Welfare State Population Explosion gives rise to Xenophobic violence

Welfare state gives rise to xenophobic violence

Meshack Mabogoane, Business Day
Published: 2010/07/14 07:38:35 AM

THE recent rumours about potential xenophobic violence after the World Cup are a puzzling throwback to a third force that bedevilled the 1980s at the height of opposition to apartheid. The evil has reared its head and smacks, as before, of central levers at work. It also raises questions about the role of security agencies and their part in preventing crime and safeguarding law and order.

Fears of xenophobic attacks are totally unnecessary. The National Intelligence Agency (NIA), police and army must handle delinquency and serious threats to state security — whether they are suspicions, rumours or reality. Any large-scale violence, including xenophobic violence, is their business and they should pre-emptively and promptly deal with any menace.

The head of the police service has already congratulated his troops for victory during the Fifa tournament — much crime was anticipated before the tournament, based on the influx of foreigners and internal experiences.

If the police succeeded at this task, surely they can repeat the feat by pre- empting xenophobic crimes. Stories of potential xenophobic threats follow previous attacks in 2008. While the fires from those attacks were still hot, the state hastily gave explanations and solutions.

The African National Congress (ANC) made xenophobia a “moral” issue, eschewing interpretations that it was based on material causes, such as jobs and housing, which ignite poor and stressed communities anywhere. No mention was made of the ethnic factor, as happens in conflicts, for example, in Nigeria, in the Balkans, and in SA’s history — among native blacks, white burgers and foreigners.

Most unusually, former President Thabo Mbeki interrupted his globetrotting escapades to address the social issue. He held meetings with victims — yet casualties of HIV/AIDS, whose existence and death were denied, still got no attention. Practical results ensued quickly: the speedy issuing of identity documents to foreigners — ready for elections and readier for social grants and citizenship.

With Fifa gone, a huge propaganda vacuum exists which, naturally, must be filled. So xenophobia presents a logical sequel to an international spectacular. Now SA must show it “cares” for foreigners and, because of “impending attacks”, strong official exhortations are made to welcome and integrate them — regardless of deteriorating social, economic and health facilities that are reeling under the weight of an exploding population.

Again, the NIA is facing allegations of an inability to detect xenophobic threats, outdone by ordinary people, including priests who have questionably intervened on security issues affecting foreigners.

'Too Soon to Congratulate ['F***k Off We Are Full'] SA'

“Don’t try to solve your population problem by exporting your excess people to us.”

We are not faced with a single global population problem, but, rather, with about 180 separate national population problems. All population controls must be applied locally; local governments are the agents best prepared to choose local means.

Means must fit local traditions. For one nation to attempt to impose its ethical principles on another is to violate national sovereignty and endanger international peace. The only legitimate demand that nations can make on one another is this:

“Don’t try to solve your population problem by exporting your excess people to us.”
-- There Is No Global Population Problem, by Garrett Hardin

It’s Too Soon to Congratulate South Africa

The World Cup hosts hunker down for a wave of xenophobic violence.

By Susana Ferreira, Foreign Policy Dispatch
July 12, 2010

DIEPSLOOT, SOUTH AFRICA—Late one brisk night in mid-June, Bongani Mdiki was having a beer at Willie's Tavern in Diepsloot, a township north of Johannesburg, South Africa, when men burst in to break his head. After forcing their way in, the group of at least 15 men stripped the tiny one-room bar and its 20-odd patrons of all they had. It was the second such robbery at Willie's Tavern in a month, and this time the burglars made off with a generator, about $264 worth of Black Label beer and snacks, and $330 in cash. Then they approached Mdiki for his phone -- and that's when one of them pulled out a machete.

Mdiki, a baker who is employed off and on, is convinced the robbers were Zimbabweans -- hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of whom have come to South Africa in recent years, fleeing desperate conditions at home. "These guys aren't coming for job; they're coming for fight," Mdiki muttered, shaking his head softly. He says he could tell they were foreign by the language they spoke. And he made a dire promise: "After World Cup, [the Zimbabweans] must pack and go."

