On June 16, the youth of 2022 braved the cold weather and hostility from authorities to sound the alarms
Disappointment was etched on the faces of several young marchers, as the memorandum with their demands was handed over away from public view, at the ‘Youth Day Parade’ hosted by the Ahmed Kathrada Foundation (AKF) on June 16, 2022.
Instead of collecting the memorandum in front of the crowd of about 200 people gathered on the Union Building’s lawns, those leading the parade met with representatives from the presidency on the side lines.
“I am feeling disappointed because we went through a lot to come and deliver this memorandum; from organising and mobilising. We were expecting someone from the presidency to come and receive this memorandum,” said Zamajozi Sithole, projects officer of the youth leadership program at the Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund.
“[It] just tells me that young people are still not taken seriously, and it does make me question: will our memorandum be taken seriously?”, said Sithole.
Simon Witbooi, member of the Khoi community that has been camping outside the president’s office for over three years in protest, said he had “seen protests like these” come and go, with nothing done once memorandums are handed over.
But officials promised this time would be different and the issues would be deliberated and resolved. A tall order, considering some of the demands.
The memorandum made calls for better service delivery, climate justice, sustainable employment for youth, a universal basic income of R1 500, and the eradication of corruption, xenophobia, and crime.
Cameron Rodrigues, a University of Pretoria student, said she wanted the government to start listening to the youth’s voices calling for “climate justice” as it equates to education justice.
The youth of 2022 came out in their hundreds to voice out their concerns to the presidency. Photo: Keamogetswe Matlala
Calling for gender equality, Soul City Institute social mobiliser, Nathi Ngwenya said, “we are against patriarchy” and could work with government to bridge current inequalities.
The parade commemorated the 46th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Youth Uprising, where students protested the Apartheid government’s efforts to make Afrikaans the medium of instruction in township schools.
Speaking to Wits Vuvuzela, Zaki Mamdoo from AKF said: “the youth are the answer. We have solutions to our crises, we are able to lead, organise and […] to present ourselves as the hope for the future of this country”.
The foundation plans to meet with involved stakeholders on July 16, 2022, to follow up on the progress made in meeting their demands.
#YouthDayParade marchers sitting on the Union Buildings lawns. Photo: Keamogetswe MatlalaThe crowd holding up placards as they march from the Loftus Versfield Stadium. Photo: Keamogetswe MatlalaMembers of Equal Education with their artistic hand-made banner. Photo: Keamogetswe Matlala
FEATURED IMAGE: Children as young as eight joined in on the march, putting their best feet forward to secure their future. Photo: Keamogetswe Matlala
South Africa is in crisis. In a very short space of time, a dense fog of violence has engulfed the country, unleashing countless acts of gender-based violence and xenophobia that have unravelled the rainbow in our nation. At Wits Vuvuzela we have been moved to dedicate this issue to confronting these two ills.
Being a young Zimbabwean-South African woman living in South Africa, like many I find myself having to explain what it means to belong to a particular space and negotiate my place in my own home land.
This week Africa Check busts estimations of foreigners in South Africa, providing the real figures and the real reason they should be accurate. (more…)
According to crime statistics, the Fordsburg and Mayfair areas are two of the safest foreign-inhabited areas in Johannesburg. The Muslims in the area, which is increasing yearly, believe it is because of their peaceful nature. Can this be true?
Mayfair and Fordsburg have become places where refugees, asylum seekers and immigrants from the world come to find and protect one another.
For Mayfair, an area rich with foreign businesses and residents, the once “whites only” zone went through two xenophobic waves virtually unscathed.
Some residents, such as Amir Sheikh, have hailed the area as a safe haven for foreigners because of the peacefulness of Muslims, who make up the majority of the population.
Others though, still look over their shoulders and hold on tight to their children when walking in the streets and complain that ordinary crime is on the rise.
Somalis first foreigners
The vast majority of Somalis immigrated to this area in the early 1990s as their home country burnt with civil war.
Luckily for these families, there were many Indian people of Islamic faith already living in the area.
This was partly due to a court judgment in the 1980s against apartheid’s Group Areas Act. A court ruled that Indian people could not be evicted under the Act if they bought or rented properties in Mayfair as the state couldn’t provide adequate alternative accommodation.
