Whatever is happening today in South Africa is Apartheid trauma whose terrible effects cannot be undone, South Africa just looks GOOD in pictures. Historical context matters.
By the time you finish reading this piece, news just in, the Rand breaks through R15/$ thanks to growth surprise. It”s Business as usual.
THIS is my experience in Xenophobic South Africa circa 1991-1994. What I experienced shaped me into becoming what I am today, somethings i cannot unsee.
Prior to 1994, immigrants from elsewhere faced discrimination, contrary to expectations, these incidents increased after majority rule in 1994. I realized much much later that Kwerekwere wasn’t a corrupted version of my surname KERE, it was derogatory term.
I was going through my archive, collection circa 1991-1994 when I came across a picture I took posing next to a border post in Bophuthatswana. My daughter asked me what I was doing there and how comes that country does not exist ( She tried to Google it)
These Bantustans / Homelands were Apartheid creations. Look them up
She started asking questions again. I love it when she does that ( being curious about some things that is) it means something mattered enough for her to be curious enough. She was curious to know why, at the age of 23, I decided to pack my bags and emigrated Down South, to a place where nobody liked the color of my skin and it was within their Laws not to accept me, how and why?
What started as an adventure to find out what was on the other side of Africa, initially led me to a country called Botswana, I had family friends and a gent who was also a flight instructor who confused me thoroughly, it was my dream to get a private Pilot license before my driver’s license. Botswana was the furthest Southern-most country my Kenyan passport allowed me to travel, legally. Well there was Lesotho and Swaziland but one had to transit via South Africa. My Passport had this specific instruction, “This Passport is Valid for all parts of the commonwealth and all foreign countries “EXCEPT THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA“
I crossed into South Africa via Ramathlabama Border post into Bophuthatswana from Botswana in 1991. I wasn’t sure at the time what that was all about but somehow, clever East Africans had found a way of traveling to South Africa without Entry nor exit stamps, through this Apartheid make-believe country. yes, they existed before 1994.
This is what used to happen, you get a Valid Visa/Residence permit but it is not stamped on your passport, you could basically remove it from your passport. I could travel back to my home country on my passport and no immigration official would suspect I entered South Africa. Those who knew, know .
See, under apartheid, Black people were reduced to homelands ie Transkei , Ciskei, Bophuthatswana and Venda. These fake kingdoms were run by Apartheid appointed chiefs, but since 1994 they ceased to exist. Apartheid was evil, it gave birth to the most offensive racist law was the Bantu Education Act No 47 of 1953.
I still ask myself “What was I thinking!!!” , Hell, I was young and needed the money. That’s how I found my way into South Africa for the very first time, I went back home, quit my Job, packed my stuff and emigrated to South Africa having secured a similar but higher paying job. I had met the owner of several businesses including Hotels while working in Nairobi, he was among a delegation of private South African investors who had traveled to Kenya in 1991 with President De F W Klerk, most were of Jewish Greek stock, mostly impressed by the high quality of Kenyan standards in the hospitality and service industry regarding attitude, reliability and work ethics. Jobs that can never be replaced will be those that require strong human character traits like empathy, a positive attitude and resilience.
I was guaranteed a high paying job after securing a Work/Residence permit with the usual condition that they guaranteed no South African could do what I do and that I should be able to train a South African to take over from me when my time was up ( I’m fluent in 3 international languages ) Bottom-line, it was purely a business investment. My employer never looked at the color of my skin.
My main job description was Marketing the business outfit to Africans ( South Africans, Black or White never considered themselves as Africans, there was a completely separate market share for Africans and Others ) I was a law-abiding expat who duly paid her taxes, minding my own business.
I found a few Kenyans already living on Jozi, most were lecturers in local Universities and Estate Agents plus a few Doctors, we had no Embassy in South Africa, we reported to the British High commission Deaths and Births until Kenya Airways set shop and the local Country Rep, A Mr Kariuki was our go-to-Guy, based in Sandton.
