Apartheid Is Alive And Well And [Still] Living In South Africa

They have given them a pejorative name - 'Makwerekwere'.

And they blame them for almost everything that is going wrong with South Africa.

Too many robberies? 'Bo, I tell you it is the Makwerekwere,!' Too many unemployed people? 'But what do you expect, Bo? Unregistered Makwerekwere migrants are taking all the jobs!' Rents are too high in the townships? 'Ach, Bo! Why won't they go up? The Makwerekwere are outbidding everyone and paying higher rents.' Too few shop spaces left for hire? 'Yes - they come from as far as Nigeria and Somalia and before you can say 'Yeebo!' they have got themselves a shop!'

Yes - the Makwerekweres have had it in South Africa. The term itself is nebulous; some say it is how the South Africans hear other African languages that are spoken around them (from say Zimbabwe or Mozambique). But you get the idea: Makwerekweres are Africans who are strangers to South Africans.

The term is back in the news again (after it was widely used in the media in 2006 and 2008, when 'xenophobia' in South African resulted in many non-South African blacks being brutally killed) because violent attacks against fellow Africans have begun again in South Africa. The current attacks started in Durban: at the time of writing, five people - including a 14-year-old boy - had been killed and over 1,000 had sought refuge in a football field in Durban.

President Jacob Zuma condemned the violence. The police were battling to bring the situation under control as thousands of South Africans took to the streets in Durban, calling for an end to the attacks on foreigners from other African countries.

The fuse to the current attacks was lit by King Goodwill Zwelithini of the Zulus in a speech he made at a ceremony on 24 March 2015:

QUOTE: 'Most government leaders do not want to speak out on this matter because they are scared of losing votes. As the king of the Zulu nation, I cannot tolerate a situation where we are being led by leaders with no views whatsoever. We are requesting those who come from outside to please go back to their countriesThe fact that there were countries that played a role in the country's struggle for liberation should not be used as an excuse to create a situation where foreigners are allowed to inconvenience locals. I know you were in their countries during the struggle for liberation. But the fact of the matter is you did not set up businesses in their countries,' he said.

The Democratic Alliance, the main opposition party in South Africa, commented that 'given the recent spate of xenophobic attacks in South Africa, he [the King] should do the right thing ' retract and apologise'.

King Zwelithinj's action will reignite the issue of the relevance of monarchy to present-day Southern African concerns. Zwelithini, along with King Mswati, the third of nearby Swaziland, spends a lot of tax-payers' money marrying a multitude of wives and lavishing luxuries on them. More than 20 million South Africans live in areas that have kings or traditional leaders, who serve as a link to the ancestors of their subjects. 'But' [says one writer] 'there is growing disenchantment' over their taxpayer-funded lifestyles and abuses of power.'

Traffic stops in Nongoma as South African Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini passes through his bustling capital in a Mercedes-Benz.

The 66-year-old is the most influential among South Africa's 10 kings and one queen, each of whom receives an annual salary of about US$100,000. In addition, King Zwelithini gets about $10m from the KwaZulu-Natal government for the upkeep of his seven palaces, six wives and 28 children.

Not satisfied, Zwelithini attracted a lot of criticism from within South Africa when he paid visits to the late Libyan ruler, Muammar Gaddhafi, who harboured a desire to be crowned 'King of Kings' of Africa, and was known to spare 'no effort' in trying to achieve his aim.

King Mswati of Swaziland, known by his detractors as 'The Cock of Swaziland' has increased his budget to $61 million per year. In 2012, much anger was expressed in Swaziland when it was learned that three of his 30 or so wives were to be part of a 66-strong royal retinue flying by chartered jet to the US gambling destination of Las Vegas! The Swaziland Solidarity Network claimed that the royal party was expected to stay in 10 villas, each costing $2,000 a night. The general secretary of the Swazi Public Service and Allied Workers Union described the expenditure as showing 'the utter disdain that the royal family has for the people of Swaziland They can go on an expensive and indulgent trip like this when there are people languishing in poverty, not knowing where their next meal is coming from. These people spend all this money on a shopping trip this is sheer arrogance and is more proof than ever that we need democracy in Swaziland to be able stop this abuse of public funds We are living in a dictatorship The king is an absolute monarch and his family is allowed to do as they please.'

But despite the unpopularity of the monarchs' spending habits, their words are often translated into action by their subjects. However, some observers of Southern African politics believe that the monarchs are only behaving like the French Kings did, on the eve of the French Revolution of 1789. They are behaving in a fashion that brings to historians' minds, the dictum of Stanley Baldwin: 'Power without responsibility - the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages.'

So, the King of the Zulus may live to regret inciting his people against the Makwerekwere. For after they have dealt with the 'strangers', they could easily turn their anger upon those who deliberately waste tax-payers' money.

By Cameron Duodu
www.cameronduodu.com