The wealthy and well-established Muslim Indians in the area helped the Somalis who shared their faith through one of the five pillars of Islam, zakāh . Zakāhis an annual payment made under Islamic law on certain types of property and used for charitable and religious resolves.
Bursary administrator for the South African National Zakah Fund (SANZAF) Nqobani Mbanjwea talking to a possible donor via telephone from the Mint Street, Fordsburg, office. Photo: Anlerie de Wet
These Indians then took “shares” from their businesses and spread them among the destitute of the Muslim community, which included the Somalis.
As the years went by, foreign nationals from many different countries (most of which were Muslim) found solidarity living in the Mayfair and Fordsburg area, which had become increasingly commercial.
In Central Road you can find a spaza shop owned by a Bangladeshi, a clothing store owned by an Egyptian and a takeaway owned by an Indian. In the same street you would see Zimbabweans working as sales ladies and Mozambicans as chefs.
Somali Hussein Hussin in his mechanic and auto-electrical workshop, Al Maka, in Langerman Street, Mayfair. His trade is wanted more in South Africa than in his home country. Photo: Anlerie de Wet
“The truck at the borders already know to drop them [foreigners] here,” said Sheikh.
As to why the foreigners choose to settle in this area, local immigration practitioner Pieter Britz gave two reasons: The area has a lot of work for them as immigrants and some of their families are already living there.
Sheikh, however, believes foreign Muslim people choose to start their new lives in the area because “it is the only area close to the CBD that hosts people of Islamic faith”. This allows Muslims there the freedom to work and still practise their religion, such as taking breaks from work during the day to pray at a mosque.
Relatively safer?
According to Sheikh the crime rate in the area has dropped over the years, since his arrival in 2003, which he believes is due to the rising number of Muslims in the area as they are “peaceful people”.
Although the crime statistics in the area dropped to a recorded low in 2013, it increased 15% in the past two years.
Egyptian Salama Elshereef and his cousin have been working and living in Fordsburg since 2006. They followed their family here after they came to the country in 1997.
“Egyptian people here have a lot of businesses in all Islamic areas in South Africa. They helped me work my way up to owning a business.”
Elshereef agreed with Sheikh that the area became safer and more peaceful as the number of Muslims in the area grew.
“Where there are Muslims you will always feel safe,” said Elshereef, but contradictory to this statement he also noted that crimes of all sorts have shot up since the beginning of 2015.
“Crime is coming back to the area because it is getting business. Lots of foreign markets are getting busier, making more money and the thieves know,” said Elshereef.
Even with the belief that crime in the area has increased, Elshereef would still rather stay here than go back to Egypt.
“In Egypt life is better when talking about safety, but business here is better and I feel better near my family … that’s why I came here for them, not because I believe it’s safer,” said Elshereef.
Egyptian Salama Elshereef waiting for customers at his Muslim clothing store, Ameera’s Fashions, on the corner of Central Road and Dolly Rhadebe. Photo: Anlerie de Wet
Zimbabwean Vanessa Chalmers said the area with all the different foreigners is “mostly friendly”.
Although “in all honesty” Chalmers said it is safer in her home country but “the economy, schooling systems and technologies are better in South Africa”.
The 21-year-old Chalmers said the area isn’t that violent although “there is always this one bum that is looking for trouble”.
‘There is fighting all the time. Shooting and stealing’
Ethiopian Hadra Ahmed is a newcomer to the vibrant foreigners’ hub. She came to South Africa in 2009 and, after living and working in Durban with her brother for five years, she moved to Mayfair in August to get married. Her fiancé owns a bistro and has been in the area for two years but she is not comfortable with the idea of living here.
“This is not [a] good area to raise kids,” Ahmed said before talking about her young daughter and her second child, which is on the way.
Ahmed went on to talk about how a Pakistani guy was hijacked on the corner of Bird Street and 9th Avenue, in front of the restaurant she has her coffee stall in.
“There is fighting all the time. Shooting and stealing. They stole the man’s car and drove back to shoot him.”
Although she believes the criminals to be South African, she doesn’t think they killed the man because he was a foreigner. “People here from all nations get attacked and killed, even South Africans.
“I like this country, but I’m scared when xenophobic attacks happen,” said Ahmed. Only bruises and an empty shop remained when her brother was attacked in Durban in 2008 with the first xenophobic wave.
“Here it is safer, but attacks still happen.”