The Government later deleted the Notification on our passports that specifically indicated “ EXCEPT THE REPUBLIC OF SOUTH AFRICA”. I arrived at Jan Smuts international Airport, they flew their Orange Birds with HUGE SAA livery on the sides of each Plane. The airport was no larger than the Greyhound bus terminus. The year was 1992.
I settled down in the Conservatory neighborhood, predominately Jewish and later on moved to Berea, still a Jewish neighborhood. I could safely stroll down to Hillbrow on a Sunday, it was once a very clean and safe neighborhood ( I Kid you not)
I started a Family and delivered my first child In a Huge Hospital in a Town called Krugersdorp, an Afrikaner Boer stronghold. Nobody intimidated me. They say when God shows you mercy, your story sounds like it was made up.
What is Xenophobia and why are people burning other people’s businesses in South Africa today? my daughter kept asking, did you go there to steal their jobs ? Is that why they are still Angry, almost 30 yrs later? I explained to her that the word Xenophobia is formed from a brace of words found in Ancient Greek, Xenos meaning Stranger or Guest, and Phobos meaning Flight or fear ( Not that she had not searched up the Internet for its meaning but she needed to hear my context)
In today’s context, Xenophobia arises when people feel that their rights to benefit from their government is being subverted by other people’s rights, they fear and hate strangers and foreigners or anything that is strange and foreign. Yes, I looked like I had a good job, I lived in a “White” neighborhood and enjoyed all the trappings of success, but it looked the opposite with my colleagues at work. Most of the Blacks came from Boksburg and the colored lived in Melrose. They all dressed well and looked affluent to me, sadly their stories often glorified Shoplifting and carjacking, I did not fraternize much except with our Ugandan chief Accountant and some Zambians and Zimbabweans, kept to myself really. This was in 1992. I stopped asking too many questions. We lost touch, I still wonder where they are
Hillbrow / Berea would not be described as CBD per se, they were but beginning of the leafy Suburbs, believe it or not that time. Nelson Mandela lived next door in Upper Houghton. It was a good location until the invasion from “Africans” as they used to call us. I’m not sure how and when buildings started getting hijacked but from what I see via news outlets , Hillbrow is a sorry state of affairs, a pale shadow of my 1992 Hillbrow.
Recently they tried reclaiming inner city glory with MABONENG , my late daughter started University in 2012 in South Africa and had her first apartment at the MABONENG PRECINT, She had to take me to Newtown for me to physically believe it was safe in 2014, sad to hear the buildings are now up for sale today.
In an article about xenophobic attacks on foreigners published in 2015, the New York Times claimed South Africa was home to 5 million immigrants. Reuters used the same figure. BBC wrote that there are between 2 and 5 million immigrants in the country. Where did the 5 million figure come from? It turns out the media referenced a plagiarized article published in a journal that does not meet academic quality standards, as pointed out by Africa Check. In academic circles such publications are known as predatory journals that publish anything for a price.
The precise numbers of foreigners in South Africa is up for debate.
COPIED:
POPULATION OF FOREIGNERS IN SOUTH AFRICA BY COUNTRY…
Zimbabwe 649,385
Mozambique 381,386
Lesotho 312,537
Namibia 174,043
United Kingdom 123,764
Malawi 102,327
Germany 93,660
Zambia 92,075
Swaziland 87,362
Botswana 69,160
Angola 65,716
DR Congo 50,340
Portugal 44,925
India 39,907
China 38,684
Italy 38,515
Netherlands 33,217
Congo 32,497
Somalia 30,847
Nigeria 27,326
Kenya 27,143
Ireland 19,989
United States 16,713
Pakistan 16,517
Poland 16,276
Tanzania 15,823
Greece 14,912
Mauritius 14,043
Belgium 13,128
France 12,506
Australia 11,898
Ghana 11,013
Burundi 10,822
Source: United Nations (2017) why they left out Ethiopia is as good a guess as mine, I don’t know.
The best way to address this is through honest and factual reporting of data.
