War and prejudice

Seeing images of black, military-style vehicles driving through a deathly still Norwood on Sunday morning was disconcerting, to say the least. The Norwood strip is a stomping ground for so many of us, day and night. And having all our old familiar – and some not so old – haunts tightly shut on a Sunday morning, and nobody walking the streets, was eery and unnerving.

On hearing the back story, I didn’t feel any better about it, knowing that all of this was based on xenophobia, more correctly described as Afrophobia. A small incident was turned into a major problem.

You see, when the person or people who have angered you just happen to be from another African country, it seems to be a simple fix. Just call on those who already want to rid this country of African foreigners and will stop at nothing to do so. Suddenly, there’s a protest by self-righteous “activists” who push the “they are taking South African jobs” nonsense, and an entire suburb is held to ransom and threatened. It’s sickening!

Afrophobia in our suburbs is also seriously worrying because, as shown in the news, the vigilantes of Operation Dudula make no bones about being violent and intimidating and harming migrants. They want them out of South Africa, and they don’t seem to care how they have to make them do it. This is clear from the very term “dudula”, which means to “force out” or “knock down” in isiZulu.

Having these thugs in our midst throwing their weight around is sickening, and threatening our businesses makes it that much worse.

When the Operation Dudula folk left on Sunday, they did so with the threat that this was “phase one”, and they wouldn’t think twice about instigating “phase two” if the demands in their memoranda weren’t met. They demanded that all businesses in Norwood rid themselves of foreign nationals.

It’s frankly unconscionable that they are allowed to get away with clear Afrophobia and hatred of the other. This story about Zimbabweans and Malawians stealing jobs from South Africans is such codswallop. Who can steal someone’s job? When you hire someone, you look for the best person for the job, and would undoubtedly rather hire a South African if they were there and would do the job well.

And for the most part, the Zimbabweans hired are 100% legitimately working and living in South Africa. That is, until their legitimate permits become illegal in June next year. In other words, our government is encouraging the xenophobia.

I cannot help but keep comparing this to what happened to Jews in Nazi Germany before World War ll. They lost their jobs because they were Jewish, and were forced to close their businesses for the same reason.

Back then, you weren’t allowed to hire Jews even if they were born in Germany. Had they been employed and were at the top of their game, it didn’t stop them from being fired. Simply put, it was a government decree.

You see, when the Nazi party came into power in 1933, there was an unemployment crisis with six million Germans unemployed. The party’s election campaign involved promising to end unemployment. By 1938, the Nazis claimed not to have an unemployment problem anymore. Any wonder how they did it?

So, there’s a dangerous edge to Operation Dudula and its unacceptable forcing of businesses to rid themselves of foreign African employees.

What will happen next in Norwood? Is this crisis over, or will Operation Dudula be back? Will it spread through our suburbs?

There’s a flip side that’s so much more positive, though. The Norwood business owners, who are made up of Jews, Muslims, Christians, and others, were all put under the same pressure by Operation Dudula.

It wasn’t long ago when Muslim shop owners in this suburb got Jewish customers backs up by putting signs up outside their shops that showed them taking sides against Israel in rocket fire between Israel and Gaza.

So, it’s wonderful to see what appears to be people setting aside their differences and putting their heads together to face another enemy. The truth is, there’s a clearcut Norwood business community, and it’s a mixed group of people who are all doing their best to make a living. So, it’s healthy to work together to deal with it.

Talking about prejudice and animosity, it makes me sad that we must be reminded of the war that continues in Ukraine. Russia first invaded Ukraine nine months ago, and at the time, the world was up in arms about it. We covered it from a Jewish perspective for weeks, but then it went on and apparently people lost interest.

But those in Ukraine haven’t been able to move on like we have. They haven’t been able to get back to normal life like we have. Yes, we have been impacted by the war, but our lives go on.

As the heart of winter descends on Ukraine and the power stations hit by Russia cannot operate properly, people are being exposed to the elements. There are apparently hundreds of thousands of Jewish people still in Ukraine. So many of those are freezing.

Children are freezing! Bombs are going off around them!

Let’s not forget Ukraine!

While we relax into our holiday period, let’s remember that the war isn’t over. People are still suffering. What can we do about this? Any ideas? Let me know.

Shabbat Shalom!

Peta Krost

Editor