobic attacks is highly commendable but that should not be taken for granted by perpetrators of the dastardly act as the world is watching, therefore the government of Jacob Zuma should take urgent and decisive step to check the inhuman act. There are of course South Africans in most of, if not all, the countries whose citizens are callously murdered and retributive justice will surely not be palatable should citizens of such countries be forced to adopt it as a last resort and the only way to stop such from happening is for South African government to be swift in stopping the xenophobic madness. Lest the South African mad men forget that the right they are laying claim to in their country against those they consider as foreigners can equally be applied against their fellow citizens domiciled in their victims’ country of origin. It’s simply a case of what goes around comes around. The world is concerned more about civility in anything we do and it is the lack of it that can bring untoward pains over actions taken without giving a thought to the immediate and long term repercussion. History is meant to guide our present line of action just as posterity is waiting in the wing to judge every action, but the decision to either choose the right path or the rough lane is absolutely personal. It is in this wise that President Jacob Zuma, whose body language suggests a tacit support in view of the role his son has so far played in the Xenophobic act, should ponder more on the repercussion of what his people are doing to fellow Africans and quickly do what is right to stop the madness. That is my CANDID VIEW.