Africa Unite held a dialogue at the Denis Hurley Center on Tuesday, 20 April to discuss social cohesion and what still needs to be done at ground level to eradicate attacks on foreign nationals and also to ensure that social cohesion is prioritised in South africa. The panel consisted of two social cohesion advocates, Doctor Raj Govender, a social anthropologist and cultural researcher and Dr Yaa Ashante Ngidi, National Social Cohesion Advocate and Director of the Institute of Afrikology.
Invited to the table were pastors from local churches and Bunana Gaby Bikombo, a life skills advocate and coordinator for Refugee Social Services. Dr Govender introduced the topic for the day saying that South Africa comes from a very painful past especially with racial divisions and that social cohesion needs to be prioritised.He said that at national level it was decided that a rapid task team be formed to respond to crisis at all levels of government from district level. “The task team will work hand-in-hand with the various social cohesion advocacies and will deal directly with issues such as xenophobic attacks, racism, bullying etc,” said Govender. Responding to Govender’s introduction, Reverend B Mathias said he felt that there is still a gap which needs to be filled between national social cohesion committees and local municipalities as there are still attacks on people at ground level. “People are still being attacked for being foreign nationals and they are arrested on a daily basis. Why are they not part of this meeting – the perpetrators and victims are not present,” said Reverend Mathias.
Most of the stakeholders attending the meeting expected the Umkhonto we Sizwe, ‘M.K Veterans’ who people claim are the ground forces and alleged perpetrators of attacks on foreign nationals in Durban and surrounds, however, none of them were present. Bikombo also questioned whether social cohesion is possible with so much happening in various Durban townships. He recalled some incident he had witnessed first-hand in the city, dating back to 2008 where people were displaced after being attacked. “In 2015 there was another big attack on foreign nationals and most of the people fled Durban. This started in Isipingo and Chatsworth and came to Central Durban. Since then there have been more attacks and people are refusing to be integrated,” said Bikombo. He added that in the INK areas (Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu) foreigners’ shops were looted and bombed and others were left homeless. “What are these advocacies doing?” questioned Bikombo. He said it was unfortunate that the so-called MK Veterans were not present for the dialogue. “We as foreign nationals are of the view that the veterans are our allies. Why are they attacking us? Foreign nationals live in fear. They want to find a third country because South Africa does not want them.”
Ian Booth from the council of churches said that a meeting was held a few weeks ago and the so-called M.K Veterans were invited, however, they did not attend. “What I got from that meeting is that the so-called M.K Veterans are just families of those who were in other countries and were never taken care of by the ruling party or government. They are just claiming to be veterans. The real M.K Veterans are disgusted by their actions,” said Booth.The panelists and stakeholders each got a chance to express how they felt and made some recommendations. Ngidi said: “Covid lockdown was a time for everyone to think and I feel that government is not clear of what is happening at local level. We must allow communities to know what advocacies are and how they can help bring about social cohesion at community level. Social cohesion is a an experience not a book or a story. What happened to Vision 2030, how far are we as a country and a city with it? Such questions must be asked to our leaders,” said Ngidi. Some of the recommendations made were to bring back the narrative of Ubuntu; enforce the law on perpetrators of xenophobia and foreign nationals should be taught on the legal ways of getting residential permits. All the stakeholders agreed that more engagements are needed with major role-players like police, M.K Veterans, the city leadership, Metro and the victims of xenophobia.
