SA's politics of grievance threatens unity

There’s a new battle for SA. The sites of battle are Parliament, the courts, the streets and the public imagination. ‘It’s likely to shape ideas about what SA is and what it means to be South African or non-South African. At the heart of the battle is the politics of grievance,’ observes political analyst Mpumelelo Mkhabela. He notes a few recent developments indicate how the battle lines are shaping up. ‘Last year, for the first time in SA’s three decades of constitutional democracy, a parliamentary party, ActionSA, submitted a proposal to change the Constitution’s preamble,’ Mkhabela writes in News24. Led by Herman Mashaba, the party submitted SA shouldn’t ‘belong to all who live in it’ and that the preamble has been abused. ‘It submitted SA should belong to South Africans – and the preamble should make it clear only they are entitled to state services before anyone else,’ he explains. Since its formation, ActionSA has advocated for a ‘South Africans first’ approach to service delivery and economic opportunities. Mkhabela adds the DA is more Trumpian – nation first – on foreign policy than on immigration. He notes Jacinda Ngobese-Zuma, founder of March and March, has launched the SA First Forum. ‘It’s an NGO she says is dedicated to fighting justice for all people of SA “especially blacks”. Styled as a “vanguard” for their rights, the forum would also litigate on their behalf in court,’ Mkhabela writes. He argues it’s hard not to see this as a reaction to lawfare waged successfully on behalf of foreigners in SA. ‘The SA First Forum is designed to counter the successes of the Helen Suzman Foundation and other organisations that have litigated against the termination of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit, the semi-refugee status granted to Zimbabweans … as well as against the eviction of foreigners from hijacked buildings in Johannesburg,’ he explains.

Mkhabela adds since stability returned in Zimbabwe, there has been resistance to terminating the permits and court orders have forced the government to renew them. ‘This has fuelled anger among anti-immigration groups who feel foreigners commanding the attention of our courts were also outcompeting South Africans in their own country for jobs and public services,’ he writes in News24. He argues it’s easy to dismiss this as xenophobic populist rubbish. But it’s better to listen to the grievances if we are to avoid chaos. He notes another development is the establishment of Vuka Azania, an avowedly black think tank. Formed by Muzi Sikhakhane, a Johannesburg-based senior counsel, and a few like-minded individuals, including anti-apartheid cleric, Alan Boesak, Vuka Azania will focus on educating and healing black people, who it claims are ‘full of self-hatred’. It plans to engage in counter-litigation activism on behalf of black people. Mkhabela adds: ‘Although the founders didn’t say so, the success of the Afrikaner civil society group AfriForum in legal battles on behalf of mainly Afrikaner interests might have triggered the idea for litigation on behalf of blacks. If Afrikaner interests can succeed in court battles, Vuka Azania founders might have thought, why can’t black people?’ He contends these developments raise important questions about whether the centre of being South African – unity in diversity – is holding tight as it should. ‘Could these be signs of a fracture? And what about the implications of how SA relates to the rest of the African continent and the world amid the local battles?’ Mkhabela asks. He notes SA is pursuing a nebulous foreign policy idea of building a ‘better Africa and a better World’, and suggests the slogan, coined during Thabo Mbeki’s administration, might be due for an update.