CHALLENGES • SMUGGLING OF MIGRANTS

SEARCH FOR A MORE DIGNIFIED LIFE

A conjunction of persistent conflicts, persecutions, economic challenges and poverty, has fuelled a population movement in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) and across Africa as a whole. Smuggled migrants constitute a significant part of the whole migrant population of the SADC region

BY CLAUDIUS G.W. ZINDOGA & EPHRAIM C. LUHANGA | FULA AFRICA, PRETORIA
EPHRAIM C. LUHANGA | Photos

SMUGGLING IS defined as “the facilitation, for financial or other gains, of irregular entry into a country where the person is not a national or a resident” (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime: UNODC). The unscrupulous who identified huge profits in this trade have developed criminal networks across the region which enable smuggling.

While the phenomenon of migrant smuggling is a global concern, the challenge is under-reported in SADC. South Africa is a destination country from far distant origins such as the Horn of Africa. Admittedly, the crime is of an underground nature which makes it difficult to identify, but the fact that it continues to grow in the region presents a challenge
which requires greater attention.

As long as problems persist in various countries on the continent, and stringent migration regimes remain in place, smuggling will continue. The high profits and low risk associated with this activity are attractive to unscrupulous criminals.

Realities of abuse

Some might view the victims as active participants in the process—as willing to take the risks to escape their predicaments—though taken advantage of by smugglers. However, seeing it from that perspective, the greater picture of the crime committed and its gross violations are overlooked.

Obsession with a more favourable or better future becomes a nightmare for immigrants who travel irregularly. Smuggled migrants are subject to gross abuses, violation and exploitation en route and on arrival. Because a greater section of the smuggled migrants are undocumented,
their vulnerability is amplified and due to their immigration status, violations and crimes against migrants go unreported. Smuggled migrants are subject to high levels of abuse. Women from Malawi have recounted high levels of abuse at the hands of smugglers which include
rape and physical abuse. Zimbabweans recount being extorted by smugglers on arrival in South Africa, where smugglers hold migrants as hostages in various parts of the country until relatives have paid the required ransom.

Smuggled migrants have also emerged as victims of human trafficking. It has arisen that smugglers have begun to collaborate with traffickers. In field visits to places that are known to frequent smugglers as well as brothels, women from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Lesotho have ended up as sex workers, working under pimps in parts of Johannesburg. This
trend is of concern in the South African context, where there is a discourse and ongoing debate on the decriminalisation of prostitution, wherein if decriminalisation does take place, smuggled migrants and victims of prostitution are likely to augment the supply.

Labour exploitation

Smuggled migrants are exploited in diverse jobs by more and more small entrepreneurs and unregulated labour businesses. The smuggled migrants are willing to accept a pittance for salaries from unregulated labour markets, because they cannot get better opportunities as they are undocumented. As a result, the migrants have been at the receiving end of hate from locals in the form of xenophobia.

Just before the COVID-19 lockdown, in parts of Pretoria and Johannesburg, Fula Africa, a non-profitable organisation identified car garages run by certain nationals who employed their fellow countrymen/women under poor working conditions because they were irregular migrants. In Pretoria, during the same period, a subcontractor of a well-known car factory took advantage of smuggled young artisans and graduates from his country who worked long hours and were
underpaid. In Durban, the same trend has been observed in the fibre network installation industry where contractors employed and similarly exploited workers.

The Mpumalanga /Cullinan case

A farm running an abattoir in the province of Mpumalanga employed a significant number of migrant workers. While some of them had passports, they did not have permits to undertake work in South Africa.
However, they were employed without labour contracts. A group of them, residing now in Cullinan, recounted that on 11 November 2022, the SAPS (South African Police Services), South African Home Affairs and individuals calling themselves members of the Dudula Movement,
reached the farm. Some migrants ran away once they sighted the triad.

They narrated that all foreign nationals on the farm were required to produce relevant documents to prove that they were in the country legally and had work permits. These foreign nationals included nationals from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe. Those who failed to provide
the relevant documentation were put into vans and taken into police custody. They indicated that the Mozambicans and Zimbabweans were to be deported immediately. The Malawians have remained in custody to date, as at 28 December 2022.

Those who managed to run away from the raid recounted that on return, their employer fired them, though they are willing to undertake actions against the employer for improper dismissal and to apply for the recognition of their acquired labour rights.

On a support visit to the migrants in Cullinan, those present sought assistance with food parcels to sustain themselves in the meantime. Women with underage children (under five years of age) were grateful not to be arrested because they had young children but lamented the fact that their breadwinners were imprisoned. Those migrants who were
not arrested indicated their desire to return to Malawi without delay hence their request for assistance for self-repatriation. Fula Africa deplores this heartrending situation currently happening in Cullinan, where many smuggled families who have been exploited have their breadwinners imprisoned, leaving behind mothers and infants to fend for
themselves.

Action is needed

Africa, SADC and all affected parties need to act urgently. As societies, we are not doing enough. The constant insecurity of migrants flowing into South Africa is regrettable; the lack of humanity and injustice committed by those who pursue the prospect of profit through the trials and tribulations of those who are vulnerable or seeking better opportunities, must be stopped.

Migrants have been at the receiving end of hate from locals in the form of xenophobia

The persistence of smuggling has fuelled crime and fostered cross-border syndicates. Evidence of the smuggling of migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic disturbingly revealed a greater organisation of the crime across the borders. Smuggled migrants continue to be apprehended and imprisoned under various immigration laws and face various forms of abuse daily, while smugglers and criminal networks continue to profit unchallenged via this lucrative business. This constitutes a mockery of justice! Civil society calls for a more effective criminal justice system and a proper response against a crime which
continues to grow.

While recognising the push and pull factors that encourage the mobility of people across the continent of Africa, the responsibility of the leaders of countries where migrants come from becomes clear. They need to be reminded of their ethical responsibility to protect their citizens.

