When crowds in Soweto gathered in protest in 2015, the underlying intent has been to regain control over the socio-economic or political aspects of their lives. Recently, on 19 January 2015, South Africans found themselves, yet again, grappling with the issue of ethnic violence and looting by Sowetans. Scenes of foreign nationals being escorted out of Soweto by the police raised questions about xenophobia, drug trafficking and immigration policy. Furthermore, images of the residents and police who joined one another to pillage stores operated by Bangladeshi, Ethiopian, Pakistani and Somali nationals have equally renewed conversations on crime, law enforcement and the challenges facing Soweto’s economy.

Being in Soweto at the time, I happened to hear the crowd as they moved past my house. However, there was something compelling about this crowd of looters: their voice. As I now pause to reflect on their collective voice that day, it becomes impossible to ignore the disquietude, the agitated disillusionment and misdirected searching that arose among them. More specifically, the crowd seemed to articulate frustration at the lack of a leadership with the political will to address the fragile state of the institutions that most affect their lives. And as I place the ethnic violence and lootings in context, I comprehend that the rioters were, in essence, protesting over a quagmire: The presence of foreign nationals living, trading and prospering in their own backyard has rearranged their notions of democracy and their entitlement to prosper in it.

Unpacking the events that catapulted the uneasy peace into ethnic violence and looting

The plundering that took place in Soweto was intentional but misdirected. Daily Maverick offers an account of what took place: A Soweto resident, who reportedly had previous run-ins for stealing and smoking nyaope (a street drug widely used in South Africa),⁽²⁾ was asked to leave the Waka Waka Supermarket by the Somali shopkeeper who had noticed him loitering around his shop. When he refused to go, the shopkeeper produced a panga (machete), which led to a second shopkeeper entering the scene with a gun. As the shopkeepers barred the loiterer from entering, gathering onlookers called the police who soon arrived to diffuse the tension. Thereafter, the shopowner arrived at the scene only to make a brief entry and exit; however, evidence of an existing gun disappeared too. The writers at Daily Maverick continue with the following:

The police finished searching and didn't find a gun. That [is what] unleashed xenophobic looting. Until then it was just a young man on nyaope, a Somali spaza shop, a panga and a gun. …. The gist: The foreigners had weapons. The foreigners made threats. The foreigners can subvert justice. And they have the gall to do business here. The community wouldn't tolerate it anymore. The outraged onlookers held a meeting. One source said a leader in the area, …. announced, ‘I do not personally condone xenophobia, but this is absolutely ridiculous.’ Something had to be done. ‘As the community gathered, it was resolved that … [they] should strike and the first attack was in block four,’ …. They left the police to protect the Waka Waka Supermarket and pounced on the Bafana Shop around the corne.⁽³⁾

The ethnic violence and looting that abruptly ensued across Soweto on the one hand exposes the grassroots, pragmatic moral leadership that is lacking in the township. As one resident reflected on the aftermath of the violence, “these people do not understand the consequences of their actions.”⁽⁴⁾ However, the lootings also bring to the fore underlying socio-economic challenges illuminated by the presence of immigrant shop owners in Soweto. The provision of social grants by the government has turned Soweto’s economy – an inherently informal, second economy – into an ecosystem of paternalism, welfare and economic isolation.⁽⁵⁾

The socio-economic drivers underpinning the violence in Soweto

In the aftermath and with foreign nationals displaced in centres around Johannesburg, Sowetans awoke to the reality of being without spaza shops to patronise. These small convenience stores supply daily essential groceries – at times on credit – at significantly cheaper prices than larger supermarket chains. The morning after the lootings, far too many Sowetans remained without jobs to go to. They still had to send their children to under-resourced schools and deal with fragile or collapsed municipal services. They still did not have start-up capital for their own businesses.⁽⁶⁾ Instead of having resolved the issue, the looters had to face the harsh reality of contending with socio-economic challenges that remained unchanged – challenges that predated the entrance of foreign nationals into Soweto’s economy. Challenges that Sowetans face every day.

Resolving the challenges is complex as Sowetans have waited for the government to fulfil its 20-year-old campaign promise for a better life. The ethnic violence and looting that accompanied the protests could not yield considerable change. Intriguingly, these were not the outcomes they imagined.

A significant driver of the socio-economic challenges in Soweto has been the failure to turn this second economy around. Without jobs, thriving businesses, well-managed schools and modern economic amenities such as technology and an ICT infrastructure, for example, living standards in Soweto have deteriorated. Under Apartheid, Soweto was designed as a labour dormitory that allowed blacks to travel to their workplaces in the city. Post-1994, with long-term unemployment as an additional driver, Soweto is an area with a concentrated population of 15-35 year olds with scant prospects on their horizon. Pensioners, their grandchildren and young mothers on social welfare grants also make up a significant proportion of the population.⁽⁷⁾ The average ratio of long-term unemployment in South Africa among blacks is 73%.⁽⁸⁾ In Gauteng, the proportion of blacks who have ceased to look for work and have remained unemployed for over a year is 90.9%.⁽⁹⁾ It is unsettling, too, that women are most affected by and experience higher rates of long-term unemployment. The reality that these figures present is startling and point to an untenable situation.

