“UBUNTU IS SUSPENDED” STATEMENT SHOULD SET ALARM BELLS CLANGING

“UBUNTU IS SUSPENDED” STATEMENT SHOULD SET ALARM BELLS CLANGING

Leader of March and March, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma’s statement that “Ubuntu is suspended until further notice” seeks to deny the humanity of African immigrants and refugees.

In the context of widespread dissatisfaction about the quality of life and government in South Africa, with citizens being encouraged to take to the streets and blame foreign nationals for their woes, her statement is highly incendiary and should be withdrawn.

Ubuntu is the African humanist philosophy that describes our own humanity as inextricably connected to, and dependent on, the humanity of others. Although the term “Ubuntu” does not explicitly appear in South Africa’s post-apartheid Constitution, it is the moral and foundational value that underpins both the Constitution and the country’s legal framework.

The denial of certain groups of people’s humanity is a well-worn strategy of xenophobes, nationalists and supremacists. The Nazis referred to Jews as Untermenschen and Schädlinge (subhumans and vermin) to justify the Holocaust. Hutu protagonists in the Rwanda genocide called Tutsis cockroaches. In South Africa, apartheid was premised on the idea that Black people were less human than White. If the State of Israel regarded Palestinians as equal human beings it could not have deployed genocidal tactics it did against the people of Gaza.

The philosophy of Ubuntu was fundamental to the theology of the late Archbishop Desmond Tutu who described all people – wherever they are, however they looked, and irrespective of their class, culture and religious beliefs – as members of one human family; God’s family.

The late Steve Biko, founder of the Black Consciousness Movement, taught that Black people must reject the "lie of inferiority" and “realise that they are also human, not inferior."

By proclaiming Ubuntu suspended, Ngobese-Zuma is selling the poisoned chalice of human superiority and inferiority. She is telling her followers that vengeance, victimisation and ethno-nationalist hatred are permissible against certain groups of people. She is mining the thick seam of anger, frustration and disillusionment about the pace of change in post-apartheid South Africa, and fomenting discord and violence.

Discord and violence are not going to fix the poverty, inequality, unemployment, corruption, bloated political egos, ineffectual bureaucracy, and miserable living conditions for many that characterise South Africa today.

The State’s impassive responses to both mass immigration from countries north of our borders, and the rising tide of local discontent, has enabled a climate in which foreign immigrants and refugees (documented and undocumented) have been intimidated, threatened, robbed, assaulted, killed – and denied access to health care and education for their children.

In 2008, 62 lives were lost in a wave of xenophobic violence, with further deadly episodes in 2015 and 2019. Since 2021, the anti-immigrant movement has gained pace.

The State’s laissez-faire response has also enabled the agendas of populist political parties' intent on thrusting the issue of immigration to the forefront in the run-up to local government elections next year.

March and March and other like-minded organisations have issued a deadline of 30 June for all undocumented immigrants to leave the country. It hasn’t specified what will happen if they don’t. Nor does it say how it will determine whether immigrants have legal documentation or not.

Honest and hard-working South Africans who feel disillusioned about the trajectory of the country must not be used by people and organisations with divisive and hateful agendas. If they believe the present government isn’t helping them, they must use their votes to elect better leaders. That is the beauty of democracy; change occurs at the ballot box, not through the spilling of blood.

As Archbishop Tutu often repeated: "In a democracy, people get the leaders they deserve.”

If Ngobese-Zuma or her colleagues have political aspirations they have the option of standing in the elections. If they have social-disorder aspirations the criminal justice system must stand in defence of Ubuntu and the Constitution.

Statement signed by:

Dr Mamphela Ramphele, Chair, Archbishop Tutu IP Trust

Mr Niclas Kjellstrom-Matseke, Chair, Desmond & Leah Tutu Legacy Foundation