How then is ‘the African as his brother’s and sister’s keeper’ going?

As per the UN Protocol against smuggling of migrants by land, air and sea signed on 12 December 2000 and various legislations signed by all SADC countries, greater co-operation to combat this crime within the region is urgently required. Society watches the hate ferment against
foreign nationals in the face of the shortage of resources and competition for jobs in South Africa. It is a regrettable loss of values of tolerance and fraternity. How then is ‘the African as his brother’s and sister’s keeper’ going?

CHALLENGES • DIGITAL PLATFORMS AND FAMILIES

Children and Social Media

Whether we are children or adults, our day-to-day choices about where we focus our attention are central to who we are and who we are becoming. With the youth spending more and more time using social media, it is increasingly important for us to be involved in assisting them to be discerning about the choices that will literally shape them and their lives

BY MARIOLA BRAVO | PRETORIA

IN THIS digital age, the world is no more than a global village. The dangers of what children might encounter online have increased so enormously that it includes every imaginable ill that society faces today. The world of social media is certainly a minefield that warrants careful navigation, yes, but is its use really without any merit whatsoever?  

Beneficial online contents

Social media has many applications where its uses are invaluable. Some of these include helping youngsters stay connected with friends and family on a regular basis. This goes a long way towards sustaining essential contact with significant others. Maintaining these ties promotes emotional wellbeing and supports mental health. Within the school environment, supplements, study aids and communications can be shared by educators and between fellow students through this medium. Large parts of what the youth share online include ideas, music and art which bond them together as a generation. These also include sharing content about current trends, songs, games, TV series, news or hobbies that form the stories and memories of their childhood.

Many children have extraordinary talents and potential. Social media gives them the opportunity to meet and interact with others online where they can share and develop their interests together. Consider the worldwide reach of social media to bring talent together in collaboration and creativity. Among these online global communities and networks are those that cater to young people with disabilities or medical conditions or children from particular cultural backgrounds, ex-patriots and so on, giving them a sense of connection and belonging. 

Negative influences

The flip side of this is that social media can be a hub for the propagation of negativity and destructiveness. Such activities include the sale of illicit substances and popularisation of questionable activities, cyberbullying and sharing of violent or sexual comments or images. Without meaning to, kids can share more online than they should. Kids also face the possibility of a physical encounter with the wrong person. Some apps automatically reveal the user’s location when they post. User profiles often include the names of children’s schools, club affiliations and regular activities. This can make children easy targets for online predators and others who might mean them harm.

Large parts of what the youth share online include ideas, music and art which bond them together as a generation

Limitless screen time has far-reaching effects on our children’s mental, emotional and physiological development. Studies show that social media is highly addictive. A normal occurrence when an individual receives praise, experiences success, or gets recognition of any kind is that a substance called dopamine is released by the brain. With each game won or positive comment received, youngsters get a rush of happiness characteristic of the natural dopamine, and automatically, they want more. The risk here is that children become dependent on positive feedback and their usage increases accordingly. Mental health issues and suicidal tendencies increase as opinions are fickle and oftentimes teenagers can be devastated when the dopamine fix falls without warning. It is as dangerous as any drug that is for sale. In this case, it is completely legal and is a potential threat that has infiltrated your home.

Sadly there are very serious dangers facing our children’s young and curious minds. In fact, normal curiosity can quickly and easily turn into a lifetime of bondage, unless proper care is taken to protect them. As parents we do not want the moment that we are confronted by a testy teenager, acting out their withdrawal from dopamine, to be the moment we spring into action. Instead, it would be ideal to take preventative measures to steer and guide our children into adulthood.

Parental guidance

Without careful management, a media interface is as unpredictable as any stranger that your child may encounter. Realising these dangers, the most irresponsible thing we can do is give our children a phone or computer without any kind of restrictions. Without tailoring, your child’s experience of social media can quite easily be tainted with just about the entire spectrum of ills that society can think up or monetise. The best bet for a healthy online experience should begin with talking openly with our children about how to use social media wisely.

Our children want nothing more than to seem grown up, make their own decisions and feel a sense of belonging. For social media interaction to remain healthy, these needs must be met at home and within the family circle and its social and professional connections, to as large a degree as possible. Parents who create an environment of togetherness, acceptance and teamwork within the home are more likely to remain informed and even be included in their children’s social media circles. Keeping communications between generations open and pleasant goes a long way towards accomplishing this.

Setting a good example through your own virtual behaviour can also help your child learn to use social media safely. Parents, who themselves spend inappropriate amounts of time posting pictures of themselves, boasting about their material accomplishments, will more than likely cause their children to similarly seek out and rely on approval and validation from others to fortify their self-worth. As followers’ opinions fluctuate, so too do the feelings and moods of the user. St Paul explains in 1 Cor 6: 12, “I could say that I am allowed to do anything, but I am not going to let anything make me its slave”.  Children can post increasingly inappropriate pictures and comments to ensure that they are always in the limelight. These children are subsequently crushed by any criticism which may arise. Society can be so unforgiving and it is also almost impossible for youngsters to ever escape their mistakes if any do occur, once they are posted online. 

Social media gives many children the opportunity to meet and interact with others online where they can share and develop their interests together

Fortunately, parents can implement several strategies to prevent their children from falling prey to any of these dangers. Strategies will differ greatly according to the age of the children. While an eight-year-old will require that parents have full access to their social media platforms, older teens may protest that they are lacking in privacy. Screen time limitation often remains an area of contention with older children. 

Parents should not feel guilty about reasonably limiting usage time, especially during the teenage years when social engagement increases so exponentially. These are some of the considerations that parents have when keeping age appropriate boundaries. While younger children need more protection from dangerous content, older children need to develop the discipline to balance their time spent doing online activities with their dedication to their actual day-to-day lives.

