Deafening silence from our political leaders on anti-immigrant protests

Outside Nelson Mandela Bay and the Eastern Cape, it is not the inclement weather that’s dominating the screens of news channels.

Despite the massive devastation that the heavy downpour has brought to Gqeberha and all other cities and towns in most of the Eastern and Western Cape provinces, TV cameras yesterday seemed permanently glued to anti-immigrants marches taking place in Durban and Johannesburg.

In Thembisa township, Ekurhuleni, scores of people were recorded live moving from one spaza shop to the next, demanding that they be closed down and that their owners and operators — mostly Somalis and Ethiopians — leave the country.

In eThekwini, the tourist city that has gained a reputation as the epicentre of the anti-foreigner movement, a residential building was surrounded by hundreds of people who claimed that it was harbouring drug dealers and other criminals from Nigeria.

There were genuine fears that the protest would escalate into physical violence.

Fortunately, such fears never materialised.

However, the protest, the latest in a series that we have seen over the last few weeks led by an organisation calling itself March and March, adds to growing negative perceptions on the continent and the rest of the world that South Africans are xenophobic and use violence against immigrants.

Reports in the international media about the protests have prompted parliamentarians in countries such as Nigeria to agitate for strong action against SA companies and individuals doing business in the West African country.

A growing number of countries and academics who supported the SA struggle against apartheid are now coming out expressing their disappointment with what they see as our population’s lack of appreciation for the solidarity they pledged with SA during the country’s darkest hours.

Of course, the reality is much more complex than that, but what remains is that the perception is damaging.

Missing in all of this is the voice of our country’s political leadership which should be explaining to the frustrated citizens why it is not true that the high unemployment rate and the high crime rates only result from the “influx” of foreigners.

The political leadership should also be explaining to the rest of the world that the vast majority of South Africans are not xenophobic. That, in fact, we are one of the most cosmopolitan and diverse countries on the continent.

But, perhaps cowed by the populist elements in certain constituencies, our political leaders have remained largely silent — therefore letting the worst among the xenophobic lot hog the headlines and dominate television screens.