Thought-Crime: A ‘Robotoid Successful’ World-Cup-of-Bribery in Rainbow-Hypocrisy-La-La Land

Letter to Minister Mthwethwa; RE: Xenophobia and 'Successful' World Cup

by Andrea Muhrrteyn
Why We Are White Refugees

11 July 2010

Mr. Nathi Mthethwa
Minister of Police
Private Bag X 463, Pretoria, 0001
Tel: (012) 393 2810 / 2811
Fax: (012) 393 2812
Email: monaheng@saps.org.za

CC:

• General Beki Cele, National Commissioner of Police (NgobeniMi@saps.org.za)
  
• Zuger Polizei, c/o Judith Aklin (info.polizei@zg.ch)
  
• SA Political Party Leaders: DA, IFP, FF+, ID, et al
  
• WC 2010 Local Organizing Committee
  
• SA and Intn’l Media Editors, et al

Minister Mthwethwa,

A ‘Robotoid Successful’ World-Cup-of-Bribery in Rainbow-Hypocrisy-La-La Land: Is it a ‘Xenophobia Rumours and World Cup Failure’ Thought-Crime, to ‘THINK’?

In Xenophobia reports a plot to discredit SA – minister (Sunday Times, 11 July 2010), Mr. Minister appears to imply that it is a thought-crime for citizens to think for themselves, and to base their conclusions upon evidence. Instead it sounds almost as if citizens should just blindly ‘Heil ANC’ believe what we are instructed to believe. Is that your intention, Sir?

You state that you consider the World Cup a “success”. As you are no doubt aware, ‘success’ is an abstract concept, which means many different things to different people. I am unaware what definition of the abstract word ‘success’ you are referring to. For example:

SA's Xenophobia & Scarce Resources Time - Bomb....

In July 1989 the chairman of the Council for Population Development, Professor J P de Lange, claimed that population growth was South Africa’s ‘ticking time bomb’.

He said that the country had one of the highest population growth rates in the world, and that numbers were doubling every 30 years. Professor De Lange pointed out that in rural areas and in the homelands, African women still had an average of more than six children.

At its current growth rate South Africa would within two decades find itself in a dilemma where its resources and socio-economic capabilities would be insufficient for its population, he said. ‘This will give rise to total social disintegration, unemployment, poverty and misery which will become unmanageable, even in the best of constitutional dispensations. (The Natal Mercury: 13 July 1989, 22 July 1989)

Professor De Lange believed that such high population growth could be halted only if the PDP managed to reduce the birth rate to 2,1 children per woman by the year 2010
[SA Inst. of Race Relations Report, 1989-90 (PDF)]

That was before the ANC decided to give their voters and taxpayers the big middle finger, by allowing an additional 6 - 11 million legal and illegal immigrants to aggravate South Africa's social disintegration, unemployment, poverty and misery time-bomb...

Balfour Culture-of-Entitlement Protestors Take Aim At ANC's-Promises-Promises Pres. Zuma

The protesters demanded that Zuma return to the area to address deficient service delivery they had complained about to him when he visited the area after similar protests last year.

They demanded that Balfour be incorporated into Gauteng, warning that failure to do so could lead to "another Khutsong", referring to another township where violent protests were staged over provincial boundaries.

Siyathemba residents are also unhappy with the local gold mining company, Burnstone, which they accuse of not employing people from the area.

Dawie Mostert, Burnstone's vice-president for human capital, said they had employed 50 percent local workers, including contractors, and had spent R3,2 million on skills development and learnerships. In addition, they had paid for infrastructure upgrades in Balfour and provided skills to the local municipality.

"I don't know what people would like to achieve. One company cannot be the answer for all things in a community where up to 50 percent of people are unemployed," said Mostert.

Local Politicians & Labour Brokers Inciting Xenophobia Over Scarce Resources

Facing the future: A S. African mother and child in the Stofland informal settlement in De Doorns, following Xenophobic attacks in November 2009. [David Harrison]

On 28 November 2009, Vice President Motlanthe blamed farmers for farm murders:

“Some of the most brutal farm murders are committed by foreign nationals, who were brutally exploited and made to toil without any remuneration. The day when they demand remuneration, they are reported (by farmers) to the law enforcement units and are duly arrested and are sent back to their countries of origin.