Nigeria Abroad
Gayton McKenzie, says Wikipedia, is a former South African convicted criminal, bank robber, gangster, businessman, motivational speaker, and author.
President of South Africa’s anti-immigrant political party Patriotic Alliance, McKenzie, who came into prominence in the early 2000’s, is leading a crusade against “illegal foreigners” in the rainbow country—raiding their shops, arresting some, and handing them over to the police.
In fairness, his current mission is not the foundation of his political capital: McKenzie used his story of shifting from a life of crime to attaining success as a businessman, as the basis for his popular motivational talks. He traveled to many schools in South Africa during his early years as a speaker, sponsored by a security company.
He has gone on to work as a consultant in the mining industry, and runs a diversified business with interests in restaurants, hotels and events venues, logistics and transport, imports, mining, energy, entertainment and events, publishing, and farming.
Persuaded by the narrative that foreigners are ruining his country, McKenzie, through the Patriotic Alliance which he launched in 2013, says he is out to change things by “putting South Africans first,” tapping into the country’s existing xenophobic atmosphere.
Some days ago, McKenzie led party members to arrest a total of 67 immigrants before taking them to the police station where they are now being detained. Earlier, the party went on a raiding spree, carting items away from shops belonging to foreigners, saying that such items had expired. The party has vowed more raids, as many South Africans on social media cheer on and promise to vote for it.
In its reaction contained in a letter dated 18th January 2022, the Nigerian embassy in South Africa told Nigerians in the country to be vigilant amid Patriotic Alliance’s xenophobic acts.
A South African “media writer” reports that some Somalians whose shops were invaded said some items the group took away had not expired. The foreigners said they kept quiet because they didn’t want to provoke an attack.
“Could the party be doing this just to secure more votes in the upcoming elections?” the writer asked, adding: “Since it (a similar move) favoured Herman Mashaba and his political party, Action SA, Patriotic Alliance political party now want to try their luck, but they are going extreme; they are also taking laws into their hands.”
For long now, immigrants have become a pawn for South African politicians seeking electoral favor, who are exploiting the public sentiment that foreigners, mostly fellow Africans, are taking away South African jobs and committing crimes.
“Someone said to me ‘if you want us to vote for you in 2024 you must abandon this thing of foreigners,’” Malema said in a video chat last November. “I’m prepared to go home. I’m fine. I will never take a platform and denounce Africans. I will never do it. If it means votes are going, let them go. But to take a platform and please White minority by pointing a finger at other fellow Black brothers, I’m not going to do that. When I see a Nigerian or a Zimbabwean or a Congolese or Ghanaian, I see myself.”
While McKenzie is causing further tension at the expense of foreigners in South Africa, it is noteworthy that there are still South Africans that respect and love their fellow African siblings. One of them is Julius Malema, who refused to denounce fellow Africans for votes.
This story first appeared in Nigeria Abroad
