By Guardian Nigeria


They turned up in a mob of several hundred at a migrant centre in South Africa’s Soweto township — unemployed, wielding weapons and angry with foreigners they accuse of taking their jobs.

“Foreigners, go home,” they cried, according to witnesses.

With unemployment at 35 percent — and rising up to 65 percent among youth — competition for jobs has spawned resentment among some jobless South Africans.

In the past, xenophobic protests have morphed into violence. Attacks against foreigners left at least 62 people dead in 2008, while another seven were killed in similar unrest in 2015.

Armed mobs descended on foreign-owned businesses around the financial hub Johannesburg in 2019. The ensuing clashes left at least 12 people dead, of whom 10 were South African, according to the government.

In recent weeks, scores of protesters have been staging demonstrations against undocumented migrants in what they have dubbed Operation Dudula, Zulu for “drive back”.

‘Stealing jobs’
At the Methodist migrant community centre in Soweto, where about 100 migrant families live, there had been rumours of an attack.

A horde arrived earlier this month — some wielding traditional Zulu leather whips — at the centre in South Africa’s most famous township, located south of Johannesburg.

“Foreign nationals are stealing jobs that belong to South Africans,” protesters said, according to witnesses.

Sithulisiwe Chinora, a 22-year-old Zimbabwean, recounted how she started shaking violently, her infant wrapped on her back.

“I thought I was going to die that day,” she said.

Father Paul Verryn, who founded the centre, says it is clear who the protesters were.

“They are xenophobic activists, they clearly targeted foreign nationals because they want them out,” said the minister, who is famous for having opened a church in Johannesburg to thousands of undocumented Zimbabweans after the first anti-immigration attacks.

But the Operation Dudula movement says it is pacifist.

Its leader Nhlanhla Lux Dlamini, a man in his thirties from Soweto who often dresses in a military uniform and bullet-proof vest, says he is simply seeking to “restore law and order”.

“The law enforcement is failing us,” he has told reporters.

Foreign worker quota?
Last weekend, Dlamini led a protest outside a supermarket demanding the sacking of foreign workers employed there.

“There is (nothing) xenophobic about that, it’s the law,” he told journalists. “Any job that doesn’t require skill in South Africa belongs to South Africans.”

Around 3.9 million foreigners live in South Africa, a country of almost 60 million, including political refugees, according to official statistics.

Human Rights Watch says foreigners are often made scapegoats in a country with one of the world’s most unequal societies.

Jay Naidoo, a founding member of the Cosatu workers’ union, said anti-immigrant arguments did not hold up.

“Even if they were to expel all the immigrants, our level of crime would not drop, neither our level of joblessness,” he said.

So far, the latest demonstrations have not spiralled into violence.

A police source, speaking on condition of anonymity, said law enforcement was keeping an eye on the demonstrations.

But “the right to protest is enshrined in the country’s constitution and so far, they haven’t committed any action that required the police to enforce the law,” the source said.

President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Wednesday the authorities were closely watching “pockets of groupings that are trying to foment a type of negative attitudes” towards foreigners.

At the start of the month, the government said it was working on a law to install a quota for foreign workers in South African companies.

Not again..

Too bahd!

Again?

Excuse to loot...

Zooposki:
Africans need to unite with the whyte South Africans to drive out these foolish black South Africans from South Africa. Let’s see where they will go and squat. God caged them. The rest of Africa liberated them. Now see the result. You better go cage them back.

Very ungrateful bastards...

You don't meant it.

Zooposki:
Africans need to unite with the whyte South Africans to drive out these foolish black South Africans from South Africa. Let’s see where they will go and squat. God caged them and the rest of Africa went to liberate them. Now see the result. You better go cage them back.

Black south Africans will suffer because white south Africans are seeking for independence from south Africa.

D loot wey dem loot before don finish...


Omicron people wants to loot again..

Lipscomb:
Black south Africans will suffer because white south Africans are seeking for independence from south Africa.

Really? If that's true and the white south Africans succeed, then they're finished. Very foolish set of people.

OnionBandit:
Not again..

Too bahd!

welcome back

Let's continue where we stopped

God!!!

Who curse Africa?