Initially keeping computers in public areas of the home is helpful. Avoid laptops and desktop computers in bedrooms. Since smartphones are by definition portable and personal, their use may be withheld until children reach a suitable level of maturity. Obvious ground rules on the use of technology should be put in place, such as no devices at the dinner table. Some families have traditions of having particular gadget-free days, gadget-free activity evenings or occasional holidays and weekends away, where no devices are permitted. 

To assist parents, many excellent, free, downloadable applications exist which allow them to determine exactly what shape their children’s online interactions take. Parents can help keep kids grounded in the real world by putting limits on screen time as well as how much time is spent on each app. Notifications can also be blocked after bedtime. Online browsing can be protected, worthless or dangerous apps can be banned completely and others can be set for use without limits—all according to the parent’s wishes. As children get older and after careful grooming and guidance, some space can be given whereby the child develops the ability slowly to protect and defend themselves from the dangers that exist. 

It’s important to be aware of what your kids do online. However, snooping can alienate them and damage the trust you’ve built together. The key is to stay involved in a way that makes your kids understand that you respect their privacy but want to make sure they’re safe. Ensure that your children are proactive and agree to protect their own privacy, consider their reputation when posting, and not give out personal information. They should agree not to use technology to hurt anyone else through bullying or gossip. Parents have the right to be involved and should practise those rights by putting measures in place which protect their children as they explore and reap the many potential benefits that social media offers the discerning. As children step up to manage their own social media interactions, parents resolve to lessen restrictions slowly and where appropriate.

Media, a double-sided coin

It would be narrow-minded to label social media as a universally ‘bad’ thing because clearly, it brings myriad benefits to our lives. As with most good things in life, though, exercising balance is key. Dangers and temptations face us all each day, young and old. It is, therefore, how we navigate social media, which will ultimately equip us to get the most out of it.

The most irresponsible thing we can do is give our children a phone or computer without any kind of restrictions

Social media has brought many dangers into our homes and our children’s immediate vicinity—for better or worse—at a very young age. Vigilance and monitoring are needed today more than ever. Let us stand ready to meet these challenges presented to us by social media so that our children can thrive in this digital age. Rom 12: 2 tells us, “Conform no longer to the pattern of this present world, but be transformed by the renewal of your minds. Then you will be able to discern the will of God, and to know what is good, acceptable, and perfect”.

CHALLENGES • UBUNTU PROJECT

Fresh food initiatives that support farmers and their families

The food crisis exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic has opened new ways towards sustainability and self-reliance through vegetable gardens in the less-privileged communities of Johannesburg

BY Dorah Marema | Co-founder, Ubuntu Project Africa

IN FEBRUARY 2020, SEED Community’s Green Business College (GBC) in partnership with Tim Nectare Farms launched the Ubuntu Project (www.ubuntuproject.africa) aimed at providing fresh food boxes and setting up food gardens amongst the most vulnerable in the Gauteng communities. Ubuntu means ‘I am because you are’. It can also mean ‘We are because the earth is.’ It speaks of our shared humanity and our place on this earth.

Food security is a growing challenge in South Africa and food gardens are a real solution which contribute to mitigating the effects of climate change that will continue to pose a threat during the post-COVID-19 era. They provide a way for communities to produce their own fresh vegetables and generate some extra income. As households collect and replant their seeds, the extra seedlings and excess produce can be sold.

Responding to emergency

This initiative came as a result of the unprecedented global crisis of the pandemic which saw a lot of families starving, while small-scale producers were stuck with their produce, unable to sell it in the markets. Working together with local agro-ecology farmers in the greater Johannesburg, the initiative provided boxves of fresh vegetables and managed to establish food gardens among the more disadvantaged in the communities. It did not only provide the communities with organic produce, feeding needy families, but offered them tools to grow their own vegetables.

The initiative started with organic farmers in the Orange Farm area. Ubuntu Project supported these farmers as they supplied needy families with food parcels of organic vegetables, seeds, seedlings, compost and, more importantly, training and support—a special component usually lacking in a lot of small gardening projects where beneficiaries are given seeds and then abandoned to continue on their own.

The veggie boxes displayed the true spirit of ubuntu which is about empathy, community, and recognising that none can survive without the most vulnerable. This became such an attractive initiative in the social media that it received a lot of attention from people in affluent areas of Johannesburg. They started purchasing the veggie boxes for their own consumption.

Boxes for solidarity

In June 2020, the Ubuntu Veggie Box delivery service was launched. People had the opportunity to order boxes which were delivered to them. Every box purchased enabled the customer to donate a vegetable garden starter kit—comprised of 30 seedlings and 10 kg of compost—to resource-constraints communities who were keen to grow their own veggies. Customers were also connected to the beneficiary families.

Food sovereignty means much more than putting food on the table. It touches the core of human dignity and enables people to become producers within their own communities.  
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The Ubuntu Veggie Box gives the possibility for customers to receive fresh veggies and fruits straight from the farmers; it reduces intermediaries and the veggies received are those of the season. Their delivery is reliable, communication is good, their prices are reasonable, and limited plastic is used.

Touching farmers and their communities

Through the Ubuntu Project, Betty Nkoana and the members of the Thoughtful Path (TP) Non-Profit Community organization, received various forms of support. These included seedlings and seeds for their community allotment gardens in the old township of Munsieville, West Rand, Johannesburg. Betty is a real champion in the community, as together with the TP members, provides a range of services which include aftercare for orphans and underprivileged children and health care services for teenagers and women.

Betty, through a training that she and her colleagues received from the GBC in 2018, developed a passion and love for farming. In 2019, she and other members of TP, were offered a piece of land next to an informal settlement in Johannesburg’s oldest township. They were able to set up farming allotments for various families and community groups. The Ubuntu Project donated the seedlings and seeds for the allotments and Tim Abba, who was a trainer at the GBC, spent two days providing Betty and her team with technical support to set up the gardens.

