anarkismo.net: southern africa, 'Xenophobia', service
delivery protest and government failure: The case of Thembelihle by
Jonathan Payn - ILRIG
Like in 2008, the recent wave of anti-immigrant violence and looting of foreign-owned
stores that followed King Zwelithini's statement that foreigners must "pack their bags and
leave" quickly spread to cities and townships across the country. Unlike other places in
Johannesburg, however, there were no reports of xenophobic violence in Thembelihle and,
although the violence spread to numerous parts of Soweto in 2008, this adjacent township
was unaffected then too. This article, based on an interview with an activist from the
Thembelihle Crisis Committee (TCC), looks at how working class self-organisation and
solidarity helped curb or prevent the outbreak of xenophobic attacks and attempts to draw
lessons for preventing future attacks.
When anti-foreigner looting and violence broke out after a 14-year-old boy was shot dead
in Soweto on January 19 this year while looting a foreign-owned store activists from the
Thembelihle Crisis Committee, fearing that looting and violence would spill over from
Soweto into the neighbouring township, went into action to try and prevent this from
happening. First, they went around to the foreign-owned stores and called the owners to a
meeting on the Wednesday following the shooting in Soweto to appeal to them to attend a
mass meeting called by the TCC for the Sunday to explain to the community - as they had
done in 2008 - that they are against xenophobia and that they would not tolerate
anti-foreigner looting or violence. At the meeting with the foreign nationals they also
explained to them that they as TCC were against xenophobic attacks and looting, but also
that the foreign nationals needed to be more part of the community, not just because they
are providing goods and services to the community but also that the community should know
them and they should know the community and build a relationship with the community at
large and not just customers or people in their immediate vicinities.
At the mass meeting the foreign nationals were also given an opportunity to talk and share
their concerns and the TCC explained to the community that the foreign-owned stores were
important to the community because they offered cheaper goods and services, such as
selling lose cigarettes and offering credit - for example to pensioners so that they can
pay at the end of the month when they get their government grants - which the local shop
owners don't do.
The week following the Soweto shooting the TCC attended an anti-xenophobia march in
Johannesburg organised by the African Diaspora Forum and invited the foreign nationals
from Thembelihle, many of whom attended the march with the TCC. However, because the march
was not supported by the government or ANC it was stopped, the police claiming that it was
illegal.
While they were dealing with the issue of xenophobia the TCC was also dealing with their
own issues of service delivery and demands on government. After the stopped march in
Johannesburg the TCC led a community protest on February 16 in response to the Human
Settlements MEC's failure to respond to the community's demands by the agreed deadline,
barricading the roads and burning tyres. On the second day of the protest they noticed a
large police presence and decided to back off and send a delegation to negotiate with the
police. The state responded by arresting the negotiators and about 30 protesters and,
although there hadn't been any looting until that point, when word got out that about 36
activists - who had been instrumental in preventing any looting - had been arrested a
minority of youth and a criminal element decided to take advantage of the absence of
leadership in the community and started looting. Those activists who had not been arrested
attempted to prevent further looting and catch the perpetrators but they were too thinly
spread due to their diminished numbers and were unable to keep up with the looters. When
the police were called in they came and arrested about 5 or 6 people for looting but were
unable to catch them all.
On the afternoon of February 17, the TCC decided to suspend the protest action for one day
while they attempted to recover the stolen items. After that they would go back on the
streets in support of those that were arrested during the service delivery protest, but
not those arrested for stealing or looting. Supported by the broader community, which gave
them tip-offs as to where people had been seen with goods believed to be stolen, the TCC,
working together with the foreign shop owners who identified stolen items, were able to
recover about 12 fridges and freezers, 2 generators, 3 gas bottles and some TVs etc,
although they couldn't recover stolen groceries because they couldn't prove what was
stolen. When they called the police the police refused to arrest the people who were found
in possession of the stolen items. That afternoon they called another mass meeting to
report to the community on what had been recovered and to appeal to the community to tell
them if they were aware of anyone with stolen groceries etc. They also asked the foreign
national shop owners not to open their shops until things had calmed down. During this
time the community complained that they couldn't buy the goods they needed due to the
foreign-owned stores being closed, but because the perpetrators had not been arrested and
were still at large and because many of the community activists had gone into hiding as
the police were still hunting them following the February 16 protest, they couldn't risk
opening the shops yet.
After things calmed down and the TCC activists came out of hiding they told the shop
owners they could reopen their shops. Since then, the TCC patrols the area every weekend
to prevent any looting and remains in contact with the foreign shop owners, who call the
TCC when they suspect anything suspicious is going on. In fact, thanks to the relationship
that has been built between the TCC activists and foreign shop owners the activists were
alerted by the shop owners that the police and army were surrounding the township on the
morning of April 30 and probably narrowly avoided arrest, as it is likely that the state
would have used the so-called anti-xenophobic raids to round up activists as well. By the
end of the raids, carried out by the police with the support of the army and Department of
Home Affairs officials, about 180 people - mostly foreign nationals - were arrested. Many
of their shacks were broken into in their absence as they were not given time to pack up
their belongings and lock up properly; the actions of the state again leading to criminal
activity.
In the end, in Thembelihle the xenophobic attacks in January and February 2015 only took
the form of looting, not violent attacks, and even this was confined to only one day -
after which it was nipped in the bud. Foreign shop owners even called their colleagues
from Soweto in February and told them to come to Thembelihle because the community
supported them and it was safe. In fact, some of them have not left to this day and there
were no reports of looting or attacks in April, following Zwelithini's statement.
Foreign national shop owners later reported to the TCC that local ANC members had tried to
turn them against the TCC by telling them that the TCC was responsible for the looting on
February 17 because they had called the service delivery protest. However, the shop owners
saw through their attempts to divide the foreign nationals from the community because they
had seen that the TCC were in fact the ones who had helped them recover their goods,
whereas the ANC-led state had turned a blind eye, police actions had contributed to the
looting and stealing and even police themselves had been seen stealing money, airtime and
cigarettes from foreign-owned shops on the day of the looting.
In conclusion we can say that, while the state failed either to prevent the looting or
arrest the perpetrators, it was strong civic organisation rooted in the community that was
able to stop the looting in its tracks and prevent the situation from becoming violent.
Moreover, it is the community organising and carrying out of mass education and
consciousness raising in the form of public meetings and discussions - as well as
attempting to expose the government's failure to provide for the people as the real cause
of the problem, not the foreign nationals - that offers the only real safeguard against
potential future anti-foreigner looting and violence.
Related Link: http://ilrig.org
http://www.anarkismo.net/article/28228
