How soon we forget

During the apartheid years, the rest of Africa provided refuge for black South Africans who needed to flee - the ANC set up their government-in-exile in Zambia. After the fall of apartheid, thousand of Africans flocked to South Africa to take up jobs that could not be filled by locals because the apartheid government had systematically underfunded education for black South Africans. In 1994, when Nelson Mandela came to power, there were FOUR black South African chartered accountants out of a population on 30+ million. There was a vacuum that needed to be filled and the rest of Africa duly obliged.

Resentment started to build up between the locals and the newcomers because the former perceived the latter as taking what was rightfully theirs and this culminated in the appalling xenophobic attacks against the perceived interlopers. As usual, the world's moral conscience with his usual eloquence, has called on his fellow South Africans to remember what the rest of Africa did during apartheid. Jacob Zuma's stance on this matter and Zimbabwe is to be commended. Thabo Mbeki has termed the attacks a "disgrace", but what is disgraceful is his lack of urgency in dealing with the matter. I don't want to see it happen, but if the South African government can't get a handle on this, like yesterday, then I would want to FIFA to strip South Africa of the 2010 World Cup. I think that would provide Mbeki with a sense of urgency to address the underlying causes of his people's frustrations.

The majority of South Africans do not want their country to become synonymous with xenophobia because that would mean the death of the "Rainbow Nation" so it is that majority that the rest of Africa hopes will prevail.