Here in South Africa, we are finding ourselves yet again faced with a xenophobia crises. I believe, its important to recognise the difference between xenophobia and racism. Xenophobia is where locals attack foreigners living within the country, where racism is the clear distinction between peope of different colour or culture.
Yes the Zulu King's comment didn't help at all, and was a reflection of his own personal opinion of his fellow Africans - his words were clear. There is responsibility he should take for his words, yet we all equally need to take ownership of South Africa's economic situation.
Although I hate what is happening and it boils my blood, in a way it is good. It has put to our attention a very important matter that has to be addressed and dealt with.
As South Africans are attacking their fellow African brothers, this is clearly not a matter of racism or culture. Its a simple matter of locals losing their jobs to foreigners. I agree to their anger, and we have a clear unemployment issue effecting all South Africans regardless of racism or background. Yet I will be clear I do not agree with attacking people physically! Otherwise we will be no better than Hitler, terriorists or the apartheid regime.
No, if we truly want to solve this problem we need to go to the source. We need tourism to bring in money, so don't physical force. We need to take ownership of our country and see the bigger picture. We should enforce barriers to people seeking full residence as they do abroad. Yes other countries have their own problems but we are too quick to give foreigners full work permits, asylum seeker permits and full residency. We should not be scared to give illegal immigrants LEGAL eviction notices.
2ndly we need to encourage small businesses to open to create businesses. We are creating employment rules to incorporate more locals, yet its only allocating existing jobs. We need a lot more! We need to create jobs. We need to encourage our South Africans to make the bold move to open new jobs.
3rdly, we need to stop demanding higher salaries. Regardless of your skill set. If you believe you should earn R20,000 be prepared to do a job worth R30'000 and grow yourself. Build yourself to build our future! If every person actively excelled in school and then at work, they could open their own business by the age of 40. We are currently demanding R20,000 yet only working at 30-60% of what we could give. Not to mention how we expect that R15,000+ yet we haven't finished work, completed any degree in the field, nor grown ourselves to have the required skill set.
4th, We need to teach our children differently at home. I find a few cultures teach their children so much about racism, hatred, cultural differences yet fail to encourage their children to improve themselves! A man never loses his way home; build him up and he will often return home to invest/build up his home town/city. Its important to recognise that often some foreigners are respected because they teach their children to excel, work hard and being able to work hard on their money. You will find small business entrepreneurs would often admit they hire the foreigners to get the job done well and save money.
To fix our problem we need to take our attention off 'racism' and 'xenophobia' and unite as one people to resolve the underlying issues and build our nation. Just like our leaders needs our votes, equally our nation needs our individual inputs! Violence fixes nothing, it only it scares away money and spoils what our African fathers have done with their blood. We idolise Madela, yet his legacy started with his individual's decision to actively make a change!
I will say I am white and I have no problem with race. What I strongly dislike are the cultures that set others apart because of discomfort, background, culture or belief. I don't like certain people getting jobs despite not being qualified, only to prove a point or to look like they're addressing the problem. We all share this country, we all need to work our way up the ladder, We all need to challenge ourselves in every aspect of our mindset and we all need to start dreaming for our nation's future.
South Africa is known globally as the first to take racism head on. Let's be known as the first country to beat inequality! Let's not wait for our leadership to fix our problems, and then criticise them for failing us. WE need to challenge ourselves to address all our underlying issues, together!
Thank you for reading my opinion, feel free to share yours.
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