Honestly I can't blame them if they feel this way...... everyone should go back to their lands and work to fix it instead of putting pressure on another country and leeching of them.

Zooposki:
Africans need to unite with the whyte South Africans to drive out these foolish black South Africans from South Africa. Let’s see where they will go and squat. God caged them and the rest of Africa went to liberate them. Now see the result. You better go cage them back.

This is a very silly thing to say.....when the white man is done exploiting them he'd continue with you.

Lipscomb:
Black south Africans will suffer because white south Africans are seeking for independence from south Africa.

Who told you this?

Hahahah anytime small Sapa hit south Africans they remember foreigners

Dirty bush people...all they know is nquobooti abi umquombutti,whatever that means.... They even gat a song for it by chaka chaka

Lipscomb:
Black south Africans will suffer because white south Africans are seeking for independence from south Africa.

I will love that ..I want more scenarios that prove the black man is not an organised person

Watch out soon.

Iceberg3:

Who told you this?

If theydon't want you tgere, go back to your country

I detest xenophobia but I do see where South African youths are coming from. If there are not enough jobs for the South Africans, then I can understand why they will feel resentful seeing foreigners in their country getting jobs that should ordinarily go to them. I personally won't advise our people migrate to South Africa. Like the article rightly mentioned, South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world so I don't get why some of our people will go there for the proverbial greener pasture.

South Africa is not USA so I don't think our people should seek to go there for economic opportunities. But our people are stubborn and go to places that don't even want them. When some of these South Africans begin to physically attack you, you have no one but yourself to blame. If you must migrate, migrate to places where the people are overwhelmingly welcoming to foreigners. Don't go to countries with a long history of bigotry because you will not be spared when crap hits the fan.

dasparrow:
I detest xenophobia but I do see where South African youths are coming from. If there are not enough jobs for the South Africans, then I can understand why they will feel resentful seeing foreigners in their country getting jobs that should ordinarily go to them. I personally won't advise our people migrate to South Africa. Like the article rightly mentioned, South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world so I don't get why some of our people will go there for the proverbial greener pasture.

South Africa is not USA so I don't think our people should seek to go there for economic opportunities. But our people are stubborn and go to places that don't even want them. When some of these South Africans begin to physically attack you, you have no one but yourself to blame. If you must migrate, migrate to places where the people are overwhelmingly welcoming to foreigners. Don't go to countries with a long history of bigotry because you will not be spared when crap hits the fan.

Well said!

Lipscomb:
Black south Africans will suffer because white south Africans are seeking for independence from south Africa.

They are? Wow! I didn't know that. I wonder what will happen if white South Africans get a country of their own. They currently own most of the companies and investments in South Africa so when they leave, I wonder what will happen to the Black indigenous South African populace. Oh well, I guess they will be alright.

Zooposki:
Africans need to unite with the whyte South Africans to drive out these foolish black South Africans from South Africa. Let’s see where they will go and squat. God caged them and the rest of Africa went to liberate them. Now see the result. You better go cage them back.

Haba Unite with the Whites to drive away black South Africans on African soil.
Comrade easy na I know se this xenophobic niggas dey f up but easy abegg�

BSsniffer:
Honestly I can't blame them if they feel this way...... everyone should go back to their lands and work to fix it instead of putting pressure on another country and leeching of them.

Don't make an excuse for their animalistic behavior don't do it.
All over the World , Black, White,Indian, Caucasian, people migrate so why are the Xenophobic niggas so angry?

Very lazy youths they hate strangers.

dasparrow:


They are? Wow! I didn't know that. I wonder what will happen if white South Africans get a country of their own. They currently own most of the companies and investments in South Africa so when they leave, I wonder what will happen to the Black indigenous South African populace. Oh well, I guess they will be alright.

Stupid idiots
The problem is the whites who have cornered every available wealth in your country.

Instead of them to face the white people that are the origin and continuity of their problems and lack of jobs, they would rather focus on their fellow blacks who are also struggling to survive.

Without the whites evading their space in the first place, this wouldn't be happening. After all their joblessness is artificially created.

This happens in the rest of black Africa and black dominated countries, until the blacks know their true enemies and see they are being used worldwide.