DA Federal Leader Geordin Hill-Lewis Is Wrong: Anti-Immigration Is Caused By Hatred

DA Federal Leader Geordin Hill-Lewis Is Wrong:
Anti-Immigration Is Caused By Hatred

Poverty does not explain the burning of shacks, the looting of homes, or the murderous chasing away of foreign nationals. Hatred does.

By Collen Makumbirofa  |  Makumbirofa Farms  |  Johannesburg, South Africa

The DA Federal Leader Geordin Hill-Lewis is wrong. The anti-immigration marches sweeping across South Africa are not primarily the product of a failing economy — they are fuelled by hatred of foreign nationals. Hill-Lewis declared: “South Africans do not hate foreigners. It is because of our failing economy. We do not have enough jobs; we do not have enough opportunities. That is why this is so urgent.” He is either wrong or misrepresenting the truth. And one question alone dismantles his argument: Should you kill your neighbours because you are hungry, jobless, or poor?

“Should you kill your neighbours because you are hungry, jobless or poor? Poverty is a crisis. Hatred is a choice.”

— Collen Makumbirofa, Advocacy & Human Rights

Among Africans, there exists a deep and largely unaddressed tribalism — a hatred of people who are not of your tribe. This is rife across the continent and it must be challenged, loudly and without apology. I cannot kill my brother because I am in poverty or economically challenged. The shacks and shelters belonging to foreigners are burned not because of hunger — they are burned because burning them is a sign of hatred.

Another South African woman appeared on a social media video, brazenly declaring that she hates foreigners — that she hates “Zai Zais” and “Kwerekweres,” the derogatory terms used against foreign nationals. This is not economic frustration speaking. This is hate, naked and unashamed.

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Let us be clear: hatred against foreigners massively exists in South Africa and is worsened by poverty and hunger — but it is not created by them. The distinction matters enormously. When it comes to statistics, the majority of South Africans do not hate foreigners. The majority of South Africans are not xenophobic. But these campaigns of genocide, xenophobia, and hatred are pioneered by minorities — dangerous, vocal, and violent minorities.

“What is necessary for evil to triumph is that good men do nothing.”

— Edmund Burke, cited by Collen Makumbirofa

The neutral and good majority remain silent, and so evil wins. When decent people refuse to speak, when leaders offer economic alibis in place of moral clarity, the perpetrators of violence are effectively shielded from accountability.

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I have a friend from another African country who holds refugee status in South Africa. He bought his own plot of land and built a house with his own hands. He told me: “I am old. I want to be stable in one place.” Yet each time xenophobic violence erupts, South Africans in his area chase him away. On one occasion, the UNHCR had to relocate him to a different suburb simply so he could survive. This man is not a threat. He is a human being. And South Africa, supposedly a constitutional democracy and a signatory to international refugee conventions, cannot protect him.

I believe that many South Africans who practise xenophobia, hatred, violence, and looting are mentally and psychologically damaged — by apartheid, or by the compounding effects of its aftermath. The wounds of that system run deep, twisting communities inward, breeding suspicion and contempt for the outsider. This is a sociological reality that leaders like Hill-Lewis must confront, not hide behind economic statistics.

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Go to Zambians. Go to Kenyans, Malawians, Batswana from Botswana — you can live among them forever, and they will not turn on you in the night. Yet too many South Africans demand that foreign nationals buy them beer or food, only to chase them away the moment xenophobic violence returns. This is not the behaviour of an economically frustrated neighbour. This is the behaviour of someone who has decided that a foreign national is subhuman — undeserving of the protections they themselves enjoy.

Many black South Africans of this disposition are not reliable or trustworthy. Some are dangerous and vicious. And the longer South Africa’s political leaders — including the DA’s Geordin Hill-Lewis — continue to offer economic cover for moral failure, the more foreign nationals will be burned out of their homes, chased from their plots, and murdered on streets they were legally permitted to walk.

Wake up, people. The corpse is already smelling. It is rotten. Call it what it is: hatred. Address it as hatred. And hold every South African leader — from every party — accountable for the language they use and the excuses they make.

Written By

Collen Makumbirofa

Director & Founder — Makumbirofa Farms (Pty) Ltd
Johannesburg, South Africa  |  Chegutu, Zimbabwe
www.makumbirofafarms.co.za  |  [email protected]

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