The concept of a scapegoat is ancient, dating back to early Jewish rituals, the city state of Athens and the birth of Christianity.
It remains in vogue as a convenient way to deflect blame and is the tactic increasingly favoured by government leaders, who, like some opposition politicians and populist organisations, have turned to anti-immigrant sentiment against a backdrop of high unemployment and poor service delivery.
We previously called out Limpopo health MEC Phophi Ramathuba for her vitriolic attack on a foreign patient, who she blamed for problems of the healthcare system.
Employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi has now followed suit. In an interview with Business Times, this rather lacklustre minister hit out at business owners for employing foreign nationals in low-skilled jobs, saying they deserved harsh punishment.
It is not foreigners or small business owners and farmers that are to blame for the painfully high unemployment rate.
It is the ANC-led government that is responsible for SA’s porous borders and for poor service delivery, inadequate education, an ailing health system and the parlous state of the economy.
It is the ANC that presides over a patronage network that has proven largely incompetent and “eaten” resources intended for housing, health, education and infrastructure.
But no politician is likely to shoulder blame for failures that make people’s lives difficult, the more so if their party is bleeding support.
It is far easier to scapegoat outsiders and this has worked for right-wing parties elsewhere in the world.
However, this is dangerous.
An illustration is Operation Dudula, which sought to act against illegal immigrants in Gauteng, but has bred violence and gangsterism.
SA cannot afford a repeat of the terrible xenophobic violence that engulfed the country in 2008.
Equally concerning is that senior government figures prefer kneejerk responses to honestly diagnosing SA’s problems and setting about remedying them.
HeraldLIVE
Scapegoating foreigners not the answer to SA’s problems
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Image: HERALD REPORTER
The concept of a scapegoat is ancient, dating back to early Jewish rituals, the city state of Athens and the birth of Christianity.
It remains in vogue as a convenient way to deflect blame and is the tactic increasingly favoured by government leaders, who, like some opposition politicians and populist organisations, have turned to anti-immigrant sentiment against a backdrop of high unemployment and poor service delivery.
We previously called out Limpopo health MEC Phophi Ramathuba for her vitriolic attack on a foreign patient, who she blamed for problems of the healthcare system.
Employment and labour minister Thulas Nxesi has now followed suit. In an interview with Business Times, this rather lacklustre minister hit out at business owners for employing foreign nationals in low-skilled jobs, saying they deserved harsh punishment.
It is not foreigners or small business owners and farmers that are to blame for the painfully high unemployment rate.
It is the ANC-led government that is responsible for SA’s porous borders and for poor service delivery, inadequate education, an ailing health system and the parlous state of the economy.
It is the ANC that presides over a patronage network that has proven largely incompetent and “eaten” resources intended for housing, health, education and infrastructure.
But no politician is likely to shoulder blame for failures that make people’s lives difficult, the more so if their party is bleeding support.
It is far easier to scapegoat outsiders and this has worked for right-wing parties elsewhere in the world.
However, this is dangerous.
An illustration is Operation Dudula, which sought to act against illegal immigrants in Gauteng, but has bred violence and gangsterism.
SA cannot afford a repeat of the terrible xenophobic violence that engulfed the country in 2008.
Equally concerning is that senior government figures prefer kneejerk responses to honestly diagnosing SA’s problems and setting about remedying them.
HeraldLIVE
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