Your journey trying to get into South Africa without travel documents will end in robbery, sexual assault or even death
To get a bigger picture, just like in South Africa, 300,000 Whitemen came from the damp and decaying Europe to curve for themselves a clean and well lighted place in the sun,living among 7 Milion Black Men. To Cecil Rhodes and his early pioneers, the Land known as British South Africa was purely a business investment
Since August 1989, Mr. de Klerk had visited Mozambique, Zaire, Zambia, Ivory Coast, Namibia, Cape Verde, Madagascar, Morocco, Senegal and Swaziland .
The other 2 countries are Egypt in northern Africa and Nigeria in West Africa. Mr. de Klerk met with President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt during Namibia’s independence celebrations in March 1990.
President Ibrahim Babangida of Nigeria told reporters that he was not opposed to meeting Mr. de Klerk if it would help bring equal voting rights for South Africa’s black majority.
On 9th June 1991 President de Klerk made a brief visit to Kenya urging normalization of relations, if that meant Kenya supported apartheid, 10 other African countries had not opposed meeting him.
South Africa’s long closed door to the rest of Africa swung open wider today when President F. W. de Klerk flew to Kenya for a brief but significant visit with President Daniel arap Moi.
Kenya became the 10th African country to receive Mr. de Klerk in the two years since he replaced P. W. Botha as National Party leader and then President and promised to dismantle apartheid.
Criminal activity has always been the underbelly in South Africa. Before apartheid fell, cars stolen from South Africa used to be driven and sold them across the borders as far as Kenya and brought back Mandrax.
Hillbrow became the melting pot of Africans from Angola, Mozambique, Guinea, Tanzania, Kenya , Nigeria, Ghana , Malawi, Zimbabwe , Uganda , Ethiopia, The DRC and Zambia of the Import Export variety . Every Business person from “Africa” was into Import Export . I kept all the financial records for my Greek Jewish Boss.
When time came for me to leave South Africa after my Work permit was not renewed, I left with no regrets. I never saw Mandela become President but was around during the voting . Veni Vidi Vici
Against the background of Bantu Education, what hope did Black South Africans really have unless they sneaked out of South Africa without travel documents during the Apartheid era, or obtaining legal exit travel documents where you sign exit promising never to return as the likes of Miriam Makeba and Bra Hugh Masekela. Your journey trying to get into South Africa today without travel documents will end in robbery, sexual assault or even death.
In early 1962, Nelson Madela left his country without Travel Documents via Lobatse in Bechuansland ( Present day Botswana). In order to facilitate his travels he was issued with an Ethiopian passport , in the name of David Motsamayi
The education Black South Africans received was meant to keep the South African people apart from one another, to breed suspicion, hatred and violence, to keep them backward. Education was formulated so as to reproduce this society of racism and exploitation.
The aim was to prevent blacks from receiving education leading them to aspire to positions they’d be allowed to hold in society, they were to receive education designed to provide them with skills to serve their own people in homelands or work in manual jobs for whites. Soweto students rejected the whole system of Bantu Education whose aim was to reduce them mentally and physically, into ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water, remember the movie SARAFINA? That was what’s up in 1976.
Dr Hendricks Verwoerd once said “There’s no place for [The Bantu] in our community above the level of certain forms of labor. What’s the use of teaching the Bantu child math when it can’t use it in practice? Education must train people in accordance with their opportunities in life”
Yet another quote by J. Le Roux of the National Part in 1945 said “We should not give the Natives any academic education. If we do, who is going to do the manual labor in the community?”
We must learn to live together as Sisters and Brothers or perish together as fools, we overconfident perishable Twats. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Hurt people hurt people, time to break that chain. Meet anger with sympathy, contempt with compassion, cruelty with kindness.
South Africans need to be better educated not to destroy their country , and learn more about other African countries
My advice. Don’t stay where you are tolerated. Go we’re you are celebrated
Hear this. I leave you with this recent Africa quiz between a BBC reporter and 18 year old South African high school children. Looks like they have never been taught about the rest of Africa and the role it played in liberating them from a Racist regime. Can you blame them. Apartheid was EVIL
Click the link below to listen in
https://soundcloud.com/bbcafrica/the-africa-quiz
carolinekere 