Letter: The danger of politics built on ‘us and them’ - Business Day

Over the past two weeks, there has been considerable discussion about two public expressions of chauvinism: one about xenophobia associated with the antimigrant protests and the other concerning aspersions cast on the new deputy minister of higher education, Yusuf Cassim, for his religious identity. These are part of the same sociopolitical problem.

Political entrepreneurs in South Africa have long trafficked in a currency of “us and them”; it may be comforting to ascribe this to a fringe of the misinformed and bigoted. But it has been intrinsic to the construction of politics before and after the transition to democracy and is even now practised in the country’s highest offices.

This is the politics of “our people” (as opposed, by implication, to “their people”), which retains the vocabulary of “national groups”, that warns about “enemies”, that muses about “the Indian question”, that complains of the “oversupply” of coloured people in the Western Cape, that questions whether Jewish South Africans are loyal to the country, that stigmatises Muslims as terrorists and that regards commercial farmers as bearers of the country’s original sin. It’s hardly surprising that this mode of politics jumps borders. What begins with political opponents or politically inconvenient minorities is inevitably legitimised for deployment against others.

“We must not be tempted to join those who want us to turn against people who were not born in South Africa and who are in our midst,” President Cyril Ramaphosa cautions. This is sage advice; unfortunately, there is no shortage of those wanting to turn “us” against foreigners and fellow citizens.

Terence Corrigan

Institute of Race Relations