In the early 1990s in South Africa, when there were no opportunities or social services for blacks, blacks still disliked immigrants. The same is true today. The EFF’s Primrose Sonti shouted in Parliament recently that “[o]pportunities in Marikana [were] being sold to Shangaans”, causing an ANC MP to rise to have her statements ruled unparliamentary and xenophobic. Instead of withdrawing such language, however, Sonti continued to insist that “Shangaans” were taking away local opportunities, assisted by corrupt ANC leaders. EFF Commander-in-Chief Julius Malema jumped to her defence, explaining to the House that Mrs Sonti was not being xenophobic, only using acceptable black terminology for foreigners; that they were regularly referred to as Shangaans.

Hatred has even been directed towards foreign men because they have been perceived as “taking” local women, who have romantic relationships with them, and in turn foreign men apparently treat the women they love well and respectfully.

In the mid-1990s, South Africa saw a flood of immigrants from the continent and fears of the strangers started. The tensions and murders of foreigners intensified at this time, with the use of the term ‘kwerekwere’ generally being acceptable, to the extent that even foreign nationals used it too.

By the time former president Nelson Mandela started his romantic relationship with Graca Machel, xenophobia or dislike of foreigners abounded. Many saw Mr Mandela’s choice as a ‘Madiba Magic’ stunt to quell dislike of foreigners. The idea was, ‘if Mandela can, so can I’.

In 2001, tensions became very frequent. Popular resentment against foreigners increased, as some saw foreigners as one of the reasons for slow pace of improvements in their lives.

A survey done by the South African Migration Project in 2001 found that 25% of South Africans wanted a total ban of on immigration whilst 45% supported strict controls on the number of immigrants.

South Africa is built on the backs of foreign labour. It is not a new tale that from Mozambique and Lesotho you find the bravest labourers who are not afraid to work deep in the belly of the earth. Nguni (Swati, Zulu, Xhosa, Ndebele) superstitions taught that it is bad luck for a man to work underground, for that is where you go never to return.

There were flash riots in 2006, which were associated with wars between locals and foreigners, but these did not draw too much notice, as then-president Mbeki was highly focused on the ‘African Renaissance’. Fast-forward to 2008, in his speech to apologise for the murders of foreign nationals under his watch, and Mr Mbeki declared that it could not be that South Africans were xenophobic. It will be very interesting to hear his thoughts today.

Blacks have always feuded with strangers from near or afar; even the democratic transition saw the likely derailment as Zulu and Xhosa nationalists fought a bitter war in the then-Transvaal and some parts of Matatiele. These feelings are still being worked on, and have not fully been exorcised. The ANC in exile had many of these issues itself with ‘Transvaalers’ not wanting to associate much with the ‘Coastal People’. It took Mr Tambo’s genius teachings to pull people together and declare tribalism an anti-ANC phenomenon.

The internal battles within the ANC in the mid-2000s also saw these issues rearing their head. The Spy Tapes recorded Xhosa speakers referring to Zuma as a “Zulu Boy”. The Zuma camp, in his campaign, immediately used this. T-shirts with 100% Zulu Boy were made and proudly worn at ANC events and in several of Zuma’s court appearances.

Is it from the strains of the economy? In 2001, 2006 and 2008, the economy was not that bad, as the Global Financial Crisis/Recession ensuing had not travelled to South Africa just yet. But we experienced the worst hate-induced violence, with murder during these times of plenty being upward of 75.

Is it poverty? With an economics rights constitution, which enabled the provision of free basic electricity, free basic water, free basic education, free medicines and hospital care, free or aided legal representation in courts, participatory democracy, I have deep doubts that poverty can cause a human to kill another.

Even when looting the foreign-owned convenient stores, candy, crisps and cool drinks are the favourite items.

I recall as a young boy during Apartheid, when we heard that our peers from a distant township had started stoning municipal buses or stopping bread delivery trucks to loot them in political defiance, we immediately copied the act without much deliberation. The copycat looting of foreign-owned convenience shops fits in with this pattern. It is opportunistic and plain chance-taking by people who do not even have the hearts of criminals, but find themselves in the euphoria of a crowd. These people the next day realise their mistakes, when the useful service of convenience stores is suddenly not there. In this regard, responsible media is vital in how stories are framed or told. Criminal looting must be labelled as such, and not given a political cover with terms like ‘xenophobia’.

