Think again South Africa | The Sunday Mail

The Sunday Mail

Munyaradzi Hwengwere

In light of a recent video being shared online showing a Limpopo medical doctor advising a sickly Zimbabwean patient in a South African hospital, we must ask ourselves if our southern neighbors and a few of their local supporters are thinking straight.

The hatred for black foreigners, particularly Zimbabweans, appears to be deepening in the country. The anti-Zimbabwean sentiment seems to be bearing political dividends and causing serious anxieties for anyone with a Pan-African leaning in the governing African National Congress (ANC).

Yet all this makes little sense in a country with over five million white immigrants and millions of Indians who call South Africa home. For these two groups, the anti-foreign stigma is non-existent. In many ways, they are seen as economic liberators and are warmly embraced. When they decide to leave the country for foreign lands, everyone pleads with them not to do so.

Fellow Africans are seen as usurpers; a people who leave their countries to grab economic opportunities that do not belong to them. Zimbabweans are hated with a passion. They are seen as people who choose to ignore their country’s problems and seek to benefit from a neighbor with their own problems using their superior talents. This reasoning is shallow.

In football, when the best players move to a rival team, they are warmly welcomed.

It is understood by all that in a game of talent, he who builds a competitive outfit wins. No wonder European football teams go to the ends of the world to scout for the best players.

The French won the World Cup by fielding a team that could have easily turned up for one African country.

They did not throw away the trophy because the people who played in the tournament were snatched from poorer countries. In fact, they gloated about their ability to use talent, which could have been used against them, for their own glory. The question is: Why are South Africans not seeing things this way?

Over the past years, Zimbabwe’s top talent has taken up posts in many leading South African corporates. MTN has had successive Zimbabweans as chief executive officers (CEOs).

Now Vodacom has appointed another Zimbabwean CEO. This has infuriated many in South Africa, including Black Unity South Africa, who issued a statement condemning this. They have not realized that the chief executive is working for them.

Instead, they want top corporates to use South African talent. Has wealth been so disproportionately shared in the country that citizens do not see gains that come from snapping top talent from a country such as Zimbabwe, whose present challenges prevent it from deploying its best for its own economic development?

In total, Zimbabwe has a population of 15 million against South Africa’s 60 million.

Limpopo Province alone has a population in excess of 5.7 million people, more than the combined population of Harare and Bulawayo.

Even if all Zimbabweans were to emigrate to South Africa, they would still be outnumbered by 4:1. The South African economy is estimated to be 50 times bigger than the Zimbabwean economy. The question then is: Why would a country with a bigger population and economy feel threatened by a smaller country, especially one going through difficult times?

The Limpopo Member of the Executive Committee for Health even suggests the problems in her province are caused by Zimbabwe.

The math and logic do not add.

In the Emirates in Dubai, locals are outnumbered 9:1 by foreigners. They do not feel threatened by Pakistanis. They see them as a crucial resource to help advance their economy. Perhaps the answer lies more in a desire for an assumed economic superiority not matched by technical superiority.

“Why should a person I consider inferior to me be doing better than me?”

It is possible that what we see as xenophobia is simply a manifestation of the success of apartheid. This system was based on ranking races, whites being on top and blacks in general at the bottom. Now our South African brothers and sisters, having accepted this broad classification, are creating more categories. In this case, they consider themselves a class above Zimbabwean immigrants.

Sadly, historical circumstances are conspiring against this utopia.

Education and entrepreneurial skills have somehow not been aligned to this thinking.

The one who was supposed to be inferior is outclassing the presumed master.

Here comes the problem.

A reinvented apartheid will not help South Africa achieve its developmental goals, nor will it stop top talent from rising to the top. The ANC is rumored to be unwilling to fight this emerging apartheid with vigour. Some of its top officials publicly advise Zimbabwe’s economic performance. For them, a prosperous Zimbabwe will stop the flow of immigrants into their country.

So they allow this form of apartheid to take root so that they retain their support base. Not only is this sad for a party built on strong Pan-African values ​​and spent over 100 years fighting injustice.

The ANC is advised against embracing a program whose long-term benefits amount to nothing. They need to focus on growing their economy. The enemy is not the foreigner.

What happened to the idea of ​​the rainbow nation? This fixation with Zimbabwe is self-inflicted hate.

For Zimbabweans, the message is clear: Make use of your talent wherever you are

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