In August 2020, Betty, 20 members of TP and some of the young people and women from Munsieville Township, attended the Ubuntu Project Agri-business course facilitated by the Ubuntu Project. They learned about product pricing, marketing and value-addition and how to turn their small farming project into a profitable business. They started to farm with determination in September 2020 on their small plot and they implemented what they had learned from both the organic farming training and the business course to set up their agri-business. They also received a second instalment of the donated Ubuntu Project seedlings to augment the production capacity of the plot.

The TP team have been harvesting pumpkins, mealies, spinach, chillies, tomatoes, onions, rosemary, mint and lettuce and have been supplying Ubuntu Veggie Boxes. This team started processing some of their produce to make their unique Chilli-Sauce which they are selling in their community. All of their produce was sold and they were able to buy another set of seedlings and seeds to replant. This has been a truly transformational story of how to create resilient communities which secure their livelihoods.

Impact of Ubuntu Project since inception

This project contributed to assist communities of peri-urban Johannesburg South through emergency food parcels relief. The contents of the parcels of fresh and locally processed products were made to be flexible, based on the needs and resources of each area and linked to small-scale farmers.

Local small-scale farmers in Johannesburg South collaborated and formed partnerships to supply the needed volumes and a variety of fresh nutritious vegetables which offered flexibility in the procurement of the goods. The small-scale farmer partnership has the potential for expansion, to supply other food relief efforts and services to local markets.

During the COVID-19 food relief effort, the Ubuntu Project managed to inspire small and local distribution networks including small logistics enterprises in and around Orange Farm. These can flexibly procure from their network of small-scale farmers, fresh produce, dry goods assembled into agreed packages, and deliver food relief parcels should it be needed.

Setting up of 150 households and 11 communal food gardens in the communities with supplies of compost and seedlings—has been very important to enable households to plant their small food gardens and to small-scale farmers to continue producing. This has been an essential contribution to the community and to the household resilience in these trying times. Some of these are small homesteads, backyard gardens, others are farmers producing on bigger areas. Over five months—May to September 2020—the Ubuntu Project assessed the input needs and delivered tailored input packages as required. These have potential to scale up depending on further needs assessments.

This emergency food relief response has shown its potential to catalyse a more enduring production and distribution network, co-ordinated with the demand, to produce more localised food economies.

CHALLENGES • BUILDING PEACEFUL SCHOOLS

The Change, We Hope, Begins with Ourselves

The issue of school discipline is tackled through a programme based on Restorative Justice. It aims at developing positive relationships between teachers and learners

BY Anne Baker | Deputy Director of the Catholic Institute of Education (CIE), Johannesburg

THE VIOLENCE that took place in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng in June/July 2021 is indicative of the rage within our communities. This violence is in our homes, communities and therefore our schools, that are a part of the community in which they exist. Since 2013, the Catholic Institute of Education (CIE), under the auspices of the National Catholic Board of Education, has offered schools a Building Peaceful Schools programme.

This programme was developed when CIE staff encountered teacher concerns and distress as they ran Child Safeguarding Workshops for schools. Teachers felt that with the abolishment of corporal punishment they had no means of controlling children and that this had made life very difficult for them.

School discipline and even discipline in some homes has largely been punitive both physically and emotionally. CIE decided that schools needed a different way of relating to the children and indeed teachers to each other. To this end, CIE developed a programme based on Restorative Justice. The aim of this programme is to develop a culture of peace and justice in schools.

The programme is underpinned by the values illustrated below, all of which are central to the Catholic school ethos.
The programme is underpinned by Catholic Social Teaching and of these the following are closely linked to the programme:

• The dignity of the human person or the belief that every human being is entitled to be treated with respect.
• Community and the common good: as social beings we need community and should always act with the common good in mind.
• Rights and responsibilities: human dignity can be protected and a healthy community can be achieved only if human rights are protected. Corresponding to these rights are duties and responsibilities—to one another, to our families, and to the larger society.
• Promotion of peace: Catholic teaching promotes peace as a positive, action-oriented concept. There is a close relationship in Catholic teaching between peace and justice.

Discipline is largely about developing positive relationships between teachers and learners. Our programme is based on the consciousness ‘that the change we hope for in the schools we work with, begins with ourselves’ and training for the CIE staff and the schools began with guiding participants to ‘step inside’ the experiential activities, reflect on their experience and to take the knowledge gained out into their personal and professional lives. The work requires self-awareness and awareness of the stakeholders and the network.

The programme has three iterative workshops: peace building, conflict management and restorative practices.

Peace-building invites participants to think about their own and the group’s needs—trust-building, communication and respectful relationships and what each person can do to build peaceful schools. It introduced the ideas of CIRCLE-TIME and the PEACE-MAKING PYRAMID.

Mediating conflict

Conflict management deals with the reality of conflict and how it can be resolved. Participants once again made use of I-MESSAGES, the PEACE PYRAMID and CIRCLE-TIME activities with teachers being encouraged to use these tools in the classrooms.

Restorative Justice introduced new approaches to discipline and aimed to assist participants in exploring their own understanding of punitive, retributive discipline as opposed to the restorative approach. Facilitators introduced a way of mediating conflict between two parties with the help of a set of questions, listening skills, and I-messages. This required and enabled each person to take responsibility for their actions and helped participants to reach an agreement between themselves which they could all live up to.

Each year these three workshops were deepened and expanded and have dealt with presence, forgiveness, bullying, gender and xenophobia.

Restorative justice practices in schools aim to move schools from a punitive way of dealing with wrongdoers to assisting them to become accountable for their actions and enabling them to put things right. This strengthens relationships among members of school communities, helping schools to become places of peace that nurture learners and staff alike and build the social capital we need. Most disciplinary methods as we know them diminish both the offender and the one applying the discipline. So how can we enable conversations to take place differently and be restorative rather than retributive?

