This
article examines the recurrence of xenophobic attacks in 2011 in the
light of the events of May 2008. Using archives and secondary data,
examining slogans and discourses heard at the time and reflecting on
the author’s own involvement as an activist alongside foreign
residents displaced by the 2008 attacks, it is argued that the
xenophobic attacks demonstrated a shift in the national subjectivity
or conception of citizenship, from an inclusive notion implying
participation in the future South African society to a dialectical
representation of nationals against foreigners. It is further argued
that, in its mismanagement of the 2008 crisis, the South African
government contributed to the emergence of such attitudes and did
nothing to stop the violence; hence its repetition. The notion of
human rights that has emerged in South Africa is one of the keys to
an understanding of the representations at stake: whereas human
rights used to be a universal and founding notion in post-apartheid
South Africa, they are now seen as a national privilege regarding
access to basic needs. The article shows that the humanitarian
management of the May 2008 crisis by the South African Government
contributed considerably to obscuring the notion of ‘human rights’.
In order to oppose such a dangerous policy, there is an urgent need
to revive the political debate in South Africa.
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