Abstract
In this chapter I focus on the extensive violence against foreigners that has taken place in South Africa since 2005 by focussing on the views of those who have been perpetrators and organizers of the violence. I explore the moral codes that the perpetrators of violence against foreigners use to legitimate their actions. In elaborating these moral codes I look at how the political transition that South Africa has undergone is used as a justification for excluding foreigners in the name of realizing freedom. In this chapter I show not just how nation building legitimates anti-foreigner sentiment but how the post-apartheid language of rights, law and citizenship are being reworked, as township residents claim a stake in the new South Africa.
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Notes
- 1.
Necklacing refers to a practice whereby a tyre doused in petrol is put around a person’s neck and set alight. This was a form of punishment used particularly in the 1980s for those deemed to be apartheid spies.
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Spaza shops are small informal shops that were set up in South African townships because of how underserviced they were during apartheid.
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Companies and Intellectual Property Registration Office of South Africa.
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There was one organization that used such a discourse of naked hatred in the letters they issued to foreign nationals. They operated in the inner city of Johannesburg and called themselves the South African Blacks Association. After initial reports about their actions emerged the organization seemed to disappear and all efforts to trace them since have failed. It does not appear that they were as formal or organized a group as GGBF.
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Palmary, I. (2016). Violence in the Name of Peace: Attacks on Foreign Nationals in South Africa. In: Gender, Sexuality and Migration in South Africa. Migration, Diasporas and Citizenship. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40733-3_5
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