The recent attacks on African foreigners in SA are organised and engineered by individuals and movements.
That is the view of Nelson Mandela University chancellor Dr Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi, who raised the issue during her keynote address at the relaunched Raymond Mhlaba Centre for Governance and Leadership.
Fraser-Moleketi’s lecture on Friday was titled “Asinakuthula Umhlaba Ubolile: Amplifying the Call to Action” and focused on migration patterns on the continent, and more specifically, Afrophobia.
The lecture hosted by NMU’s faculty of humanities, is a response to the university’s Vision 2030 strategic focus areas on transformative engagement, and the revitalisation of the humanities.
The acting director of the Raymond Mhlaba Centre for Governance and Leadership, Professor Luvuyo Ntombana, said the 2022 address focused on Afrophobia that had gained ground since the end of apartheid.
“The conversation is based on the lived experiences of struggle icons like Dr Raymond Mhlaba and critical thinkers who have contributed in the discourse on identity, migration and space,” Ntombana said.
“In the SA context, in particular, where the erosion of dignity took place in recent history, social memory becomes instrumental in informing governance policies and the transformation of society itself.
“In this vein, the lecture explores our collective, yet varied, memory and historical interpretations as one of the pillars that inform policies in respect of sound governance.”
Fraser-Moleketi said her lecture was influenced by the centre’s purpose of reinvigorating engagements on good governance, accountability and ethical leadership in the region by focusing on the role of struggle heroes and heroines.
“Our country needs institutions that will support both civil society and the state in addressing the pressing challenges facing us as a nation.
“Now, more than ever, we need institutions that will provide for leadership and capacity, promote good governance, and develop accountable and ethical leadership.”
She likened those to the leadership style of Mhlaba.
Focusing on the recent xenophobic attacks across SA, Fraser-Moleketi said: “The economy of SA was built on the backs of cheap African migrant labourers.” .
She said there were some South Africans across the spectrum who still consciously and subconsciously did not see themselves as part of Africa.
“Oom Ray and these comrades weren’t populists,” she said.
“They were ready to confront the difficult issues with context at the time.
“They would say that health workers must offer health to whoever comes to access services.
“This is reflected in our constitution and the requirements of the profession.
“The overall number of migrants is actually relatively small. In fact, migrants make up 1.6-million of SA’s 55-million people.
“African migrants make up about 75% of SA’s foreign-born population.
“Political leaders often also ignore the positive contribution that many highly skilled African migrants make to health.
“We should not blame migrants for the collapse of the public health system.
“We must look within governance and the institutions on work to be done.”
Professor Uchenna Okeja, from Rhodes University, questioned whether countries like Congo, Ivory Coast, Niger and Cameroon which had previously participated in the deportation of Africans had become better off as countries.
“I think we should look more closely at the functions of our past and learn the important lessons,” he said.
“It teaches us [that] the immigrants, the socially oppressed and disenfranchised, stand before us as reminders that freedom means nothing.
“Freedom is a work in progress. It is not something you achieve once and for all.”
Senior NMU student Sipokazi Tau said: “When do we draw a line and consider crossing borders legitimate?
“And all of a sudden, when other people have to cross our borders, it becomes this conundrum that we don’t know how to deal with [correctly].”
HeraldLIVE