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‘There is no difference between citizens and non-citizens anymore’: Violent Xenophobia, Citizenship and the Politics of Belonging in Post-Apartheid South Africa

2010; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 36; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/03057070.2010.507570

1465-3893

Aidan Mosselson,

Migration, Refugees, and Integration

Abstract The xenophobic violence of May 2008 is symptomatic of the politics of belonging and contestation for citizenship that has taken root in post-apartheid South Africa. The violent exclusion of foreigners is one of the central ways in which the new South African political community is being fashioned. This practice has been established first and foremost by the state, through the entrenchment of extra-legal and, in some cases, overtly illegal ways of dealing with foreign nationals. The establishment of an extra-legal order as a way of governing societies is what Agamben terms ‘the state of exception’. The state of exception, it is argued, has emerged as the dominant paradigm through which non-nationals are dealt with by the South African state. This practice has been central in defining the South African political community and establishing the grounds for inclusion and exclusion in the nation. It is thus a central mechanism through which the politics of belonging is mediated in post-apartheid South Africa. At the same time, because this extra-legal order has established non-nationals as being outside the political community, they have emerged as targets upon which segments of the citizenry are able to act in order to assert their own political rights to belong. The xenophobic attacks are symptomatic of this process and need to be understood as manifestations of the state of exception in South Africa and the type of politics of belonging that this has given rise to. This article thus attempts to contribute to the understanding of the attacks as well as the broader socio-political context by which they have been shaped. Notes 1 S. Peberdy, Selecting Immigrants: National Identity and South Africa's Immigration Policies 1910–2008 (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2009).; L. Waller, ‘Irregular Migration to South Africa During the First Ten Years of Democracy’, Migration Policy Brief No. 19 (2006), pp. 1–18.; J. Crush and V. Williams, ‘International Migration and Development: Dynamics and Challenges in South and Southern Africa’, Paper prepared for the United Nations Expert Group Meeting on International Migration and Development (New York, 6–8 July 2005), pp. 1–33. *This article draws on a research M.A. completed at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2009, which was supported by an NRF Thuthuka Grantholder-linked bursary. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the XV South African Sociological Association Congress, held at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2009. 2 Crush and Williams, ‘International Migration and Development: Dynamics and Challenges in South and Southern Africa’. 3 Waller, ‘Irregular Migration to South Africa during the First Ten Years of Democracy’, p. 1. 4 M.J. Murray, ‘Alien Strangers in Our Midst: The Dreaded Foreign Invasion and “Fortress South Africa”’, Canadian Journal of African Studies, 37, 2/3 (2003), pp. 440–66.; J. Comaroff and J. Comaroff, ‘Naturing the Nation: Aliens, Apocalypse and the Postcolonial State’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 27, 3 (2001), pp. 627–51. 5 See Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC), ‘Citizenship, Violence and Xenophobia in South Africa: Perceptions from South African Communities’ (Pretoria, HSRC Democracy and Governance Programme, 2008); ‘Why? Why? Why?’, The Star, 17 June 2008; ‘Today's Protests Are Tomorrow's Attacks’, The Star, 17 June 2008. 6 Comaroff and Comaroff, ‘Naturing the Nation: Aliens, Apocalypse and the Postcolonial State’, p. 635. 7 I. Chipkin, Do South Africans Exist? Nationalism, Democracy and the Identity of ‘the People’ (Johannesburg, Wits University Press, 2007). 8 G. Agamben, State of Exception, Translated by Kevin Attell (Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2005). 9 C. 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Joubert, ‘Sanco Chief in War over RDP Houses’, Mail and Guardian 6 to 12 June 2008. 51 Misago with Landau and Monson, ‘Towards Tolerance, Law and Dignity: Addressing Violence against Foreign Nationals in South Africa’, p. 38. 52 Misago with Landau and Monson, ‘Towards Tolerance, Law and Dignity: Addressing Violence against Foreign Nationals in South Africa’, p. 38 53 Hassen and Gelb, ‘Today's Protests Are Tomorrow's Attacks’. 54 Human Sciences Research Council, ‘Citizenship, Violence and Xenophobia in South Africa: Perceptions from South African Communities’. 55 Misago with Landau and Monson, ‘Towards Tolerance, Law and Dignity: Addressing Violence against Foreign Nationals in South Africa’, p. 17. 56 ‘Inside the Mob’, Mail and Guardian, May 23 to 29 2008. 57 Interview with Constable Neria Malefetse, 13 August, 2008, Johannesburg. 58 ‘Hunting Down the Foreigners’, Sunday Times, 27 July 2008. 59 ‘They Must Leave or Die…’, Mail and Guardian, 16 to 22 May 2008. 60 D. Horowitz, The Deadly Ethnic Riot (Berkeley, University of California Press, 2001), p. 128. 61 Misago with Landau and Monson, ‘Towards Tolerance, Law and Dignity: Addressing Violence against Foreign Nationals in South Africa’, p. 13. 62 The Star, 15 May 2008. 63 ‘Hunting Down the Foreigners’, Sunday Times, 27 July 2008. 64 A. Norris, ‘Introduction’, in A. Norris (ed.), Politics, Metaphysics, and Death: Essays on Giorgio Agamben's Homo Sacer (Durham NC and London, Duke University Press, 2005), p. 5. 65 Human Rights Watch, ‘Prohibited Persons: Abuse of Undocumented Migrants, Asylum-Seekers, and Refugees in South Africa’ (New York, Human Rights Watch, 2008), available at: http://www.hrw.org/legacy/reports/reports98/sareport/, retrieved on 21 February, 2008; South African HRC, ‘Lindela: At the Crossroads for Detention and Repatriation’ (Johannesburg: SAHRC, 2000). 66 Ernesto Alberto Nhamwavane, better known as the ‘flaming man’, emerged as the iconic figure of the xenophobic violence. A migrant from Mozambique, he was burnt to death by a mob in Ramaphosa informal settlement, Gauteng and images of his last moments of life and charred body were reproduced on the front pages of newspapers around South Africa. The images of his death captured the public imagination like no others from the violence and remain powerful and prominent in South African recollections of the period. 67 ‘“The Dog Is Dead,” I Heard Them Say’, Sunday Times, 25 May 2008. 68 Chipkin, Do South Africans Exist? 69 A. Serrao, ‘Blind Victims Tell of Pitiful Plight’, The Star, 21 May 2008. 70 ‘Samaritans Lend a Helping Hand to Shattered Victims’, Sunday Times, 25 May 2008. 71 ‘Sorry Plight of the Refugee Children’, Saturday Star, 30 August 2008. 72 ‘Old Mutual Offers Support to Refugees’, The Star, 17 June 2008; ‘R1,5m for Xenophobia Victims’, The Star, 9 June 2008; ‘Oppenheimers Donate R1m to Xenophobia Victims' Fund’, The Star, 2 June 2008. 73 W. 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