Reflections of a Zimbabwean student

UKZN STUDENTS SPEAK OUT
Xenophobia in South Africa
The musings of a Zimbabwean postgraduate student at UKZN
by Eslidha Chimedza

The past two weeks, and God knows until when, in South Africa, have been hell for anyone who is not of this land; the so called ”foreigner”. The attacks on foreign nationals has left us turning our heads, looking over our shoulders every few meters, switching off our cell phones in public, in fear of being heard conversing in an unrecognized language. My own language has become taboo in fear of being victimized for not being South African, except when I am in the company of fellow country mates.

Foreigners in South Africa are living the ”witchcraft era” once again, accused of grabbing jobs, benefiting from housing projects meant for locals and the most unforgivable sin as highlighted by e-news, is ”taking our women”. I wonder if ‘apartheid’ is turning in its grave, happy witness to the current chaos. How on earth is burning another man alive, beating people to death, raping women and torturing people with pangas, knobkerries, knives, stones, guns and any object liable to be a weapon, the best way to deal with problems. I will live to retell the fear that I felt and saw, written on the faces of fellow foreign students, as we took all of this in each and everyday from the television, newspapers and internet. Each night, we huddle together in the TV room to see this happening to people like us, wondering when it will be our turn.

http://iolsresearch.ukzn.ac.za/Es14677.aspx

 

Is Government nurturing Xenophobia?

Focus on Xenophobia
Is Government nurturing xenophobia?
by Steven Gordon

The recent wave of extreme xenophobic violence only serves to highlight a trend that has been developing within South Africa since the dawn of our celebrated democracy. For over a decade, state officials, law enforcement personnel and ordinary citizens have participated in abuses, frequently violent abuses, against foreigners. These abuses were, more often than not, sanctioned or at least ignored by the legitimate guardians of constitutional law.

Xenophobia, in South Africa, is not based on conflicting ethnicities but rather on the position of the immigrant before the law and lawmaking bodies. This moves beyond the law’s failed promise to protect immigrants and rests with the treatment of foreigners in the eyes of the law.

http://iolsresearch.ukzn.ac.za/SGX14680.aspx

 

South Africa Safe from Scrutiny

Focus on Xenophobia
South Africa remains safe from serious scrutiny
by Azad Essa

Media coverage on international news networks, like BBC and Sky, have had a field day broadcasting shocking images of recent events in South Africa: foreigners set alight, newly orphaned children clutching the hands of stranger’s and angry violent mobs ruling the streets of our business capital, Johannesburg. Likewise, our local press has expressed outrage, with dailies publishing very disturbing photographs on their front pages, both in protest and to cash in on the unfolding drama.

These are Africans being maimed and killed. While it signals a humanitarian crisis, it does not warrant a potent response from the developed world, as attacks on American or English citizens would generate. Until and unless it is in the interest of strong International powers to intervene and pressure the South African government to cipher solutions for the number of mitigating factors that have contributed to this tragedy, South Africa remains safe from serious scrutiny.

http://iolsresearch.ukzn.ac.za/aaae14722.aspx

SA: A Land of Refuge?

UKZN STUDENTS SPEAK OUT
SA: a land of refuge?
by Joly Lutakwa

Having witnessed the impact of similar attacks toward people who are different from ”Us”, in countries like Rwanda, Somalia and the DRC, I feel extreme concern about the fact that people are being attacked without a real or defendable cause, other than being (perceived as) different. We would never have imagined that black South Africans, after years of apartheid and experiencing what it meant to be treated differently, would fail to tolerate these unfortunate fellow Africans seeking safety within their borders. What is the point of being able to say that South Africa has acted in a praiseworthy way during the last war of apartheid, if we have nothing positive to say about what has been done in the current one?

http://iolsresearch.ukzn.ac.za/JLl14686.aspx

 

People, Energy, Food, Environment: The Crisis of Ideas

Environment

People, Energy, Food, Environment: The Crisis of Ideas

     by Noel Chellan

 Historically defined progress encapsulated in quantifiable indicators, the dominant of which is the Gross National Product, has to be debunked in the face of the energy crisis, the food crisis, the environmental crisis, the unemployment crisis, the safety and security crisis and the many other unwarranted crises that seem to overflow from the womb of capitalist development. Actually, the crisis that we are burdened with, is a crisis of ideas, in so far as it is these ideas that define and inform how people, energy, food and the environment intersect with each other.

Noel Chellan is a lecturer at the School of Sociology & Social Sciences.

 

http://iolsresearch.ukzn.ac.za/NC14323.aspx

2010: Trading on an uneven playing field

Feature

2010: Trading on an uneven playing field

    by Quraisha Daya

 

Margaret Ntuli* could not make enough money today, to afford transport home. As a street trader at Durban’s beachfront selling handmade crafts and curios, business is often so dismal, that many of her nights are spent sleeping on the callous asphalt in fear of patrolling policemen who have chased her away many times before. While the country eagerly awaits the 2010 World Cup and an escalation in revenue due to the anticipated boom in tourism, Margaret Ntuli is not as enthusiastic about the event, ‘I don’t think I will benefit from the world cup,’ she says, ‘everyone just bypasses us – it is only the big businesses that will make money.’

 

http://iolsresearch.ukzn.ac.za/qq14319.aspx

 

Worker’s Labour Matters

Labour

Workers’ Labour Matters

     by Patrick Craven

 

Patrick Craven is the National Spokesperson of COSATU. This is his address at the IOLS-Research/CCS Workers Festival at UKZN on May 7 2008

 

http://iolsresearch.ukzn.ac.za/PCC14320.aspx

 

 

Exploitation from Below: Tutoring at UKZN

Right to respond

Exploitation from below?

Tutoring in the School of Sociology at UKZN-Howard College.

By Yajiv Haripersad

 

A recent restructuring of the tutorship programme within the School of Social Sciences has resulted in the restriction of the number of hours that post-graduate students are allowed to work as tutors. In addition, budget cuts have meant a decrease in tutors’ wages.

 

http://iolsresearch.ukzn.ac.za/yy14321.aspx

 

Slice of Life by Quraisha Daya

Slice of Life by Quraisha Daya