Process and tools

It is not a quick or easy approach, and involves a process and a lot of personal work to which some teachers respond well and learn to ask restorative questions when things go wrong. Another important part of the programme has been a climate survey carried out with certain grades in schools and the formation of learners in peer mediation. The climate survey assists schools to understand what is happening in their school and involves both the actual survey and conversations around climate surveys for learners and teachers to understand concerns and challenges which explain the findings.

Young people have responded extremely well to becoming Peer Mediators who aim to defuse low level conflict and to identify areas for concern in their particular school.

The pandemic has unfortunately had a serious impact on the CIE’s ability to continue with the programme as schools are under great pressure to catch up on teaching and learning. However, circle-time with teachers in schools where it is possible, have enabled teachers to share the pain and stress of COVID-19, as many have lost loved ones and suffered themselves, as well as the strain of keeping children safe and the protocols required for this.

CIE hopes to restart the programme this year as more than ever, peace is required in all facets of life. We also hope to assist schools to work more closely with parents to promote peace.

CHALLENGES • MISSION IS COMMUNICATING LIFE

On Riots, The Pandemic And Doing Theology

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear” (Antonio Gramsci)

BY Archbishop Thomas Menamparampil, SDB | Archbishop Emeritus of Guwahati, India

The Italian author Antonio Gramsci (1891–1937) wrote these words from prison in around 1931. Many of us might well imagine he was writing from South Africa ninety years later!

We are living in troubled times in South Africa: the Covid pandemic and the haphazard way in which vaccine delivery is happening; growing poverty and unemployment, accentuated but by no means caused by the pandemic; ongoing political corruption and mismanagement of public resources, with highly uneven—some might say half-hearted—attempts to fight it. We are seeing the ruling African National Congress deeply divided within itself, possibly in the process of fragmentation, over the very crises I have mentioned. The recent traumatic and violent protests and looting in KwaZulu Natal and Gauteng, the worst since the 1994 democratic transition, seem to mirror the morbid symptoms I have described above. The riots—and the wider crisis in which they occurred—demand serious political and ultimately theological analysis.

Why did the riots happen? There are three possible reasons (or combinations of the three):
1. Poverty and discontent;
2. A reaction to the Covid crisis;
3. Political maneuvering precipitated by Jacob Zuma’s imprisonment for contempt of court.

Let us examine these.

First, poverty and discontent. This line of thinking suggests that they happened because of the general state of poverty and unemployment in South Africa, a state worsened, but not simply caused by the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, lockdown and rising unemployment caused by the lockdown. On a prima facie level this sounds credible. Historically, there are connections between disasters—be they famine, plague or some kind of natural occurrence (e.g. earthquakes, floods etc.). If that were the case, we should have experienced the riots across a wider territory than actually occurred. They should also have happened sooner rather than later, arguably during the toughest period of lockdown back in 2020.

Moreover, the conditions—poverty, unemployment and discontent—have existed in South Africa for much longer than 2020. Granted, the Covid lockdown caused a spike in unemployment—and highlighted the socio-economic disparity more intensely than ever before: wealthier people have been able to ‘sit out’ the lockdown better, have had (relatively) easier access to cash reserves to tide themselves over in some cases, or the resources to move their work from office to home. However, it seems odd that the riots themselves were on the whole highly localized, mainly in two provinces. Indeed, some of the poorest regions of South Africa (where one might assume poverty would precipitate violence) did not on the whole, participate. So, on a balance, I would see this factor as contributing in part to rioting and looting and not as its primary cause.

What of reaction to Covid-19 itself, our second factor? Historical precedents exist. In the past, times of plague have precipitated protests and mass movements, many of them articulating some kind of belief that the end of the world was nigh. Often these movements were linked to beliefs rooted in defective reading of apocalyptic religious literature like the Book of Revelation and the conviction that plague was divine judgment for the world’s sins. But this has not happened significantly during the global Covid pandemic (nor indeed did it during the Great Influenza epidemic one hundred years ago). Granted, there has been a considerable undercurrent, including in South Africa, of what might be called ‘Covid denialism’ and protests about precautionary restrictions, but compared to many countries, this has not happened as much here. Though there have been objections to occasions of police heavy-handedness in enforcing things such as curfews, I have found little or nothing of this rhetoric surrounding the 2021 protests.

There was no general uprising, just localized resistance in areas where Zuma has support

Similarly, I have no sense from what I’ve heard or read that the protests can be traced to a kind of kneejerk reaction by people against being cooped up by the lockdown—or indeed, as I mentioned, a protest against the serious economic side effects of the lockdown.

One is therefore left with the third, and to my mind, most credible cause: reaction to the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma for contempt of court. The evidence supporting this claim seems overwhelming. His allies in the ANC warned that if Zuma was jailed there would be protest: it happened. Although the case is by no means closed, there is mounting evidence that the protests (and subsequent looting) were encouraged—if not actually organized—by members of Zuma’s inner circle within the ANC. Beyond that, I have heard people say that when the rioting and looting started, those involved were in effect bussed into the areas affected (local people may then have joined in out of purely material self-interest). There may also be an element of trying to warn the state not to go after other members of Zuma’s cronies implicated in corruption.

More interesting is the question why this was done. It is conceivable that (assuming the organized protest claim is true, which at least seems the case) that it was simply a show of force to get Zuma released. Historically, protest actions—particularly strikes—have often proven effective in the past (at least since 1994). Simply put, and all morality aside, violence works. State counter-violence in these cases has tended always to backfire on the state; shooting protesters and strikers has all too strong a resonance with the apartheid era, even in cases where the first acts of violence were committed by protesters themselves.

