When it comes to intolerance, South Africa must not let Nelson Mandela down

On Monday, July 18, we will pause to remember the birthday of Nelson Mandela, a fitting moment to take stock of how far South Africa has come — and how much work there remains to do — in securing the true legacy of our first, post-apartheid president. Universally associated with tolerance, Mandela tested himself and our nation before becoming the transformational figure we know him to be today. So how do we measure up today to Mandela’s expectations?

Our report card regarding tolerance today is mixed. The “Rainbow Nation” has a problem with intolerance. The seeds sown by colonial rule were cultivated by decades of legislated segregation under the Afrikaner Nationalist regime. Now, the brave new world bequeathed to us by Mandela is reaping the toxic harvest of a new nationalism, defined by those who are or aren’t deemed to be South African.

Discrimination today is directed not by those with white skin against those with Black skin, but all too often by South African citizens against immigrants. Our new challenge is to eradicate a cancer that has metastasized into a country harboring hatred against the same countries that once supported South Africa’s liberation struggle. It is the saddest, most bitter irony: A country that was the polecat of the world for its insistence on stratifying its society according to how people looked is showing signs of moving towards the same once more. 

But no one uses the “R word” — racism. Instead, the euphemism is “xenophobia,” the fear of foreigners. But how can an African be a foreigner in Africa? How can an immigrant be discriminated against in a country that was founded by and developed through the efforts of continuing waves of immigrants from around the world, including Europe, India and the vast hinterland of Africa itself?

A recent survey of African youths in 15 nations by the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, which I chair, found that many are overwhelmingly tolerant — something we can and should celebrate on Mandela Day. Nearly two-thirds of respondents (64 percent) said their country has a moral obligation to help refugees. Overwhelming majorities also agreed that the rights of women, immigrants and minority groups need more protection. However, the data for South Africa offers much less to celebrate, as its youths reveal disappointing levels of intolerance towards refugees and immigrants. More than 4 in 10 South African youths are strongly against helping refugees from other countries.

In recent local elections, new political parties have even run on anti-immigrant platforms and found support among some voters for their divisive rhetoric. As we prepare for the international day of celebration in the name of modern South Africa’s founding father, we must ask ourselves how Mandela would view such developments.

“We must work for the day when we, as South Africans, see one another and interact with one another as equal human beings and as part of one nation united, rather than torn asunder, by its diversity,” he told the United Nations in 1990. When he spoke then, it was personal knowledge of the fact that many of the brave opponents of the apartheid regime were themselves made refugees by its injustice. 

With more than 2.9 million immigrants, South Africa hosts more migrants than any other African country. The vast majority of these come from other African nations. South Africa is fortunate in many ways, and it makes sense we are the most attractive destination on the continent for migrants. 

According to the African Youth Survey, more than 50 percent of Africa’s youths indicated that they want to emigrate in the next three years. Most are considering Europe and America, and on the continent, South Africa is the top destination, despite the unacceptable levels of xenophobia.

But that is not to say that there aren’t real problems in South Africa — systemic, institutional ones. South Africa occupies the same place in the hearts of Africans that the United States does to the people of North and South America — and indeed much of the rest of the world. We are Africa’s “land of the free,” a place of fantastic wealth in fable and reality, a place where people will try to make a better life for themselves if they can’t do so in the land of their birth.

Though hit with the same post-COVID global slowdown that all countries face, South Africa’s economy has been relatively strong in comparison with our neighbors. So, it is not only our freedom, but also our opportunity that naturally attracts migrants. But how are we treating our guests? When it comes to xenophobia and nationalism, recent events show substantial room for improvement. 

For Mandela’s sake, South Africa must work harder to not be a bellwether of the rising tides of anti-immigrant grievance that has disrupted even the world’s most established democracies in recent years. Politicians in the Americas, Asia and Europe all have fallen prey to the temptation of scapegoating “the other” in their efforts to channel public anger toward their own ends.

Nelson Mandela most certainly would say that we in South Africa must rise above this trend. We ought to show the same courage of our convictions as he did. Our research bears out the fact that young Africans are looking to the generation in power today to set an example worthy of their expectations.

In the past 10 years, the memory of Mandela’s work has faded somewhat, leaving the question why we treat our fellow Africans so badly. As President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Africa Day: “Our brothers and sisters from elsewhere in Africa are not our enemies. Our common enemies are the scourges of poverty, crime, unemployment and social exclusion.” It is the foulest fruit of all, that this is a problem framed and fueled by popular nationalism, since nationalism itself in Africa is a colonial construct.

But if people will not heed pleas for common decency, then we must eradicate it the same way we do with any hint of apartheid-era racism, whatever and however it appears. South Africa must become intolerant of intolerance — not just because our constitution demands it, but because we are fast losing whatever respect we once held because of our equivocation and hypocrisy. When that happens, we will have failed Mandela and his generation of freedom fighters who gave their all. We must cauterize this tumor of intolerance now, before it irrevocably poisons the generations who come after us.

Ivor Ichikowitz is an African industrialist and philanthropist and the founder of the Ichikowitz Family Foundation, a charitable foundation focusing on youth empowerment, conservation and active citizenship. He commissioned “Jewish Memories of Mandela,” a historical publication chronicling the role that South African Jewish men and women played in Nelson Mandela’s life.