Yet, she would rather stay here than go back home. “Life here is better, we do own business. There we can’t” due to economic conditions,” Ahmed explained.
Sheikh said he knows of one xenophobic attack that took place within the Fordsburg/Mayfair area. A Somali man was strangled to death in Carr Street in front of his garage in May 2008. Nothing was stolen.
Anti-foreigner sentiments were again spread in 2012 by a group that called themselves the South African Blacks Association, according to a media report.
The group circulated pamphlets and letters in the area warning foreigners that “we are coming for you”.
Gift of the Givers worker Fadia Jacobs on her way from the Mint Street, Fordsburg, office to go to a needy family in the area. Photo: Anlerie de Wet
They threatened to rape and kill foreign women along with the following: “We will burn your houses, your so-called luxury cars, we will kill your fucken [sic] puppies [children] and burn down your shops.”
As xenophobic violence affected South Africa in 2015, Mayfair’s Christ Church set up a refugee camp on its grounds with the support of Gift of the Givers, an African disaster relief organisation, and the community.
“This is truly a safe haven for us foreigners because when the xenophobic attacks happened other foreigners came here to find shelter,” said Sheikh.
Amir’s view of South Africa as hospitable and receptive has not changed due to the xenophobic attacks.
“The same person that gives you space to trade and doesn’t know your country of origin cannot actually be a xenophobe. Still there are people that cling to the element and claim things when there are tensions somewhere.”
Non-Muslims also welcome
Britz and his practice assist roughly 30 to 40 immigrants a month.
“I find that our clients integrate into the area easily … They have strength in numbers and know people here, they speak the same languages and know the same type of socialistic statuses.” Then again, most of his clients are Muslims.
Muslim women waiting for friends before going to the mosque for Friday afternoon prayers. Photo: Anlerie de Wet
However, Sheikh said that while the area is dominated by Muslims, non-Muslims are also welcome.
“Non-Muslims have no difficulty coming into the community… we co-exist well,” said Sheikh.
He explained that people from the SADC region come to live and trade in the area.
“[It] doesn’t mean when you [are] of other faith that you are not accepted and accommodated into the community.” To strengthen his point, Sheikh used the example of the area’s ward counsellor, Barry Musesi, being “a black Christian from Limpopo”.
Although, over the years Sheikh has noted a change in pattern as the Muslims, especially the foreigners, are no longer as united in the area as they used to be.
“There is some inter-Islam racism and dislikes. There are talks about Somalis taking over everything … and a fear that we own most of the businesses in the area.”
Yet he believes that even with all the cultural differences they are still more united through Islam – with an understanding that their interactions are mutually beneficial.
Zimbabwean waitress Vanessa Chalmers wiping plates before Calisto’s Portuguese restaurant opened at 12pm on a Friday afternoon. Photo: Anlerie de Wet
But as a Zimbabwean Christian, Chalmers finds it difficult to integrate into the community, purely because of the tightly knit Muslim groups. She has been working in Fordsburg at Calisto’s Portuguese Restaurant for the past two months. She has been in the country from the beginning of 2015 to study accounting through South Africa’s distance university Unisa.
“Some of the Muslims are not that friendly, but with my work you are forced to get along with them. I found that if you are not of their kind, you are not seen as human.”
Other than her feeling uncomfortable in the presence of Muslims, she said she gets along well with all the other foreigners in the area.
Chalmers’s colleague, Gunjan Sur, has been in South Africa for five months under an “asylum seeker” status – although his life was not in danger in his home country. His travel agent in India allegedly told him the status was the same as a five-year work permit. She was wrong and he can no longer get hold of her.
Although Sur is stuck in South Africa, he sometimes forgets because “there are people here from my country and from Bangladesh and Pakistan who follow different religions. I feel at home here”.
Nonetheless, despite some struggles and disputes, many foreigners still come to this area for protection and to build better lives for themselves. Compared to other areas where foreigners are found in great numbers, such as Hillbrow and Yeoville, this area still statistically remains one of the safest.
Whether Muslims are connected to the higher levels of safety for foreigners or not, the Fordsburg and Mayfair areas serve as the definition of a “rainbow nation” for many foreigners.
FEATURED IMAGE: Gift of the Givers worker Fadia Jacobs on her way from the Mint Street, Fordsburg, office to go to a needy family in the area. Photo: Anlerie de Wet
Reinventing Pan-Africanism in the Age of Xenophobia, a international symposium, was hosted by the WISER Institute last week.
