REALITIES AND DISCOURSES ON SOUTH AFRICAN XENOPHOBIA

2020 ◽  
Vol 37 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Heribert Adam ◽  
Kogila Moodley
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Family Cohesion ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Mob Violence ◽  
Moral Legitimacy ◽  
Armed Struggle ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Slum Dwellers ◽  
Business District

The responses to the January 2015 looting of foreign-owned shops inSoweto and in April in Durban's central business district and elsewhere reveal more about the South African national consciousness than the events themselves. The ritual condemnations; the initial denial of xenophobia in preference to labelling it criminality; blaming victims and convoluted excuses of perpetrators are almost worse than the official silence and long-standing passivity about well-known xenophobic attitudes. When the President insists that "South Africans in general are not xenophobic", he ignores all surveys (Afrobarometer) showing a vast majority distrust (black) foreigners, wish to restrict their residence rights and prohibit the eventual acquisition of citizenship.On these scores South African attitudes are not unique. Antiimmigrant hostility inflicts most European societies. Perhaps suspicion of strangers is even universal: preferential kin selection as an evolutionaryadvantage, as sociobiologists assert. What is uniquely South African is the ferocious mob violence against fellow Africans. Why? The structural violence of apartheid laws has continued in the post-apartheid era for many reasons: the breakdown of family cohesion in poor areas which no longer shames brutalised youngsters; loss of moral legitimacy by government institutions, particularly a dysfunctional justice system; violence was glorified in the 'armed struggle', but, above all, marginalised slum dwellers learned that they only receive attention when they act destructively. Despite a rule bound constitution for conflict resolution, in a representative survey (Afrobarometer) 43 per cent in the Western Cape agreed with the suggestion that "it is sometimes necessary to use violence in support for a just cause".

scholarly journals Rapid and Successful Implementation of a COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Programme—The South African Experience

Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 2050
Author(s):  
Tanya Nadia Glatt ◽  
Caroline Hilton ◽  
Cynthia Nyoni ◽  
Avril Swarts ◽  
Ronel Swanevelder ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
The South ◽  
South Africans ◽  
African Experience ◽  
Antibody Titres ◽  
Investigational Therapies ◽  
Set Up

Background: COVID-19 convalescent plasma (CCP) has been considered internationally as a treatment option for COVID-19. CCP refers to plasma collected from donors who have recovered from and made antibodies to SARS-CoV-2. To date, convalescent plasma has not been collected in South Africa. As other investigational therapies and vaccination were not widely accessible, there was an urgent need to implement a CCP manufacture programme to service South Africans. Methods: The South African National Blood Service and the Western Cape Blood Service implemented a CCP programme that included CCP collection, processing, testing and storage. CCP units were tested for SARS-CoV-2 Spike ELISA and neutralising antibodies and routine blood transfusion parameters. CCP units from previously pregnant females were tested for anti-HLA and anti-HNA antibodies. Results: A total of 987 CCP units were collected from 243 donors, with a median of three donations per donor. Half of the CCP units had neutralising antibody titres of >1:160. One CCP unit was positive on the TPHA serology. All CCP units tested for anti-HLA antibodies were positive. Conclusion: Within three months of the first COVID-19 diagnosis in South Africa, a fully operational CCP programme was set up across South Africa. The infrastructure and skills implemented will likely benefit South Africans in this and future pandemics.

scholarly journals Xenophobic attacks on foreign shop owners and street vendors in Louis Trichardt Central Business District, Limpopo Province

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kholofelo Mothibi ◽  
Cornelis Roelofse ◽  
Thompho Tshivhase
Keyword(s):  
Central Business District ◽  
Phenomenological Research ◽  
Limpopo Province ◽  
Street Vendors ◽  
Physically Abused ◽  
Scarce Resources ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Contributory Factors ◽  
Police Action ◽  
Business District

Xenophobic attacks in South Africa in 2008 and 2015 sent shockwaves through the country and the world. In these events, around 70 people were killed while thousands were displaced; and, property and products of street vendors and shop owners were destroyed. This phenomenological research project is confined to Louis Trichardt in Limpopo Province wherefrom a cohort of foreign street vendors and shop owners were interviewed. The lived experiences of being verbally and physically abused as well as of some acquaintances being killed, has clearly left them traumatised and living in fear. The article finds that contributory factors to xenophobic attacks experienced by foreign shop owners and street vendors range from competition over scarce resources, stereotypes and inter-group anxiety. Finally, it offers some recommendations about education for South Africans and measured police action.

