Former South Africa police minister Fikile Mbalula has blamed foreigners as chief perpetrators of surging unemployment in the southern African country. This development comes amid increasing pressure on the ruling government to provide the youths with job and business opportunities. The country’s unemployment rate currently stand at about 40 percent according to the nation’s statistics agency.
Fikile Mbalula who is now South Africa’s minister of Transport made these accusations while addressing youths at an event held to commemorate the Soweto uprisings. When quizzed on why there are no jobs for the youths in the country, the minister pointed out that, “Pakistanis and illegal foreigners are to blame for the high unemployment rates in the country”. The utterances by the minister are however not surprising given his historical stance towards foreign immigrants.
During this South African Youth Economic Council (SAYEC) conference which took place on Wednesday, the minister also went on to blame Pakistanis for anti-competitive business behaviour against their local peers in business. Minister Fikile alleged that Pakistanis are selling their goods at an unreasonably cheaper prices, making it difficult for locals especially the youth to break into similar lines of business. The former police top man went on to call for an investigation into Pakistanis’ ‘loan shark’ activities that tend to prejudice the ordinary South African worker.
Back in 2017, Fikile Mbalula then Minister of Police blamed Zimbabweans for a spate of crimes that rocked the country during that year. In a parliamentary question and answer segment, Mbalula claimed that undocumented Zimbabwean farm workers are behind a spate of robberies, among other crimes committed in the neighbouring country, drawing rebuke and sharp criticism from the Zimbabwean and the African community at large.
These sentiments by Minister Mbalula are not uncommon for political stalwarts and influential ministers in South Africa. Most recently, the country’s Health Minister uttered reckless statements against immigrants, blaming them as the sole cause for the increasing pressure on the country’s health infrastructure and facilities. The health minister’s views were highly criticised by members of the civil society, human rights groups and the African community at large as being xenophobic and anti-African.
Xenophobic sentiments by South African government officials have continued to persist despite the South African Human Rights Commission issuing findings from their investigations on xenophobia in which it made very clear recommendations to hold government officials accountable. The fact that a minister can make these reckless statements however demonstrates that the Commission has failed to implement its recommendations. Its commitment was just hot air.
Some political analysts in South Africa are however fortified that the continued accusations against foreigners in South Africa are a well-crafted propaganda being morphed by President Cyril Ramaphosa in order to escape liability for not addressing glaring inequalities in the country. Outspoken opposition leader Julius Selo Malema of the Economic Freedom Fighters political party also shares the same view, suggesting that Ramaphosa’s government has failed to address key economic inequalities and have now resorted to use foreigner presence as a scapegoat for their dismal failure.
On the other end, tensions between some South Africans and foreigners have exacerbated, with the rise of a militant anti-foreigner group called Operation Dudula led by Nhlanhla ‘Lux’ Dhlamini being the latest ‘development’. In one of the group’s recent anti-foreigner campaigns, a Zimbabwean national, Elvis Nyathi was mobbed and burnt to death.