South Africa is the third-most popular destination for African immigrants after France and the Ivory Coast. We are then followed by the G7 economies in the list of destinations. In each of these countries there are tensions that usually flare up, and in all the national elections, immigration has been topical.

South Africa hosts some six million documented and undocumented immigrants. In leafy suburbs, Malawians and Zambians are suddenly preferred housekeepers and nannies. In most cases, these are needy people who go on to work under trying conditions with the middle-class bosses (black and white) cutting corners and avoiding legislative requirements to hire documented workers and paying the minimum wage alongside UIF contribution.

As it is, the country is given a narrative that says the King of the Zulus incited the hateful violence we see. On the contrary, the first point of conflict was in Isipingo outside Durban, where it is alleged that a wholesaler there fired 200 of his striking employees and replaced them with immigrants, thus starting an open battle which then went on as media started reporting on it as a xenophobic attack.

Without much analysis, gruesome pictures of an old kangaroo court lynching in another province were distributed and labelled as King Zwelithini’s cause. The narrative of the King went viral when one of the criminals shouted to a journalist that he was acting on the King’s orders, even as the King was distancing himself from such acts as “out of context’.

The perpetrators of the violence are not fools; they immediately knew that the King was getting a lot of negative media and attention as being full of hatred and causing the deaths of many. Nonetheless these perpetrators continued with their reign of criminal terror which ended in a number of deaths – including of South Africans.

It does not make sense for any subject to purposefully taint their Sire. As the King was being accused of crimes against humanity, higher volumes of attacks and contagion were occurring.

It is noteworthy that the key areas where the attackers assembled are known IFP hostel strongholds in both Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal. It is also known that the IFP remains in tense relations with the King, who decided to distance himself from the IFP and open party politics at the behest of Mandela.

Indeed, the clip that is going around is selected specifically for the parts where the King is decrying “laziness of South Africans, and the dirty streets the immigrants are causing”. The Minister of Police, Nkosinathi Nhleko, who was at the occasion where the King’s speech was made, vows that the full context was the King encouraging government to deport illegal immigrants.

We hope that today, the King will clearly make his voice heard against xenophobic violence. This will only be to delegitimise those who say they are acting on his instructions; however, more work ought to be done politically, with the local IFP leaders in hostels like Jeppestown and KwaMashu. These were hotspots for violence in 1980s and 1990s.

For the Zuma government, a clear, multi-faceted plan is needed urgently:

• Home Affairs must reconfigure and hire more Immigration Personnel with embedded whistleblowing tools that have direct financial benefit to the whistleblower;

• The Labour Department must hire more workplace Labour Inspectors, including household inspections for domestic workers;

• Labour Brokers must seize their recruitments of unskilled immigrants and be made to report if any of their recruits are suspected of fraudulent documents;

• There must be severe penalties on employers who employ immigrants so as to evade sector minimum wage and basic conditions of employment and worker unions, and unions must also promote this;

• Borders must be staffed with more personnel including security services, and stronger border controls;

• IFP leaders must be met to root out violence from hostels, military action must be stopped and a deliberate effort to win hearts and minds must be kicked off immediately;

• Zimbabwe must be assisted with an economic package to restart its economy;

• Nigerian government must be engaged with on how to deal with its diaspora in South Africa, as there are visible sources of counter aggression and criminality, and public diplomacy is needed the most;

• Immigrants with illegal firearms must be arrested, and this must be made a priority;

• South Africans must be educated on what it means to be a global citizen, through a deliberate marketing plan by the Department of Arts and Culture;

• The Hate Crimes Bill must be finalised and xenophobia regarded as terrorism;

• The Army must be returned to the barracks immediately so as not to militarise the hate crimes;

• The State Security Agency and the Presidency must take South Africans in their confidence about matters of security and intelligence assessments;

• Pictures and names of dead or injured people must not be published by the media until after 48 hours of the incidents, to enable family members to be informed in an Ubuntu way first.

Through a multi-pronged approach, and by understanding the history and various contributing factors, we might just have a chance at combating the outbreak of violence our country currently faces. DM