A deeper possible reason for the ‘organized resistance’ claim could even be proposed: the first step to overthrowing the government of Cyril Ramaphosa and ‘restoring’ Jacob Zuma (or a close ally) to the presidency. The idea of a general strike or mass uprising has historical precedent (e.g. Russia in 1917), as has the idea of ‘rolling mass action’ in South Africa’s history. If this was in the minds of Zuma’s cronies—whose position within the ANC may be slowly weakening as public sentiment increasingly turns against government corruption and inefficiency, closely associated with the Zuma faction—they miscalculated. There was no general uprising, just localized resistance in areas where Zuma has support. Similarly, despite appearing ‘weak on crime’, Ramaphosa reigned in the temptation to violently suppress the protests—an act that could have played into Zuma’s hands. In short, if this was a power play on the part of Zuma and friends, it backfired dismally, despite the heavy cost in lives and to the economy.

What theological insights, if any, can we derive from these events, particularly how we as Christians can contribute a useful and sound moral voice to current events? I cannot in a short article here express this as fully as it deserves, but I hope to present a few points that we shall all have to work on.

Our theology must find a way of building dialogue with secular ideas and practices of governance

First, we can no longer afford to frame our moral reflections and witness in simplistic, ‘bi-polar’ terms. We no longer live in a society where there is a clear ‘villain’ like apartheid and equally an obvious ‘hero’ or ideal like democracy. Even issues in the deep background to the recent protests—poverty and inequality—offer no simple solutions. History teaches us that simplistic redistribution doesn’t work—and the protagonists who propose such solutions to varying degrees (notably the Zuma faction and the far left) have themselves a less than salubrious track record, suggesting that even if it were feasible, such radical economic transformation would ultimately serve another elite. In like fashion, both romanticized protest and the sanctification of repressive force to ‘preserve’ society don’t work. We need as Christians to develop a more nuanced theology of protest and what might be called (echoing the sociologist Max Weber) a ‘theology of legitimate state force’ to deal with both ambiguities and the real possibilities of excessive and illegitimate protest and/or state violence.

This proposal might unsettle some of you. After all, surely Christians must embrace nonviolence as a moral absolute? Quite frankly, I believe that though it is an ideal to which we must all strive, it is impossible for Christians in public life not to face the ugly reality of force. When we were a marginal sect awaiting the Second Coming, perhaps it was possible; once Christians took their place in the public square we had no choice than to accept the possibility of force. What we are called to do is to struggle to limit force as far as possible—and through our teaching to inculcate in citizens (most of whom are Christians) the need to do likewise.

Second, more importantly, we as Christians must deepen our commitment to and reflection on such tools that make democratic civil society possible, notably the rule of law and the need for it to be upheld fairly and equitably to all. If my analysis is correct, the recent crisis and violence was precipitated by a refusal of certain individuals and groups to accept the idea that all citizens, no matter how famous or highly regarded for their alleged contribution to society, are subject to the same laws, the same procedures, and the same penalties for violating them. Perhaps this can be summarized theologically as the need to develop a ‘theology of due process’. This is in itself part of a wider theology, a theology of civil society and democratic governance.

Here too we need to build upon what already exists and renew it in the light of new circumstances. Many of us in the past embraced theologies of liberation and struggle—in South Africa from the 1980s onwards it was called Contextual Theology. It, together with more mainstream theologies such as Catholic Social Thought, served us well and brought us to the (however flawed) democratic transition of 1994, but the context has changed and our theology must change with it.

Such a new theology must of necessity take account of the fact that the modern state is secular and independent of Church ‘control’, even in situations where many (indeed most) lawmakers and administrators are Christian. Our theology, and the theologies of other faiths, must find a way of building dialogue with secular ideas and practices of governance. It is worth noting here, for religious people filled with unease at the prospect, that many observers would claim that modern secular democracy is the non-religious expression of values first articulated in religious language, in one sense the ‘agnostic child’ of religious, mostly Christian, parents.

Third, our social analysis—upon which we build our theological responses to developments and crises around us—must be more subtle, more ‘scientific’, in the sense that we must use the best available knowledge at our disposal. Crude analyses—particularly simplistic splits between rich/poor, black/white, and even ‘us’/ ‘them’—yield data that is at best flawed, at worst utterly useless. There’s an old maxim: rubbish in, rubbish out—or, as they say in the field of medical research ethics, bad science is bad ethics. Our theological and moral reflection in every area including public life must reflect good (as opposed to myopic) ways of Seeing, so that our theological Judgment is sound and constructive, on which to build more effective Action.

To conclude, I think we must admit that for the most part the religious communities of South Africa dealt with the recent protests and looting rather poorly. We messed up because our analysis of the situation was weak, our theological reflection at best second hand, outdated or simply nonexistent. Will we do better next time? (Yes, there will be a next time—even next times). Perhaps we should revisit the words of Jesus (Mark 2: 22) in this regard:

“And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins.”

CHALLENGES • STORIES OF RESILIENCE

Chasing the Dream of a Secure Life

They had to flee their own country after receiving death threats, but their struggle to survive continues in South Africa amid xenophobic attacks and legal constraints. Two Burundians tell of their ordeals

BY RAFAEL ARMADA MCC | REPORTING FROM DURBAN

THE SOUTHERN African Development Community comprises 16 countries, has a population of 363.2 million people and hosts 6.4 million immigrants. Of these, an estimated 2.9 million reside in South Africa. This country also hosts 266 700 refugees and asylum seekers mainly from countries such as Somalia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Zimbabwe, according to the United Nations (UN), at mid-year 2020. The majority of them fled from violence in their countries of origin only to find innumerable hardships in South Africa, aggravated by the situation of Covid and unemployment.

“Today I cannot sell avocados; the Metro Police are moving around the market.” The heap of avocados in Grace Niyonkuru’s (not her real name) single room is piling up. “Now they want me to remove these avocados from here, but I have no other place to store them”. She pays R2 000 for a small dwelling where a double bed and a little cooker hardly fit, in the neighbourhood of Greyville, a low-income area in the city of Durban. She buys the sack of avocados for R300 and she sells them by unit, but the margin of profit is small and there is a high risk of losing money if the fruit becomes over-ripe.