The social and political construction of identities in the new South Africa: an analysis of the Western Cape Province

2002 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-82 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scarlett Cornelissen ◽  
Steffen Horstmeier
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Social Identities ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
African Society ◽  
Western Cape Province ◽  
South African Society ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Parallel Flows ◽  
The Social ◽  
The One

In apartheid South African society, racial and ethnic identities were institutionally imposed. The end of apartheid has brought about the need for new identities to be created among South Africans, and for South Africans to forge a new relationship with their society and country. With this objective in mind, the national government is engaged in a process of nation-building. But in post-apartheid South African society, sub-national identities are also strongly coming to the fore. This is an empirical study of established and emerging identities in the Western Cape province, and the processes whereby these are constructed. The investigation shows two parallel flows of identity construction in the Western Cape: on the one hand, political leaders in the province attempt to foster an autonomous provincial identity; on the other, residents of the province show little evidence of strong political identities linked to the Western Cape. Instead, social identities are being constructed around residents’ local neighbourhoods and long-existing ethnic, class and racial identities. Rather than the social cohesion sought by the post-apartheid South African government, these identities point to persistent social polarisation.

Black Ethnicities, Communities and Political Expression in Late Victorian Cape Town

1995 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-465 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vivian Bickford-Smith
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Race And Ethnicity ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Political Mobilization ◽  
African National Congress ◽  
Western Cape ◽  
Political Expression ◽  
South Africans ◽  
National Congress ◽  
Different Cultures

In 1994 the National Party of Mr de Klerk defeated the African National Congress in only one of nine South African provinces, the Western Cape. The reason for this success lay in the support that the NP received from a large majority of Coloured South Africans in this region. Many were worried about the possibility of losing homes and jobs to ‘Africans’, and believed that the ANC was a specifically African party. These worries and beliefs were encouraged by Nationalist Party politicians. But the success of the latter's campaign was premised on the existence of more enduring self-identities, while simultaneously lending them new content.This article attempts to explain the emergence of different black ethnicities, and particularly the emergence of Coloured ethnicity, in the British Cape Colony, and its capital, Cape Town. Because of a low non-racial franchise and (theoretical) equality of all before the law, the Victorian Cape provided the possibility of formal black political expression – the establishment of parties, electioneering and political mobilization.The different black ethnicities that emerged were not the inevitable result of different ‘cultures’ or distant historical experiences. But nor were they simply created by élite Ethnic mobilizers in response to white racialization and discrimination, as was sometimes suggested in revisionist South African historiography of the Apartheid era. This historiography was understandably eager to challenge belief in the immutability of race and ethnicity that underpinned ‘separate development’ – a policy which itself served to reshape, perpetuate and reinforce perceptions of ethnic difference.Labels, like ‘Coloured’ or ‘Native’ may have been imposed by whites and used by black élites to challenge state policies or to demand resources. But the labels had to continue to make sense to those they wished to mobilize. The content of ethnicities could not be purely ‘imagined’ by élites.

scholarly journals Critical assessment of risk-taking behavior and economic performance of male entrepreneurs in the Centurion central business district in South Africa

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 93-104
Author(s):  
Johannes Petrus Holtzhausen ◽  
Vinessa Naidoo
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Economic Performance ◽  
Central Business District ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Economic Consequences ◽  
Business Managers ◽  
Personality Variable ◽  
Risk Taking Behavior ◽  
Business District

According to Zinkhan and Karande (1990), risk is encountered when an individual’s action produces social and economic consequences that cannot be projected with certainty. Zinkhan and Karande (1990) also see risk averseness as the propensity to avoid taking risks and are generally conceived as a personality variable. Levitt (1990) argues that the ways in which business managers handle risk can markedly affect economic performance and the standard of living in various societies. It was, thus, imperative that this study coupled risk-taking ability with economic performance amongst male entrepreneurs in Centurion. The entrepreneurial phenomenon remains a widely researched topic. Extensive research with regards to the attributes of entrepreneurs has been done in the recent past. It has, thus, become important to better understand South African entrepreneurial behavior, as not many local studies has been done on the topic. The purpose of this study is to establish whether the identified factors affect the risk taking behavior of male entrepreneurs within the Centurion CBD. The risk-taking behavior of male entrepreneurs versus their economic performance was also investigated. By gaining an understanding of the risk taking behavior of the population, recommendations for future studies could be made. This study is based on a deductive approach to establish possible factors which might affect the risk-taking behavior of male entrepreneurs within the Centurion central business district. It also investigates the relationship between their risk-taking behavior and their economic performance. The researcher established possible factors from the literature and adopted and modified the DOSPERT scale developed by Weber, Blais and Betz (2002). Quantitative data were obtained within the population of 161 respondents. The results indicate a strong correlation between the factors identified and the risk-taking behavior of the entrepreneurs, except for the factor ethnic background. It was also found that a strong relationship exists between risk-taking behavior and economic performance

