Cape Town - In an attempt to retrace and symbolically erase anti-migrant and xenophobic sentiments left behind by an Operation Dudula splinter group, several Mowbray and Rosebank residents held a solidarity walk in display of unity and social cohesion, rejecting all forms of xenophobia.
The festive walk with about 80 people commenced at the Mowbray Taxi Rank and proceeded to Groote Schuur Hospital (GSH) on Friday.
Earlier last month, an anti-migrant splinter group marched to the hospital over the hiring of foreign nationals as cleaners, porters, and cooks.
The walk organised by the Mowbray and Rosebank Community Action Network (CAN) was endorsed and supported by the Congolese Civil Society of SA, Global South against Xenophobia, Sonke Gender Justice, Trust for Community Outreach and Education, St Peter’s Anglican Church in Mowbray, and the Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, as a counter to the march.
“Phansi xenophobia, phansi!” and “No to xenophobia” were some of the calls chanted by the group as it marched through the main road, handing out leaflets. The group was further encouraged by vehicles hooting in support along the route.
A letter of support was handed to GSH CEO, Dr Bhavna Patel.
UCT Department of Sociology lecturer, Dr Faisal Garba, said the need to show solidarity and push back against a narrow understanding of belonging is to show that it is possible to live in a society where exclusion is not a defining narrative.
“If you think of the history of this country before 1994, black people were foreigners in Cape Town, so in a sense it’s always been the case that dominant sections of society, who often have a lot of resources, will try to push people out by creating the impression that the poverty of the poor is not a result of inequality and the concentration of wealth in a few hands, but because some poor person is trying to sell something on the street. So essentially, these are questions of unequal distribution of resources in a sense used as a way to create division.”
Mowbray and Rosebank CAN member Marlise Richter said: “We understand from our neighbours that they intimidated hawkers, they stole from them, threatened them that they will come back, and we believe that they created fear in our neighbourhood and we wanted to make it clear that Operation Dudula does not speak for us and that our neighbourhood values diversity and values people from all nationalities.”
Scalibrini’s head of advocacy and legal adviser James Chapman said the actions of Operation Dudula and anti-immigrant sentiment were not only harmful to migrant communities in South Africa, but to South Africans on a much larger scale.
“One of the things people don’t really pick up is that in the mass attacks and xenophobic violence in 2008, one third of the people assaulted and killed were South African nationals.”
Chapman said World Bank research from 2018 shows that for each foreign national employed, two South Africans are employed as a result.
Congolese Civil Society of South Africa chairperson Isaiah Mombilo said Operation Dudula had resulted in the closure of Street Lives Academy in Johannesburg, which had an overwhelming majority of South African learners and students but was shut down due to its small migrant student and teacher presence.
GSH spokesperson Alaric Jacobs said the hospital appreciated the support from the community.