The discussion forum was chaired by Moeletsi Mbeki and attended, among others, by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela and disgraced Ekurhuleni Metro Police chief Robert McBride and foreign diplomats from Sweden, Palestine, Malaysia, Germany, United Arab Emirates (UAE) and many more.
Since the end of the two-week violence that pitted black locals against African immigrants, government, intellectuals and civil society have been working around the clock to identify the main causes of the confrontation. Poverty, competition for scarce jobs, ‘third forces', lack of housing, tabloid journalism, the situation in Zimbabwe, rising crime, porous borders, and so on, were seen as factors that triggered the unrest.
But Moosa said: “There is a great danger that we might miss the main point while we are analysing the underlying causes of these attacks. What we need now is to build a sense of solidarity between ourselves and people from different nations and races, especially given our terrible past.”
Moosa continued: “What The Star is doing must not end here. We must accept that we have a serious problem of intolerance, and as a society we must not lose momentum to start movements to fight xenophobia. As a society that built its basis on human rights and dignity, we have failed and fallen.”
Barney Pityana, vice-chancellor of the University of South Africa, attributed these actions to a sense of social alienation and social breakdown currently taking place in SA. He said: “Violence, lawlessness and the easy way people are taking the law into their own hands have become a norm in our society. The fact that some organisation is vowing to take arms and kill to defend its leader shows that our society is now identifying itself in a certain pathological way.” Pityana was referring to Julius Malema, the ANC Youth League president who said recently at a youth rally that his organisation will kill to defend ANC president Jacob Zuma.
Pityana added that there is a serious crisis of leadership in SA as Government, NGOs and churches have no ear on the ground to build a community of belonging and a sense of identity - something that is lacking in informal settlements where people do not know who they are.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool said: “We tend to sweep issues of racism, sexism and all fundamentalisms under the carpet. And when xenophobia knocks on our doors and does serious damage, we then say something is wrong. Let's deal with them altogether. And to justify our social conditions by turning to kill, rape and loot is criminal and needs to be acted upon.
“This is a moment of introspection for our country. When we finish pointing fingers and get everything off our chest, we will be able to kill our demons of xenophobia, racism and sexism.”
In his brief but critical presentation, Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen attributed xenophobia to social inequality and unequal redistribution of resources, something he said needs to be reduced as it makes economic sense.
Wilmot James said that while SA needed to secure its borders, possibly by using modern technology to identify who is crossing here illegally, anyone who attacks people on the grounds of their nationalities should be brought to justice. He also slammed local police for taking advantage of foreigners.
Close to 1350 people have been arrested for xenophobic crimes ranging from murder to attempted murder, damage to property, theft, arson, rape and assault. The violence has left 62 people dead, 21 of them South Africans, and the bodies of 11 Mozambicans, five Zimbabweans and three Somalis have already been identified, according to a government provisional report. Most of the deaths (53) occurred in Gauteng. More than 50 000 people have been displaced and at least 39 000 Mozambicans have since returned home.
