Schwartzerwitz: Hang your heads in Shame

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Hang your heads in Shame

South Africans should all hang their heads in shame for 2008's xenophobic attacks, says Mavuso Msimang, the director-general of the national Department of Home Affairs. (from IOL)

Speaking at a vigil in Cape Town on Thursday night to mark the anniversary of the attacks, Msimang admitted his department was "not a good example for service delivery", but that should never be used as an excuse to condone what had happened.

"As a nation, we should all hang our heads in shame for what happened in 2008," he said.

"Improvement of service delivery will do much to lessen the anger and paranoia." (Oh really? And allowing 8000 Zimbabweans into the country helps? Seems like pouring petrol on a fire.)

Attacks against foreign nations living in communities still occur.

On Thursday night youth groups, community organisations and individuals from Du Noon publicly apologised for their actions in 2008.

"We felt as a community, and especially the youth - because it was mostly the youth involved - we had to express our sincerest apologies and ask for forgiveness. We want to build Du Noon into a multi-racial and multicultural place where everyone is welcome," said Elizabeth Arendse, one of the area's community leaders.

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Every Pogrom needs an Armband....

Welcome to Schwartzerwitz. The inevitable consequence of 4 million illegal immigrants arriving in South Africa. More desperate than our local folk they are willing to work longer harder faster for less. The immigrants are more reliable than South African unskilled labour and have outcompeted the local folk. No matter what anyone says it's not FAIR on our locals. Adding 4 million hungry mouths to the country has exacerbated the rocketing food prices felt across the globe. Adding 4 million potential electricity users to the mix has undoubtedly worsened the electricity situation. Having 4 million people send home money to their family drains the economy of money which should stay within the borders. Adding 4 million people and not registering them as taxpayers has cost the country billions. What chance does our government of ridding the country of shacks as per the Millennium Development Goal when 4 million immigrants build/rent shacks. Murambatsvina in Zimbabwe....? Just move to a shack in South Africa. On an individual basis this site condemns violent acts against individuals. However as a collective the illegal immigrants deserve no sympathy and should be deported back from whence they came. These people are economic refugees - "not real refugees" - and they are(generally speaking) in South Africa illegally.

kwerekwere.

The inside cover of my Oxford English dictionary features a word with which I have become all too familiar: the word is kwerekwere.

(It may be more familiar to you with one of its vernacular language–dependant prefixes prepended — the Sotho singular being le– and plural ma–, the Nguni singular being i– and plural ama–). This word is used to refer to black (in the morphological sense) Africans who are not South Africans — South African being defined as Sotho, Nguni, Venda and Tsonga ethnic groups (by that measure the Swazis, Batswana, etc. would be South African?). This word has a very negative sting to it and is often used with contempt. From what I gather it has undertones which speak of how black Africans are believed to be sub–human, too dark and have a pungent smell.