In the recent past, xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals, especially fellow Africans, in South Africa has worsened.
The first known Kenyan to have succumbed to these attacks, Hassan Stima, a former casual labourer in Johannesburg, is said to have been attacked and killed in his house on April 17 2015 in Johannesburg, where he lived with an unidentified woman.
Reports indicate he was attacked by a mob for living with the woman.
South Africa’s Apartheid regime is remembered as one of the worst crimes against humanity of the 20th century.
The White monopoly capitalist system that underpinned Apartheid remains alive and well today.
South Africa witnessed widespread xenophobic attacks since 1994 in provinces such as Gauteng, Western Cape, Free State, Limpopo and KwaZulu Natal.
There has been this and much speculation of the causes and triggers of the violence.
A number of reports have highlighted various issues contributing to xenophobia; some of which include poor service delivery and competition for resources.
Explanations for this violence have historical roots in the armed struggle and it illicits a response from government.
Why black Africans?
Their proximity and their vulnerability are put forward as explanations, though it is also recognized that current explanations are insufficient.
South Africa is unquestionably, the world’s most racially unequal society.
Whites comprise only 12 percent of the population. Thanks to the past 350 years of racist exploitation, Whites owned 87 percent of agricultural land by Independence Day, 1994.
During these twenty-one post-colonial years, precious little has changed. One exception is that Black people in rural areas have lost 600,000 jobs since Independence. This has created a great wave of migration into urban townships.
Far from being a Rainbow Nation, ongoing xenophobic violence in South Africa’s townships exposes the nation’s further entrenchment into two separate and unequal societies: one, predominantly Black and poor, located in the townships; the other, largely White and affluent, located in the suburbs.
Several foreigners are reported to have died since Monday as a result of these attacks while other have been holed up in their houses for fear of the attacks.
This is the first time this year that such attacks are being reported in one of Africa’s most developed nations.
Kenya’s official figures show that over 450 Kenyans are in Durban, mostly in the city center where these attacks are most concentrated.
In the past during such incidents, foreigners have been killed with their business and properties looted and burnt down.
In May 2008, a series of xenophobic attacks left 62 people dead, although 21 of those killed were South African citizens.
In 2015, another nationwide spike in xenophobic attacks against immigrants, in general, prompted a number of foreign governments to begin repatriating their citizens.
President Ramaphosa said the attacks were a sign of intolerance and partly ingratitude for the role that other African countries played directly and indirectly in the long struggle against the apartheid regime.
“I condemn them in the strongest terms because this is not us,” Ramaphosa said to applause while speaking at a presidential fundraising event on Friday.
“Countries like Uganda, countries that were not even our neighbours. They supported us because they felt that racism and apartheid was an abomination against humanity and they joined the struggle.
“Gave us refuge, embraced us and supported our struggle in more ways than you can imagine, militarily, resource wise they gave our people a number of skills and so on. We shall never forget the sacrifices that they made and we shall forever be in the debt of many African countries on the continent.”
The recent wave of attacks has been widely condemned but the question is when will this ever stop?