IPCI Response to Current Xenophobic Violence

The spate of violence presently engulfing South Africa is merely a charade for a far bigger agenda exposing the hidden underbelly of South African society and questioning the moral fabric of our leadership. The rape of women, murder of young children and the return of the classic “necklacing”, a phenomenon which evolved under apartheid has returned. The initial assumption that the inherent brutality of the former regime, would have made an indelible mark in changing the mindset of the local Africans, seems to have fallen by the wayside as locals engage in identical activities as that enacted by the Verwoerds, the Malans and the Bothas. Their has been an internalization of the cruel fascism of the apartheid as we witness a hatred personified on a scale which leaves all of us shocked and literally mortified.

The present head of SOPA expressed a view that xenophobia is political anger finding a wrong venting point. In one sense, this is correct. Over the past decade the ANC has produced very little in changing the economic circumstances in this country. In fact, as many commentators have elaborated, that the chasm in terms of the divisions between rich and poor has exacerbated more so since 1994 then during the height of apartheid. More than 40% of the population is unemployed, 50 million people are congested and reside on less than 9% of land, even though the vast majority of land in this country owned by white farmers is not arable. The housing programme of the ANC government is a dismal sham. Suggestions of a third force manipulating the situation and initiating the violence may be a reality and the introduction of the army by government may be part of a Hegelian dialectic (problem-reaction-solution) in creating further surveillance over the population. It is clear that our government has some role to play in the violence.

The majority of the foreigners in this country come here as refugees; many are starving and are trying to make ends meet in this country. In the interests of justice, the Islamic propagation Centre International strongly condemns the barbarism and stands in support of the thousands of refugees during this period of crisis.

YUSUF ISMAIL
IPCI