Unrest in Burundi

In 2015 the late Burundian President Pierre Nkurunziza announced his intention of seeking a third term in power. His declaration provoked an uprising and unrest all over the country. The opposition was outraged and violence broke out especially in the capital, Bujumbura. One of the senior military generals of the country, Adolphe Nshimirimana, also presidential adviser for internal security of Nkurunziza, averted a coup d’état against his President in May 2015. Three months later, he was assassinated by members of the opposition. His security guards—one of them Grace’s husband—were also executed. “They told me that they would kill me too, so I had no option but to leave my country”. Someone paid smugglers to take her in trucks from Bujumbura, south through Tanzania and Mozambique to South Africa, but not without cruel and repeated violence and hardships of different kinds throughout the journey. When she arrived in Durban, in June 2016, she slept for some time in the streets till she was helped to get accommodation. Fleeing Burundi, she left her four children behind. “They were studying in a boarding school and they couldn’t accompany me”; however, two of them managed to follow her later to South Africa. Another two, aged 20 and 17, are in Rwanda.

Survival

Since her arrival, Grace tried to make ends meet by selling vegetables in the market and relying on the food parcels received from the Parish of St Peter’s when they were available. In 2018 she was beaten up while selling in the market. “Many locals do not want foreigners competing in their business”. Since then, and as a consequence of that violence, she suffers from severe injuries in her ear, but the local hospital refuses to help her.

She stays next to two of her children, aged 23 and 19. “The younger one has got documents, but he has not found a job yet”. The police have also harassed her in the street. She refers to an incident that happened last year, in August, when she was asked to show her permit of residence; and as she was not carrying it, the police arrested her and detained her for three days.

Grace applied for UN refugee asylum in 2016. It gives her a temporary permit to stay in the country, but does not allow her to work and this makes survival very difficult. She still waits, five years later, for a refugee status that could provide for her and her family’s upkeep. Till then, she tries to sell avocados when the Metro Police give her a break and her physical condition allows it. Her friend Dorothy Manirakiza (not her real name) is 28, twenty years younger than her.

Fleeing

Dorothy left Burundi a year later than Grace. Her brother was killed by police officers and imbonerakure—the armed youth wing of the ruling party. They came to her family house falsely accusing them of hiding arms in their residence. They beat and brutally assaulted her several times till she was able to escape from the place. They threatened to kill her too. After the aggression, she had to wait for some months in the country till her first child was born; then she and her baby boy managed to flee Burundi.

It took her one month to reach South Africa. She remembers crossing forests in Tanzania and Mozambique, walking from three in the morning till three in the afternoon. When she arrived in Durban, in May 2017, she stayed in the streets for some time. Visiting the Department of Home Affairs, she surprisingly met Margareth, her blood sister, who introduced her to Grace. They became close friends. Dorothy started selling vegetables as well, till she was chased away from the market because she did not have a license to sell. Since then, she has not been able to work.

Dreams

Her sister Margareth was granted refugee status a few years later and now she is living in Sweden though, due to a disability, she sits in a wheelchair. Dorothy gave birth to her second child in South Africa, now one year old, but her partner is also disabled and has casual employment for R2500 a month. They pay R2000 for their room´s rent, leaving very little left to survive with. “My dream is to get training in a manual job, so that I may start earning my own income”.

St Peter’s parish has supported her with the school fees for her first-born child and food parcels. Both Burundian friends feel quite alone in their struggles which are hard to bear. On 14 June, when the two friends were together in the market, trying to sell, the Metro Police came; they took their avocados and fined Grace R600. “We cannot do anything; they do not allow us to survive” says Dorothy, feeling the pain of her friend. Both pray earnestly that God may open a way for them, a better life in this beautiful and bountiful land, a country where honey and milk flow.

Challenges • Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking

TRAPS OF POVERTY

The harsh conditions experienced by trafficked immigrants in South Africa

BY Charles Ephraim Luhanga & Claudius Zindoga
Edited by Fr Rafael Armada

THE REALITIES of human trafficking and domestic violence are intertwined. There are thousands of migrants who arrive to South Africa, mostly from neighbouring countries, victims at their homes of domestic violence and poverty, who try to escape from the direness they are living in. In their attempt to flee from it, they look for better pastures in dream lands. They are given false hopes and promises of decent jobs before departing only to find disillusionment on their arrival

On their journey to South Africa, they often fall prey to unscrupulous transporters and smugglers who abuse them physically and, above all, sexually. Thoroughly cheated, they have to endure traumatic situations on their trip which does not stop on arrival, but rather becomes more distressing. Most of them with their unfulfilled dreams end up in forced prostitution or in the hands of all kinds of abusers.

PIRILANI’S TRUE STORY

Pirilani’s husband’s stay in South Africa was shortened abruptly since he died in a car accident. The funds dried up and Pirilani had to find ways to sustain her six children and attend to the financial obligations that her husband had contracted towards the support of his relatives. She had no other way to meet all these demands but to follow her husband’s destination. “I did not have a passport, but my sister was supportive enough to lend me hers”. Her sister also knew a transporter who agreed to take Pirilani to South Africa and find a job for her in Pretoria, as a helper in the house of a Zimbabwean family. The couple of that family were at the brink of divorcing when Pirilani arrived. Once the wife moved out of the house, the husband, an alcohol and sex addict, started insinuating her sexually, abusing and raping Pirilani as well as threatening to kill her should she report the abuse to anyone. The man would ensure her financial needs at the price of maintaining her subjugated, a victim of untold physical and emotional torture and as his hostage, because of her illegal residence in South Africa.