Nevertheless, there is economic activity happening as well: artisans and shop owners provide goods and services such as welding, auto repairs and beauty shops, local restaurants that offer entertainment, and private kindergarten schools. There are estate agents, businesses that offer professional services, an increasingly attractive tourism market and, of course, shopping malls. Additionally, there is a sizeable working class that services the retail industry and manufacturing sector and provides domestic labour in the larger metropolitan area of Johannesburg. Even with its economic potential, addressing the challenges imposed by a second economy will require a culturally appropriate programme to gentrify the township. Soweto’s ecosystem needs to merge with the characteristics of the larger, “first world” national economy.⁽¹⁰⁾ Sowetans need innovative entrepreneurs with the economic and political freedom to produce goods and services that create solutions.⁽¹¹⁾ There are many who are already on this trajectory. However, the looters are not. And herein lies the assertion that the disquietude in the crowd on 19 January was a clamorous whisper that asked, “Where do we go from here and who will take us there?”

In the absence of pragmatic grassroots leadership, the looters’ actions force us to consider who they are accountable to. If it is strong leadership they are truly after, why have existing leaders failed them? These looters find answers as they consider and contrast the impact of foreign nationals eking out livelihoods in their new democracy. For the most part, the foreign nationals are self-sufficient, economically organised, and as one Somali spaza shopkeeper confided, work hard not only for themselves but also to benefit the society they find themselves in.⁽¹²⁾

A disconcerting quagmire: Foreign immigrants have displaced “their” democratic rights

When foreign nationals come to places like Soweto with meagre resources, how do they then go on to succeed at procuring consumer class affluence without direct government assistance? Most black South Africans have inaccurately conflated democratic suffrage with economic freedom. Economic policies — such as GEAR (growth, employment and redistribution policy) — intended to reposition the national economy and redirect the distribution of resources have not produced results that match expectations. The socio-economic challenges in Soweto are significant and the demand for solutions even greater. That Apartheid’s nightmare would be turned into free houses, free education, free healthcare and plentiful jobs, is a dream that remains unfulfilled. The protesters who had gathered outside the Waka Waka were challenging assumptions about the role of liberation movements and their effectiveness in creating solutions to the complex socio-economic challenges people face.⁽¹³⁾ The quagmire that the violent tensions present reflects locals negotiating between government tardiness, economic stagnation and entrepreneurial ethic.

The presence of foreign nationals in Soweto has strained many assumptions and “upset what it means to be a [black] South African living in a democracy, and of what, precisely, one’s entitlements are.”⁽¹⁴⁾ As locals wait on the government to fulfil its promises, foreign nationals have initiated solutions to finding or creating their own jobs. The recent conflicts reflect these tensions and bring into question the meaning of a privileged existence in a young democracy.⁽¹⁵⁾ They tell us how an incident with a Somali shopkeeper wanting to keep a potential threat away can descend into widespread xenophobic violence. Sadly, they also tell us it is likely that we have not seen the last of the social, ethnic unrest we hear of in townships if the socio-economic drivers highlighted in this paper are not addressed.

Written by Motlalepula Mmesi ⁽¹⁾

Notes:

(1) By Motlalepula Mmesi. Contact Motlalepula through Consultancy Africa Intelligence’s South African office (officesa@consultancyafrica.com). This paper was developed with the assistance of Fritz Nganje and Tapfuma Musewe. Edited by Liezl Stretton. Web Publications Manager: Claire Furphy.
(2) Nyaope is a deadly cocktail of heroin, marijuana and other poisonous substances. See http://mg.co.za.
(3) Simelane, B.C. and Nicolson, G., ‘Xenophobia rears its ugly head again: Looting, shooting, dying in Soweto’, The Daily Maverick, 22 January 2015, http://www.dailymaverick.co.za.
(4) Personal communication, Mokoena, O., resident of Soweto, Johannesburg, 17 February 2015.
(5) See ‘About the second economy’, TIPS, http://www.tips.org.za for further information.
(6) Malala, J., ‘Thoughts on the looting in Meadowlands’, Rand Daily Mail, 26 January 2015, http://www.rdm.co.za.
(7) ‘National and provincial labour market: Long-term unemployment’, Statistics South Africa Report no. PO211.4.4, 3 February 2015, http://beta2.statssa.gov.za.
(8) Ibid.
(9) Ibid.
(10) ‘Gentrification: Bring on the hipsters’, The Economist (from the United States print edition), 21 February 2015, http://www.economist.com.
(11) Hanauer, N. and Beinhocker, E., 2014. Capitalism redefined: What prosperity is, where growth comes from, why markets work – and how we resolve the tension between a prosperous world and a moral one. Democracy, 31, pp. 30-44.
(12) Personal communication, Somali shopkeeper in Soweto, Johannesburg, 20 February 2015.
(13) Mbeki, M., 2009. Architects of Poverty: Why African capitalism needs changing. Picador Africa: Johannesburg.
(14) Steinberg, J., ‘South Africa’s xenophobic eruption’, Institute for Security Studies ISS Paper 169, November 2008, http://www.queensu.ca.
(15) Ibid.