Suicidal Behavior in Black South Africans

Crisis ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 24-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lourens Schlebusch ◽  
Naseema B.M. Vawda ◽  
Brenda A. Bosch
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Suicidal Behavior ◽  
Health Care Facilities ◽  
South African Society ◽  
South Africans ◽  
The Past ◽  
The People ◽  
Care Facilities ◽  
Black South Africans ◽  
To Come

Summary: In the past suicidal behavior among Black South Africans has been largely underresearched. Earlier studies among the other main ethnic groups in the country showed suicidal behavior in those groups to be a serious problem. This article briefly reviews some of the more recent research on suicidal behavior in Black South Africans. The results indicate an apparent increase in suicidal behavior in this group. Several explanations are offered for the change in suicidal behavior in the reported clinical populations. This includes past difficulties for all South Africans to access health care facilities in the Apartheid (legal racial separation) era, and present difficulties of post-Apartheid transformation the South African society is undergoing, as the people struggle to come to terms with the deleterious effects of the former South African racial policies, related socio-cultural, socio-economic, and other pressures.

Reframing Xenophobia in South Africa as Colour-Blind: The Limits of the Afro Phobia Thesis

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 433-444
Author(s):  
Amanuel Isak Tewolde
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
South African ◽  
Analytical Framework ◽  
Conflict Theory ◽  
Black African ◽  
South Africans ◽  
Theoretical Perspectives ◽  
Online Newspaper ◽  
Close Proximity ◽  
Realistic Conflict Theory

Many scholars and South African politicians characterize the widespread anti-foreigner sentiment and violence in South Africa as dislike against migrants and refugees of African origin which they named ‘Afro-phobia’. Drawing on online newspaper reports and academic sources, this paper rejects the Afro-phobia thesis and argues that other non-African migrants such as Asians (Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis and Chinese) are also on the receiving end of xenophobia in post-apartheid South Africa. I contend that any ‘outsider’ (White, Asian or Black African) who lives and trades in South African townships and informal settlements is scapegoated and attacked. I term this phenomenon ‘colour-blind xenophobia’. By proposing this analytical framework and integrating two theoretical perspectives — proximity-based ‘Realistic Conflict Theory (RCT)’ and Neocosmos’ exclusivist citizenship model — I contend that xenophobia in South Africa targets those who are in close proximity to disadvantaged Black South Africans and who are deemed outsiders (e.g., Asian, African even White residents and traders) and reject arguments that describe xenophobia in South Africa as targeting Black African refugees and migrants.

PERCEPTIONS OF SOUTH AFRICAN YOUTH OF LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMMES: A CASE IN THE LEPELLE-NKUMPI MUNICIPAL AREA

2016 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-89
Author(s):  
Matshidiso Kanjere
Keyword(s):  
Leadership Development ◽  
Young People ◽  
South African ◽  
Rural Areas ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
South Africans ◽  
African Youth ◽  
Multiple Challenges ◽  
The Government

The South African youth faces multiple challenges that range from illiteracy, drug and alcohol abuse, crime and HIV/AIDS, to unemployment. These challenges and many other ills in society have led to interventions by government, and private and other civil societies. The government has established and initiated a number of programmes that aim at building capacity and helping the youth to cope with these multiple challenges. Some of the programmes are aimed at building leadership capacity among the impoverished youth in rural communities. A lot of money is being invested in these programmes, which are meant to develop young South Africans. However, there are some young people who do not participate in these programmes. They are also not in the formal education system, self-employed or employed elsewhere. And they are despondent. The government, private sector and non-governmental organisations are trying hard to bring these youths and others into the developmental arena, so that they can be active participants in the economy of the country in the near future. However, little research has been conducted to assess the broad impact of the various programmes in the country. The contribution that these programmes are making toward improving the livelihoods of young people has to be determined on a larger scale. Nevertheless, this article reports on an investigation that was conducted on a smaller scale, at the Lepelle-Nkumpi Local Municipality. The aim of the research was to explore the perceptions young South Africans have of the leadership development programmes that they have participated in. A mixed research approach was used to collect data and the key findings indicated that knowledge accumulated through participation in the programmes does not always translate into practical applications. However, the programmes were deemed to be valuable in instilling a positive life-view. The study recommends that support systems be established in the rural areas to assist young people with life challenges.

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