ANTI PRIVATISATION FORUM

18 July 2008

Xenophobic attitudes mar an APF march for housing in Alex

A documentary produced by Filmmakers Against Racism on Alexandra and the lead-up to the recent xenophobic attacks there, had its first of more screenings last week in Johannesburg and is scheduled for broadcast on SABC. The Anti Privatisation Forum was given a preview copy of Affectionately known as Alex by the filmmakers so that the APF would be made aware that the documentary follows the march for housing by Alexandra Vukuzenzele Crisis Committee (AVCC) on April 19 this year. This part of the documentary features some APF members making statements against the Mozambiquan and Zimbabwean occupants of houses in Extension 7. Little more than a month later, the pogrom against immigrants burst xenophobia into the open, which may create the impression that the two events are linked.

What the documentary illustrates is how negative perceptions of immigrants have found expression in the legitimate grievances of poor communities. The memorandum of demands submitted to the Alexandra Renewal Project, its contractors and the local ward councillor on April the 19th, however, concerns corruption and the need for transparency in the allocation of housing. No demand for the removal of the occupants of the RDP houses or even mention is made of their nationalities in the memorandum. This unfortunate view emerges in speeches and two placards carried on the march. The perception that immigrants are awarded housing ahead of applicants on the housing waiting list has been fuelled by the frustration of people caught in the interminable wait in this queue and the corruption of housing developments. Regardless of such frustrations however, the APF unreservedly condemns the xenophobic attitudes that emerged in the march.

The APF and Alexandra Vukuzenzele issued a statement condemning the xenophobia immediately after the outbreak of violence in May. The statement is clear that anger against immigrants for taking jobs from South African nationals is misdirected, and that unemployment is a ‘structural problem of the capitalist system’. This strategic orientation informs the activities of organisations in the APF and it is the struggle against the rule of capital and the anti-poor policies that emanate from it, that will overcome the divisions xenophobia has raised within poor communities such as Alex. The APF has, over several years, been consistent in its condemnation of both the politics and policies that have incubated xenophobia and has, since the moment that the xenophobic pogroms erupted, been at the forefront of mobilising communities against xenophobia and providing support to victims.

To confront the scourge of xenophobia in our midst, the APF is calling public meetings on the issue and how it relates to our struggle for another world. How it manifested in an APF march for housing in Alex will be examined together with the AVCC. And together with the AVCC and organisations in the Coalition Against Xenophobia, the APF will be calling a people’s assembly in Alexandra to collectively discuss the origins of the violence and their effect on communities. Xenophobia’s tentacles run deep into the constructed immiseration of the poor and the struggle to eradicate it will be a long one.

For more information or comment, please contact APF Organiser, Silumko Radebe @ 011 333 8334 or on 072 173 7268

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Anti Privatisation Forum
123 Pritchard Street (cnr Mooi)
6th floor Vogas House, Johannesburg
Tel: (011) 333-8334 Fax: (011) 333-8335
Website: www.apf.org.za