Notwithstanding the serious allegations of treachery against the ANC-Zuma government which border on treason (and which facilitated State Capture by the Guptas and Bosasa, among others, and some who are implicated are now on the party’s election candidate list); the devastation of SoEs like Eskom, Prasa, Transnet, SAA, SABC, and the deliberate decimation of the South African economy; the shenanigans of the State Security agencies and the incorporation of criminals into government; fake pastors who fleece the poor and raise the dead; and those who burn universities to promote higher education – the quarter century of South Africa’s democracy is still worthy of celebration, even in its fragile state.

It is also an opportunity to reflect on the deviation from the egalitarian human rights’ ideals as entrenched in the South African Constitution. Chapter 2 of the Constitution incorporates the Bill of Rights which is “a cornerstone of democracy in South Africa. It enshrines the rights of all people in our country and affirms the democratic values of human dignity, equality and freedom”.

The SA Constitution is opposed to any form of discrimination and religious prejudice.

“The state may not unfairly discriminate directly or indirectly against anyone on one or more grounds, including race, gender, sex, pregnancy, marital status, ethnic or social origin, colour, sexual orientation, age, disability, religion, conscience, belief, culture, language and birth,” it states.

Furthermore, everyone in South Africa “has the right to have access to healthcare services, including reproductive healthcare; sufficient food and water; and social security, including, if they are unable to support themselves and their dependents, appropriate social assistance. The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights”.

The major challenge is to translate constitutional rights into reality. Kofi Annan, when he was United Nations Secretary-General, contended:

“Wherever we lift one soul from a life of poverty, we are defending human rights. And whenever we fail in this mission, we are failing human rights.”

In December 2018, the South African Human Rights Commission reported:

“Lack of access to socio-economic rights provides the clearest reflection of the levels of systemic poverty, unemployment, and inequality in South Africa and demonstrates the persistent recurrence of the cycle of poverty.”

More recently, Barney Mthombothi wrote that “the state of our streets, our backyards, our towns and cities, children merrily playing on dump sites, villagers drawing water from polluted dams and rivers, are a metaphor for the condition of our souls … It is a physical reflection or manifestation of our pathologies”.

According to the 2018 Human Rights Watch World Report, the South African “government’s record on human rights and respect for the rule of law was poor. Corruption, poverty, including high unemployment, and crime significantly restricted South Africans’ enjoyment of their rights”. Also, all forms of violence against women was increasing and under-reported.

In the 2018 report there was concern that “despite recurring waves of xenophobic attacks on businesses and the homes of refugees, asylum-seekers, and migrants, authorities appeared reluctant to even publicly acknowledge xenophobia and take decisive action to combat it, including ensuring proper police investigations. Virtually no one has been convicted over past outbreaks of xenophobic violence”.

According to the 2019 Human Rights Watch World Report, the South African government “has yet to finalise the draft national action plan to combat racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance, or provide a mechanism for justice and accountability for xenophobic crimes”.

The reason for this foot-dragging becomes clear in the 2019 election manifestos and public discourse of senior members of the ruling ANC party, as well as those in opposition.

In its 2019 election manifesto, the ANC promised to “take tough measures against undocumented immigrants involved in criminal activities in the country or in cross-border crimes, including those involved in illegal trading and selling adulterated food in townships and villages”. ANC Secretary-General Ace Magashule said that the “issue of undocumented foreigners was raised by the general society in South Africa … We are listening to the cries of our people”.

In November 2018 Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi blamed foreign migrants for problems in the public health sector, and contended that when they “get admitted in large numbers, they cause overcrowding [and] infection control starts failing”.

In September 2017 Johannesburg DA Mayor Herman Mashaba tweeted: “We are not going to sit back and allow people like you to bring us Ebolas in the name of small business. Health of our people first. Our health facilities are already stretched to the limit.”

Dr Francois Venter from the Reproductive Health and HIV Institute at Wits University, and who had worked in the public health sector for 10 years, stated that “blaming foreigners for the failure to organise the public health services properly is the worst kind of xenophobia … the problems we see [in public hospitals] are largely due to poor human resource and supply line management, and the disease burden related to the local failure of poverty relief programmes and poor organisation of services — not a handful of foreigners who are here for jobs, not for healthcare”.

While the EFF has claimed to be anti-xenophobic, its senior leaders have claimed that those not born in South Africa (e.g. Duduzane Zuma) are not patriotic or loyal to the country.

In a message to mark World Peace Day on 1 January 2019, Pope Francis “warned politicians of the dangers of exploiting nationalism and fear of foreigners to undermine the trust essential to their task of binding societies together, not dividing them”. He maintained that in a “climate of mistrust rooted in the fear of others or of strangers, or anxiety about one’s personal security … political addresses that tend to blame every evil on migrants and to deprive the poor of hope are unacceptable”.

Nelson Mandela University researcher Savo Heleta recently maintained: “Why would politicians choose to face the rightful anger of millions of poor and hopeless South Africans when they can revert to anti-immigrant rhetoric and shift blame to those who have no voice?”

Marc Gbaffou, the chairperson of the African Diaspora Forum, similarly argued:

“Those politicians who have no tangible arguments to convince their electorate always take the short cut by accusing foreign nationals. It’s a populist approach which seems to be working very well in South Africa. The idea is to make community members‎ believe that migrants are the cause of their suffering.” DM