South Africa is one country on African soil that has come a long way, in terms of governance, international politics, economic and commercial activities; among many other exciting and gainful human engagements. Her history among nations has its down side in life-experiences that are very pathetic. It also has an interesting part that everyone who comes in contact with South Africa in legitimate dealings, would agree that the country is, indeed, a rare gift to the African continent. The country is very rich in solid mineral deposits like gold; and it is endowed with amazingly interesting climatic weather conditions all through the year, which is likened to what is obtainable in the northern hemisphere. This made the country (among many other factors) attractive to the early settlers from the European nations that began in 1652 when the Dutch East India Company established a base in Cape Town (then known as Cape of Good Hope); notable among them were the Portuguese, French, British, Germans, and Italians.
The early settlers, after some centuries, grew into a complex colonial structure that dispossessed the indigenous black South African population (Zulus). This gravitated to political conflicts, resulting from institutionalised racial discrimination (“apartheid”) by the “Afrikaans” (the white folks) against the black population. This segregation was eventually dismantled in the year 1990 when Nelson Mandela was released from jail after 27 years in prison during the regime of President F. W. de Klerk. He went on to become the first black South African president in 1994 after a multiracial general election was conducted.
One notable and remarkable testimony, but which is very painful today, is the active role the Nigerian government played during the fight against the demonic, evil, racial segregation called apartheid; from the 1970s till when it was finally dismantled in the entire Southern African countries (including Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia). The Nigerian government spent billions of US dollars in cash and kind. The Federal Government of Nigeria generously sponsored their students in Nigerian higher educational institutions with full scholarship packages and bursaries that even Nigerian students never dreamt of accessing in our schools and universities that these foreign students attended. We witnessed it live. Many of them lived recklessly and irresponsibly; living like bourgeois. Something we Nigerian students, owners of the wealth they were squandering at the time, were not opportune to access and enjoy. We could only envy them as they wasted and spent our commonwealth on our campuses.
Nigeria showered the black South Africans with plenty of love. But TODAY, they are the ones chasing us out of their land! Paying Nigerians with evil for good! Well, it is always said that “no condition is permanent”!
Looking at the matter objectively, one should not try to be a judge over his own case because, like the elders say, “there is no smoke without fire”. Certain actions of some migrants could be annoying and detestable. This might be morally unfair when such alleged excesses of foreign nationals involving engaging in antisocial and morally non-permissible activities that are against the laws of the land are not condemned. It is therefore, obvious that abominable conducts and illegal activities committed by foreigners in a foreign land normally attract all sorts of punishments, which might equally warrant denial of social justice in the form of jungle justice through mob actions and all manners of hostility against violators of the laws of that country. This might affect innocent migrants as victims. Immigration laws in such a situation may not be complicit but the administrative body-language of those in authority could be silent and indifferent to the anti-migrant sentiments the black South Africans exhibit towards black Africans. This position demands that the diplomatic responsibilities of the government should be exercised between the governments of the host country and those of affected nationals to protect lives and property. Such political will demands firmness on the part of the host country, by totally condemning jungle justice by mobs, while the law should not let any crime committed go unpunished.
The ongoing xenophobic attacks against foreigners in South Africa has caused some countries to evacuate their nationals from that country. The African Union (AU) can not afford to rest on its oars. The AU should proactively and diplomatically tackle these very shameful inhuman actions, and seriously intervene in such matters instead of allowing the entire continent to be completely torn apart. South Africans, some decades ago, were vulnerable but were effectively assisted and firmly supported by the Federal Government of Nigeria, in their dark years under apartheid regimes. But today they are biting the very fingers that fed them. They need to be reminded that there is a natural rule that states that, “no condition is permanent”!
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Sunny Nwachukwu (Loyal Sigmite), PhD, Fellow (ICCON, CSN, SM), a pure and applied chemist with an MBA in management, is an Onitsha based industrialist, and former vice president (finance), Onitsha Chamber of Commerce. He can be reached on +234 803 318 2105 (text only) or schubltd@yahoo.com