Gauteng Premier David Makhura says he worries about the people of his province as “many of those [people] come from the rest of the continent”. Makhura was speaking at the discusson on pan-Africanism in the age of xenophobia, hosted at Wits University by Wiser, (the Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research) and the Ahmad Kathrada Foundation.
Makhura said the the dangers of xenophobia lie not only in the “absence of opportunities” but also in narrow “national interests”. Makhura said that if we want to build a great Africa we can no longer make “catching up” with Western civilization our intention; we must offer something new and unique to the rest of the world.
“If there is something Western capitalism teaches us, is that in fact you can even become more less of a human being as your material needs are met,” said Makhura.
The two-day symposium aimed to fostering dialogue on a number of issues affecting the African continent including xenophobia, racism, tribalism, nationalism and colonial boundaries.
Other speakers on the day included academics Neocosmos and Associate Professor Suren Pillay.
Michael Neocosmos, an academic, stressed that it remains problematic to associate xenophobia with poverty and that research shows that some 65% of South Africans feel that the country’s borders should be secured through electric fencing which is a good indication that xenophobic attitudes are prevalent throughout society.
He also mentioned that people live in subhuman conditions and the assumption is that poor people can’t think, this means that we exclude them from what we think humanity is.
“If we want to expand pan-Africanism it means we must expand knowledge,” Neocosmos said.
A week ago I had a conversation with a colleague of mine about xenophobia. She told me about a story she was covering where foreign nationals were protesting against the arrest of their friends.
More than 400 foreign nationals, including women and children, were forcibly taken out of the buildings in Johannesburg CBD at 2am. I then recalled the same thing happened the week before in Sunnyside, Pretoria. The similarities sent chills down my spine.
Our government has started a procedure called Operation Fiela, which in Tswana usually means “Sweep the Dirt”. According to SABC, the government started this operation to “target areas, buildings and spaces which are known to be frequented by criminals”.
Now, the problem is not what they may be trying to achieve, but the manner in which they are going about it.
See, I happen to be in a serious relationship with a beautiful young woman from Zimbabwe and I became scared for the safety of my partner. She came to South Africa because the political situation in Zimbabwe is not favourable to those who are from an opposition party. She said she also came here because “unlike in South Africa, there are very scarce opportunities for young bright graduates due to the declining economy”. Now in South Africa, she has experienced mild xenophobic attacks in the past and is scared for her safety considering the recent attacks.
“Where exactly is this rainbow nation that we always speak highly of?”
I ask myself, where is our humanity? Where exactly is this rainbow nation that we always speak highly of?
We live in a country where, instead of being our protectors, the police are responsible for brutality towards innocent people. In 2012, there was a massacre in Marikana, North West. Police shot miners with live ammunition resulting in 34 deaths. The shooting has been compared to the Sharpeville massacre in 1960 when police opened fire on protestors and killed 69 people.
Where are our protectors?
We had the police inflicting brutality on our nation’s people during the apartheid regime and it is still happening in this so-called democracy. I am not saying there aren’t any good cops, but our government has not created a safer police force. Our government has failed us.
We recently celebrated Freedom Day and I am asking myself what we are freed from, when we are still shackled by anger and mental slavery. Nelson Mandela probably did not have this vision for South Africa, this was not his aim when he spent 27 years in prison.
Our government has become an enemy to our fellow African brothers and sisters. The recent violent attacks against foreign nationals have given rise to the question: Is South Africa really a united country or are we an angry, pained and divided nation.
Let us heal as a nation, find love in diversity. I, as a black bisexual woman in love with a foreign national woman, would like to take pride in South Africa’s healing as a nation. This goes beyond just having tolerance but means accepting our fellow Africans. Let us show the spirit of ubuntu and be a true rainbow nation that cultivates diversity. We all come in beautiful forms and, essentially, we are all human.
Perhaps one day as a country we will achieve a state of acceptance as described by writer Eckhart Tolle: “Acceptance looks like a passive state, but it brings something entirely new into this world. That peace, a subtle energy vibration, is consciousness.”
Worried about not looking gay enough, or scared you’re serving fake bisexual? In the second episode of our limited-series focused on life and living as a twenty something, the Community Guidelines team analyzes the idea of community from a queer lens, and delving into what it means to have a “queer community” in a country […]
