Xenophobia spreads in South Africa

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Jesús Torquemada, news analyst. Photo: EiTB

Anti-immigrant violence is spreading in South Africa, where attacks against immigrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique and other African countries continue. South Africa is, by a long way, the most developed country in Africa although there are still many South Africans who live in poverty.

For example, South Africa consumes more electricity that all the Sub-Saharan countries together. Therefore, it employs labor from the poorest neighbouring countries, mostly to work in the mines. Native population have always been somewhat distrustful of those immigrants but there had never been unrest like now.

At least 22 people have been killed, including some of them who have been burnt alive. It is not a race problem, something to do with the colour of the skin, as all of them are black, but economic xenophobia. Native population say the usual thing: foreigners take the jobs from them.

These tragic events arrive at a very inopportune moment as South Africa is organizing the 2010 World Cup and hopes to project an image of progress and modernity. Although the government is not prompting xenophobia, but quite the opposite, this can damage the image of South Africa, a country that put a peaceful end to the apartheid regime and had become a land of political and economic asylum for many Africans.