Xenophobia, this is the word used to describe hate crime against African people who are not from South Africa. We woke up one morning in May 2008 and Africans were killing Africans and the total number of dead people was 62 and 21 of those were South Africans. In 2015 another scary event took place were Africans killed each other, this happened again in 2017.

Following these events, we hear South Africans say foreigners take their jobs and perpetrate crime. The sad part about this is that someone somewhere believes that foreigners are responsible for creating jobs and fighting crime. The media on the other hand fails to ask real questions as to why South Africans are so angry and whom is to blame, but they too quick to post pictures of the brutal killings on the internet. Our leaders are afraid to come out and talk about the real reason South Africans are angry but they too are quick to talk about peace.

Who is behind xenophobia and who is to be blame? That’s the question we need to focus on. In South Africa alone we have hundreds of thousands of people who come in illegally every day in our very own so cold protected boarders. We have hundreds of thousands of illegal weapons and substances that come. We have a home affairs system that can be hacked at any given time because its system is not protected and the department of labor which does not investigate companies that hire illegal emigrants and company bosses that are too greedy to pay the legal leaving wage.

Are we still saying foreigners steal our jobs and perpetrate crime? Have we taken our time and asked how un-armed people manage to defeat our well trained South African defense force at our boarders and the South African police services? We also need to ask ourselves how in a country with the strong security service manage to smuggle in illegal substance and weapons and mange to distribute them so well that they are found everywhere. In a country that promotes peace we still need to ask ourselves what is peace?

As a nation we need to know that everyone is a victim, when one considers the crime rate and the high number of unemployment. We need to fight the criminals who feed the desperation of other people. The truth is no one has the guts to promote crime if they know the country security will be on to them. We need to come up with strategies as to how we can develop new security systems that other countries use to fight crime and tighten our boarders and airports with security and see if this crime rate will still be high.

But wait have we not done that already? What we really need to do is ask those in power why their security services are so weak yet tax payers pour out a lot of money to make sure that they get all the training they need in order to protect us. We need to know that since May 2008 until today what have they done with the citizens concerns about “foreigners perpetrating crime and taking their jobs.” Who was assigned to deal with the matter and what was the outcome? We are all Africans and we are capable of hate, but we are even more capable of hate when promised honey in an empty stomach.

With all these killings going on, someone is benefiting somewhere and we are left with hate while they enjoy the benefit of the hate they have fed us. All our leaders are aware of the killings and crime and they not taking action because they know who is to blame. We as people on the ground can blame and kill each other but the truth will still remain if we don’t fight the real criminals we are then fighting a losing battle.                                                                             

No African man born of African woman has the right to kill another African child. We need to stand together and fight poverty and our land. With the energy and knowledge we have, we should be able to take back our national resources and start owning them as they belong to us. We should be focusing more on aquiring scarce skills in order to build our wealth as a developing country and we can only do that if we are willing to work with our African brothers instead of killing them.  Azania is our home let us love and protect it as we live in peace.

Photo credit: VKNS