How the 'market economy' fuels xenophobia

The deep rumbles of discontent have, sadly, exploded into an orgy of violence, death and destruction that threatens the center that holds South African society together.

It is, of course, a very complex issue but it can be simplified, if you like.

One of the fundamental reasons for this explosion of anti–African xenophobia is man’s selfishness and greed. It shows the dark side of man’s soul where he desires what his neighbour has, especially material things that require a job and money.

All the people who live in South Africa, black and white, young and old, rich and poor are not entirely innocent for what is happening. The first thing that needs to be understood for what is happening here is that expresses man’s desire and worship for material things. The reason that Africans have turned against themselves is not only because of self-hate but because they hanker after tangible things like houses, TV sets, micro-waves, DVD players, stereos, fridges, duvets, carpets, kitchen utensils and … The list is endless.

But, primarily, it’s about material things.

This love, desire and worship for material things is what has unleashed the animal side of man. All that the perpetrators of the violence want is what their neighbours have: things that money can buy. If freedom and equality was not equated to money, money and more money we would not have witnessed this orgy of violence which displays for the whole world to see the African man’s hatred for fellow Africans who have made it good.

The so-called “makwerekwere” are seen as a problem because they have come here with nothing but they have accumulated some material goods. If they lived in sub-human conditions like pigs, where they did not afford relatively decent clothes, scrounged odd jobs for a living, sold their labour for peanuts, accumulated material and had meagre wages in their pockets, nobody would be bothered about them.

They would just be another group of invisible Africans who have nothing and are nothing. Their biggest problem is that they have been able to lift themselves by their boot strings. Increasingly, indigenous Africans have realised that in a culture where freedom and success is equated to material achievement, they are being outpaced by what they consider to be ‘foreigners’ — people who come from outside. This has, suddenly, galvanized them to realize that after almost 20 years, freedom and democracy has not brought them anything.

They have now decided to harm anybody who has what they do not have: material things. There is no need for society to crack its head on the cause of this violence. If our society had evolved in a way that would have provided some measure of material success for everybody, especially the dispossessed without material, things would have been different today.

The biggest problem is that far too few people have enjoyed material success while the majority wallow in poverty, squalor, dirt and hopelessness. Those who have nothing are not only envious of those who have too much. They, also, becoming impatient, angry, resentful, bitter and disillusioned. They have always been lurking at the corner, watching, listening and waiting for their turn to come. Otherwise there would be no chaos in society today.

Of course, we have to maintain the rule of law. The government should unleash the force of the police and the army and the magistrates and the judges must get the ‘have nots’ to learn to behave like normal, obedient and conforming beings.
This will, hopefully, restore peace, stability and law and order but it is NOT a permanent solution.
The problem becomes more complex because we live in one of the most unequal societies in the world. What makes it worse is the worsening gap between the rich and poor.

Unfortunately, putting bodies into prison does not control or eradicate man’s envy for what other men have. The majority of ordinary and simple folks are not enjoying the benefits of one of the most successful economies in the Dark Continent. This is one of the world’s mineral-richest countries. Those who do not have material things, like everybody else, want to enjoy a measure of success and achievement that gives them human worth: houses with microwaves, TVs, fridges, stereos with DVD players, duvets and a host of other things that deliver a better quality of life. These are the new yardsticks to measure the success of a man.

Let us not forget that over the last 15 years we have established a new culture which dictates that freedom is enjoying a better quality of life which comprises of material things. So the aspirations and dreams of what is supposedly the ‘South African Dream’ have come full circle.

We all know why there is crime and understand the reason people get killed. It is simply because some poor people who have no jobs want to buy into the culture of money, money and more money to get things that it can buy. They do not necessarily want to be better human beings. They just want what everybody who is free, equal and enjoying a better quality of life has. And that is material things.

It may sound shocking but one can say that people in this country are killing each other for cars, fashion, TVs and other material things. If the wealth of one of the richest countries in the world does not trickle down to the poor and marginalized, there will be no permanent solution to this orgy of violence.

The only way to solve this society’s problems is to address the selfishness and greed of man. As the poor go to jail for killing fellow Africans for their clothes and TVs, those who have more than enough need to ask themselves: is it not our own greed that is turning fellow human beings into murderers, rapists and thieves? After all, what do these people want if not a better quality of life that comprises of material things?

If a society has too many people who do not have and too few who have everything you cannot stop mayhem. Much as Nelson Mandela wants us to “avoid descent into divisive destruction” it may be unavoidable in a society where nobody has enough to fulfil their needs and everybody desires unending material accumulation.

If we leave politics aside, this is just plain greed and selfishness. It is the dark side of the human soul.