DAYS OF HELL

“I was living in a house of a monster. I was dealing with a man with issues that were certainly manifesting in my abuse; a man who required serious professional help or simply prison. My days in the household were hell. With nowhere to go, no one to tell and nothing I could possibly do to stop the man, I was mercilessly and relentlessly sexually assaulted”, Pirilani recalls. Finally, she got the courage to share her situation with a fellow countryman living in her neighbourhood, though she felt that any possibility of escape from the house or denouncing her abuser would leave her helpless and her children unassisted back at home. Once, she managed to leave the house and expose publicly in her neighbourhood, the atrocities of the man with whom she was living. However, she finally decided to return to her employer and abuser, for the sake of providing education for her children back in Malawi. As she relates, “my employer had stripped me of my dignity. He carved out all my humanity. I did not feel like a woman anymore. He had taken away all my confidence. He had succeeded in destroying all my dreams and ambitions. Fortunately, a single power remained that he seemed to have failed to take away from me; a power that no man or even any person could take away from me: the power of being a mother. That power was a gift that urged me on”. She decided to put the abuse that she went through behind her and to fight any further abuse. Eventually she managed to return to Malawi where she currently lives and works.

Pirilani’s is one of the many real stories of migrants in South Africa, uncountable victims of the hideous scourge of traffickers and abusers. Her struggles and of many others are narrated in the book, Wamama Chronicles, by Zindonga & Luhanga (2017).

The authors of this book are also the founders of Fula Africa, a non-profitable organization, created in 2017 as a response to the cries, challenges and concerns experienced by large sections of the migrant population in South Africa. Specifically, they look at cases and incidences of trafficking in persons (TIP) and smuggling of migrants (SOM). Most of the victims, particularly women and children, relate gross physical and emotional violence and rights abuses at the hands of traffickers and smugglers.

FULA AFRICA AGAINST TIP AND GBV

Fula Africa recognises that comprehensive efforts to reduce human trafficking must include the prevention and response to gender-based violence (GBV) due to the intertwined relationship of the two crimes. In fact, TIP and GBV share common ground. GBV is both an important driver of human trafficking and a tool to manipulate and control women, children, and even men, into sex work and forced labour across all forms of trafficking. There is a deeply imbedded culture of violence (physical and emotional) within our society that, unfortunately, is enabled and perpetuated by our silence and inaction. Fear, emotional and physical abuse are inherent in both GBV and TIP. Methods of control used in TIP mirror all forms of GBV prevalent in our society. Details of human trafficking and smuggling of persons are exceptionally opaque the world over, as are those of GBV.

Accounts of shocking levels, intensity and forms of abuse and violence meted out to innocent victims include: sale (in routine transactions or to old depraved men of various degeneracies); sexual abuse—with its consequences (HIV/AIDS and unwanted pregnancies); mutilation (butchered for punishment or muti) and other unimaginable forms of physical abuse. The litany of psychological and physical abuse is endless. All of them, acts that reflect a total disregard for the sanctity of life, dignity and rights of others. The harsh realities of silent victims of TIP and SOM allowed us to observe with clarity, a sad and cruel world that punishes one for being a woman, for being poor, for being in an uncompromising predicament or for wishing and aspiring for more.

POVERTY AND VIOLENCE

The South African Development Community (SADC) grapples with a myriad of social, political and economic issues that appear to become more clearly manifest in situations of poverty. In fact, poverty as seen in the case of Pirilani, is a cause denominator in GBV and TIP. It is often the main factor of violence at homes and the fertile soil for TIP and SOM as well. The majority of young trafficked women come from poor backgrounds, often from dysfunctional families and with high levels of domestic violence and substance abuse

There are also social and cultural pressures; the perceived societal subservient role of women in society (conversely, the paternal status of men), the fear of forced marriage, the stigmatisation after a sexual assault and a lack of knowledge of human rights are, among others, some of the factors involved. Poverty has pushed many young girls to escape from their homes only to fall prey to traffickers and to end up in exploitative situations. As in the case of GBV, poverty enables and perpetuates the crime.

Gross violations of GBV and TIP are taking place in plain sight, yet continue to go unnoticed. In the case of GBV, abuses occur in the surrounding neighbourhoods. In TIP, the victims cross provincial, national and regional boundaries. The Covid pandemic has also exacerbated poverty which has fuelled both GBV and the vulnerability to TIP.

SILENCED VIOLATIONS

Fula Africa has over the years borne testimony towards a society that wants to move away from perceiving some of its members as a species being born with a fatal predisposition to withstand any form of mistreatment, manipulation, exploitation and abuse. It is our collective morals and values as well as our natural responsibility and obligation to uphold the dignity and humanity of fellow human beings.

Fula Africa questions the society in which we live: is the eccentric, peculiar and inexplicable, the violence against women and children become the new norm? have we come to accept it as it is and allow to let it go unnoticed? According to the organization’s views, it is embarrassing to belong to this kind of society; a society that appears to be nonchalant in the face of anarchy, an apathetic society in the face of adversity and seemingly deliberate ignorance of the evil in full view. Fula Africa affirms that society’s blindness and unnerving quiet to gross violations of women’s rights is a shame for humanity. This kind of society, in Fula Africa’s perception, is complicit to the crimes with its silence and inaction; this silence has perpetuated heinous crimes and atrocities. The South African law stipulates that an individual is guilty of crime if one does not report an action of TIP or related information. However, the same does not apply to GBV. It remains as a silent crime despite the millions of Rands that the society spends on advertising this deplorable behaviour and the need for its change. However, the reality on the ground is quite diverse and the dawn of a new mentality and a better law enforcement in society remain quite substandard and a challenge so far.

Fula Africa manifests its conviction that upholding and respecting other people’s rights, dignity and humanity (regardless of gender, ethnicity, or nationality) is not only an ideal—rather it is an obligation. Fula Africa explores partnerships through various strategies to fight the causes of GBV, TIP and SOM; fights the associated violence; seeks to protect victims and the vulnerable as well as pursue the perpetrators of the heinous crimes. In this game, we all have a part to play.