by Selaelo

Created on: June 07, 2008

For the past week, I watched the xenophobic events in my home country, South Africa with shame and horror. For once in my life, I felt somehow ashamed to call myself South African. The actions of South Africans involved in the latest xenophobic violence were indespicable and inhumane. The images that I saw were reminiscent of the apartheid past except that this time the attacks were against foreigners and not the former white South African government. The South Africa I saw in the past weeks is certainly not the country that Nelson Mandela and other heroes of the liberation movement endlessly fought for and it is certainly not the South Africa I grew up to know, love and appreciate. Ours was a hard earned freedom and it was really sad to witness that freedom being taken for granted. The wave of recent violence in South Africa cannot and should not be justified by anyone and should be strongly condemned by all.

South Africa has seen an influx of immigrants, mostly illegal after the country's first democratic elections. Many Africans from all walks of life have been coming to South Africa in search of a better life. Africa is the poorest continent in the world and it is growing poorer, as standards of living, health, education, and economic productivity are far below world norms. There are high levels of illiteracy, high unemployment rates and a very poor higher education system. According to the World Bank's November 2007 statistics, Sub-Saharan Africa alone accounts for over 65 percent of the world's population living with HIV/AIDS, a challenge that will continue to hinder Africa's progress. For many poor Africans, South Africa is seen as a land of milk and honey, a land where they see light at the end of the tunnel.

South Africa which is still a developing country itself is perceived by many Africans as the better of the African countries in terms of economic resources. One can draw similarities between South Africa's illegal immigration issue with United States of America's illegal immigration issue in relation to Mexico. The major difference between the two countries is that one is a developed country and can somehow contain its problem while the other is a developing country and therefore does not have enough resources to share with illegal immigrants. For South Africa, the problem is more complex than the United States' in that people from all over Africa cross the borders illegally in search of a good life. The question on many people's minds is; If South

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