INNOCENT VIOLENCE: SOCIAL EXCLUSION, IDENTITY, AND THE PRESS IN AN AFRICAN DEMOCRACY

Abstract

The violent attacks on African immigrants and refugees in marginal settlements surrounding South Africa's largest cities in May 2008 occasioned a rush of mostly well-intentioned attempts by journalists, public intellectuals, and government officials to discover the causes and find the cures for the outbreak. This article interrogates the glosses of “xenophobia” and “social deprivation” that were all too quickly applied to explain the attacks in public representations of this sorry episode in South Africa's post-apartheid history. The account of the focal events is based on a thorough sifting of press reports; victims', perpetrators', and police testimonies; government and civil society spokespersons' interventions; and field research. Rather than providing a monovocal, hierarchical argument for one or another analysis emerging from the reportage, this article juxtaposes complex and conflicting local accounts, justifications, forces, and circumstances to provide an intriguing if ultimately at this early stage irresolvable image of these tragic events. The implications for South African social identities, institutions, and democratic order, however, are at the end all too clearly illuminated.

Key Words:

• South Africa
• exclusion
• identity
• press

Notes

1. According to Minister of Safety and Security Charles Nqakula, quoted in Daily Sun (Johannesburg) 27 May 2008, p. 5, ‘Attacks on foreigners under control.’

2. Deon du Plessis, publisher, Daily Sun (Johannesburg) cited in Mail and Guardian 6–12 June, 2008, p. 26.

3. ‘Citizenship, Violence and Xenophobia in South Africa: Perceptions from South African Communities.’ Democracy and Governance Programme, Human Sciences Research Council, June 2008.

4. Centre for Development enterprise, on-line press release, CDE News - August 2008.

5. Aphorism #36, from Ludwig Wittgenstein. Philosophical Investigations. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1953.

6. I've been waiting for years to use this phrase from Rudyard Kipling's ‘How the Elephant Got its Trunk’ in Just So Stories. Woodstock, IL: Dramatic Pub., 2002.

7. Cited in Sunday Times Lifestyle 6 July 2008, p. 19. Coetzee is overly generous to the police.

8. Julia Hornberger, ‘Policing Community,’ The Wiser Review, no. 3, June 2008, p. 12.

9. Hein Marais, ‘The foreigner in the mirror,’ Mail and Guardian (South Africa) 23–29 May 2008, p. 10.

10. Minutes: meeting on identity documents; marriages, Joint committee on the improvement of life and status of women, 23 May 2003, Department of Home Affairs, Pretoria. “5 held for ID, marriage scam,” South African Press Association, 23 May 2005.

11. Quoted in Paulie Joubert. ‘The signs were there in 2004,’ Mail and Guardian 6–12 June 2008, p. 9.

12. ‘Xenophobia spreads,’ Northcliff Melville Times, 30 May 2008, p. 1.

13. Hein Marais, ‘The foreigner in the mirror’: Mail and Guardian 23–29 May 2008, p. 10.

14. ‘Xenophibia spreads,’ Northcliff Melville Times 30 May 2008, p. 1.

15. Janet Smith ‘Long history of Hatred of otherness,’ Sunday Independent 25 May 2008, p. 5.

16. John Sharp and Rehana Vally, ‘What do we mean by ‘xenophobia’? The Star (Johannesburg) 17 June 2008, p. 2.

17. Induna Mvelase, Mail and Guardian 23–29 May 2008.

18. “Lindela At The Crossroads For Detention And Repatriation: An Assessment of the Conditions of Detention by the South African Human Rights Commission,” Johannesburg, December 2000, p. 12; “Lindela must pay for Zim nightmare trip,” Ilse de Lange, The Citizen (Johannesburg) November 14, 2006.

19. Hein Marais, ‘The foreigner in the mirror’: Mail and Guardian 23–29 May 2008.

20. John Sharp and Rehana Vally, ‘What do we mean by ‘xenophobia?’ The Star (Johannesburg) 17 June 2008, p. 2.

21. ‘Aliens: the Truth! Daily Sun tells why Alex exploded’ Daily Sun (Johannesburg) 15 May 2008, p. 1.

22. Deon du Plessis, cited in Mail and Guardian 6–12 June 2008, p. 26.

23. Niren Tolsi, ‘Refugees in Backlog Limbo’ Mail and Guardian 6–12 June 2008, p. 7.

24. ‘Citizenship, Violence and Xenophobia in South Africa’ Human Sciences Research Council Report, June 2008, p. 4.

25. Ibid.

26. Quoted in The Star (Johannesburg) 12 June 2008, p. 3.

27. ‘Citizenship, Violence and Xenophobia in South Africa’ HSRC, June 2008, p. 4.

28. Paulie Joubert, ‘The signs were there in 2004,’ Mail and Guardian 6–12 June 2008, p. 9.

29. Ibid.

30. Jean Misago and Loren Landau, “Xenophobia: no one is safe.” Mail and Guardian (Johannesburg) 20–26 March, 2009, 23.

31. Daily Sun (Johannesburg) 21 May 2008, p. 3.

32. ‘Third Force allegations abound’ Mail and Guardian 6–12 June, p. 10.

33. Hein Marais, ‘The foreigner in the mirror’: Mail and Guardian 23–29 May 2008.

34. Mandy Rosseau, ‘The Zuma factor,’ Mail and Guardian 23–29 May 2008.

35. Sunday Times, 21 December 2008, p. 2. In a semantic retreat, these supporters now speak of their willingness to ‘die for Zuma’ rather than to ‘kill’ for him.

36. ‘Now they are at the mercy of cruel and thieving cops,’ Daily Sun (Johannesburg) 22 May 2008, p. 1.

37. ‘Chaos at Refugee Centre,’ Daily Sun (Johannesburg) 19 May 2008, p. 16.

38. Ibid.

39. Adrian Hadland, The Star (Johannesburg) 17 June 2008, p. 2.

40. Owen Sichone of the University of Pretoria has discovered as much ‘xenophilia’ as ‘xenophobia’ in his research in informal settlements near Cape Town.

41. Sunday Independen, 25 May 2008, p. 1.

42. Sunday Independent (Johannesburg) 25 June 2008, p. 1.

43. Todd Lethetsa, field interview notes in Itereleng, Gauteng Province, June–July 2008.

44. Adriaan Basson, ‘McBride's xeno report,’ Mail & Guardian 11–17 July 2008, p. 6.

45. Ibid.