Home Affairs disarray and Miss SA debacle unite organisations against xenophobia

Heritage Day, Tuesday, 24 September, was marked by calls to action against xenophobia as a coalition of organisations rallied together at the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town.

Several of the organisations called for urgent action to fix the Department of Home Affairs, saying it was a contributor to the scourge of xenophobia.

On a day marked by music and the performing arts, the organisations positioned themselves at different stations around the castle. They came together two months ago following the controversy surrounding Miss South Africa contestant Chidimma Adetshina’s citizenship. She was later crowned Miss Universe Nigeria 2024.

Read more: Lurking xenophobia - Miss SA saga is a blot on our country’s constitutional DNA  

South African Jews for a Free Palestine member Jamie Rosengarten said, “The immediate catalyst was the backlash over Miss South Africa when one of the contestant’s parents was Nigerian and there was a big xenophobic outcry.

“We realised that on social media and in popular discourse, there is a perception that most of South Africa is deeply xenophobic. Xenophobia is a deep problem here in terms of social media, but also in terms of structural policies.

“Heritage Day is meant to be about the significance of heritage, so we think this is the perfect way to spend Heritage Day by showing that not all South Africans are xenophobic and trying to get that counter-discourse out there.

“Many African countries stood by us during apartheid and we’ve got a moral imperative now to stand, to recognise that we are brothers and sisters, to show that we are all Africans,” said Rosengarten.

Read more: Hypocrisy Galore — Miss SA is a playing field for cheap xenophobic exploits and ugly spectacles

Detention and deportation

Sharon Mutake, the advocacy officer of the Somali Association of South Africa, said the Department of Home Affairs was a key factor in xenophobia issues.

Sharon Mutake. (Photo: Lisakanya Venna)

“There were cases of detention and deportation that were happening recently whereby if you go to renew your asylum, then you get arrested … then they were facing deportation. [For] most of them, it is not even their fault that they do not have papers, but there is a huge backlog at home affairs that’s … been causing all this,” said Mutake.

Isaiah Mombilo, the chairperson of the Congolese Civil Society of South Africa and the Western Cape branch of the South African Refugee-Led Network, also voiced his concerns about the Department of Home Affairs.

Isaiah Mombilo. (Photo: Lisakanya Venna)

“We want the minister of home affairs to think about how he can make sure whatever he announces, the implementation can happen in any official office in home affairs, like a refugee official office,” said Mombilo.

Mombilo said the Constitution included ubuntu, and “ubuntu must exclude xenophobia”.

“There is an institutionalised aspect of xenophobia — the taking out of Somalis in their tuck shops and locations is really part of xenophobic sentiment. And legal foreigners who are here become illegal because of the failure of the systems of home affairs.

“Due to the system, we become illegal foreigners because when our papers expire, we make an application and we do not get them on time. They give us two weeks after our application, but in those two weeks, the bank has already frozen my accounts,’’ said Mombilo.

Read more: Hell Affairs 

Stella Hertantyo, storyteller and communication coordinator for the African Climate Alliance, said: “When we think about justice and … about the struggles that we’ve had in this country, it was never solved by us standing just as South Africans.

Stella Hertantyo. (Photo: Lisakanya Venna)

“We’ve been noticing in the media lots of xenophobic violence, lots of xenophobic attitudes from the government, all the way down to private entities as well as ordinary people, and it’s a very common characteristic of this country, unfortunately.

“Today on Heritage Day, it’s not just about us celebrating South African heritage, it’s also about acknowledging that in South Africa, we have so many different kinds of people from different African countries.”

Jordan Pieters, the chairperson of Cape Youth Collective, highlighted the need for South Africans to reclaim their African heritage and promote unity.

“We are here at the castle, coming together with different organisations, different communities, to say that we are African and that our politicians mustn’t forget that, and South Africans mustn’t forget that.

“Despite what has been perpetuated by the apartheid government, particularly excluding South Africa from the larger heritage of the continent, we must reclaim that heritage and must reclaim our place on the continent because South Africa will never move forward without the rest of the continent moving forward with us.” DM