IS THE SHINE OF NELSON MANDELA'S ALL-INCLUSIVE VISION FOR POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA DIMMING?: XENOPHOBIA - THE BLACK SOUTH AFRICAN TOWNSHIP "BITCH IS IN HEAT", AGAIN.
"(Democrats who do not see the difference between a friendly and a hostile criticism of democracy are themselves imbued with the totalitarian spirit)". Karl Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies, Volume One: The Spell of Plato, 1995, page 202.
INTRODUCTION.
There was once a time, during the USA administration of George W Bush, when the powerful American neocons who ran it were given to succumbing to fits of frustration and anger at South Africa's votes at the United Nations (UN) in support of such countries as Syria, Iran, Cuba, Burma, Russia, Zimbabwe, Libya, Venezuela, Vietnam, North Korea and China, and would characterize our democracy as "a renegade democracy".
It was all of course a false and deliberate misrepresentation. It was also a diplomatic ploy intended to embarrass South Africa into abject submission to USA foreign policy diktat.
But the rising tide of xenophobic attacks across our country in recent time may just achieve what the USA neocons failed to achieve, which is to give our democracy a bad name, and thus to damn it. Some of the most appalling acts and utterances of xenophobia of the last few months may just succeed to make the ugly term "renegade democracy" to stick on the name of our country as a permanent suffix.
We should all be shamed and propelled into action by these ugly, totally unacceptable and inhumane manifestations of xenophobia against foreign small traders in our black human settlements, especially in our black townships.
Xenophobia is as unacceptable as racism is and as sexism continues to be.
Are we, by choice and self-consciously, through these ugly manifestations of xenophobia turning ourselves into "a renegade democracy" in the eyes of the rest of Africa and the rest of the international community of nations, and thus unwittingly turning ourselves away from being the post-1994 beacon of hope for the whole world?
There is no doubt that our country is going through one of its most difficult patches at the moment owing to the outbreak of xenophobic attacks in our black areas.
Our principal challenge as a country currently is to gain a correct reading and understanding of the deeply shameful moment we are passing through, the forces at play, both internally and externally, as well as the right responses that befit the enormous challenges facing us. And above all, we should learn to keep a steady and beardy eye on even some of our very ugly and harsh truths about our post-apartheid society, including in black areas such as black townships, ugly truths we should not seek to sweep under the carpet, away from public view.
We should rather subject this ugliness in our black areas and black townships regarding xenophobia and black racism to the detergent power of light and transparency.
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