South Africa, let Africa be the ‘rainbow continent’

May 27, 2008

EDITOR—I wish to comment on the unfortunate xenophobia in South Africa. South Africans should be the last people to attack anyone for being foreigners. They forget too soon! During the apartheid period, South Africans trained in Tanzania Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe to fight the system.

EDITOR—I wish to comment on the unfortunate xenophobia in South Africa. South Africans should be the last people to attack anyone for being foreigners. They forget too soon! During the apartheid period, South Africans trained in Tanzania Uganda, Zambia, Zimbabwe to fight the system.

The rest of Africa gave their meagre resources to the South African armies and for scholarships.

We are not seeking repayment but we ask for their understanding and tolerance. Besides, today there are many South Africans in Angola, Uganda, Cameroon, as far north as Tamale in Ghana running supermarkets!

Secondly, xenophobia which sadly is present in Ivory Coast, Uganda, Kenya and Asia, oftentimes fights a symptom not the cause of unemployment or social welfare. South Africans may need to ask themselves whether their population has the required entrepreneurial abilities, training and work ethic required for them to satisfy the rapidly expanding economy.

While South Africa needs doctors, teachers, pharmacists, economists, it has also depended on cheap labour from its ‘neighbours’ as far as Burundi, Ethiopia and Uganda to run its mines and do the ‘dirty jobs’. Mankind is always migrating and searching for opportunities, I know of South Africans and others who send their children to Uganda for a better education.

So let us tolerate each other and be the ‘rainbow continent' that we have always been. After all, in today’s world the entrepreneur will look for cheap, highly skilled labour, (see china and India) and that does not have to be physically placed in South Africa. Thirdly, South Africa cannot afford xenophobia because 2010 is fast approaching.

They cannot be self-sufficient in their labour demands and entrepreneurship. Also think of MTN, Steers, Nandos, Shoprites, etc all over Africa! Lastly, Ugandans should learn from this, we need each other.

Victoria Matovu
Makerere

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