{"text":[[{"start":7.4,"text":"The writer hosts the annual Africa In the World ideas festival and is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for international reporting."}],[{"start":15.25,"text":"On June 30, thousands of Black South Africans marched in the streets demanding that fellow Black Africans, whom they have deemed “illegal”, must immediately leave the country. So far, the worst fears of widespread anti-immigrant violence seem to have been avoided. President Cyril Ramaphosa, roused at last from the craven inertia of his government, appeared to have brokered a late-night deal with some of the nativist leaders who have hitherto been violent in word and deed. Since 2022, dozens of migrants have been killed and at least 25,000 have been forced to flee the country in recent weeks, with many more awaiting repatriation."}],[{"start":55.65,"text":"The deadline for all of these “illegal” Africans to go back where they came from was the culmination of years of periodic convulsions, in which many immigrants have been killed by xenophobic mobs."}],[{"start":68.15,"text":"According to official statistics, foreigners in South Africa number between 2.4 and 3.1 million — roughly 4-5 per cent of the population. Yet they have become the scapegoat for the country’s myriad ailments, some structural hangovers from the apartheid era, but mostly a result of the catastrophic failings of the African National Congress, which has been in charge of the country since 1994."}],[{"start":93.4,"text":"In the first 15 years after that historic advent of democracy, South Africa was led by capable and even inspiring leaders. Despite notable failings, particularly in public education, most indications were pointing ever upwards."}],[{"start":107.75,"text":"And then the ANC decided to commit political suicide in 2009 by handing leadership of the party of Nelson Mandela over to Jacob Zuma — leading to an era of “state capture” and institutionalised corruption. Municipalities have failed one by one. Potable water, electricity and mass transit collapsed. The ANC has become more focused on renaming cities than running them. Unemployment rocketed to a third of the workforce, including half of all young adults. A prolonged economic stagnation has sapped citizens’ confidence. The moral and intellectual collapse of the ANC has thrown the country into a sinkhole, from which it has yet to emerge."}],[{"start":148.3,"text":"For the bottom half of South Africa, for whom the bright promise of democracy has turned out to be a cruel joke, it is not that hard to lash out at the ready scapegoats — the immigrants living among them. These Africans, some 90 per cent of them from the neighbouring countries of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Zambia, Eswatini and Lesotho, must surely be to blame. They must have taken jobs, and freeloaded on public facilities. With the approach of local elections, and with the once-dominant ANC now haemorrhaging votes, many politicians have jumped on the anti-immigrant bandwagon. Never mind that these “foreigners” are indistinguishable from citizens, since South Africa has more Sothos than Lesotho, more Tswanas than Botswana."}],[{"start":194.55,"text":"Across the continent, many are looking on in horror as their governments hastily arrange evacuation flights in order to protect their citizens from harm. It strikes them as a betrayal. "}],[{"start":205.45000000000002,"text":"On April 27 1994, I stood just a few feet from Mandela to watch him cast his first vote ever. It was one of the greatest days of my life. Nigerians like me, born soon after independence in 1960, grew up believing that our greatest mountain to scale was the entire continent’s freedom from colonial rule. By the time Rhodesia became Zimbabwe in 1980, we all knew the final domino to fall would be South Africa. Even Nigeria’s then military government was militantly progressive on the question of ending apartheid. Citizens funded the liberation movements by voluntarily donating a portion of their pay cheques. My contribution, interning in 1980 at the Department of Information in Lagos, was 5 per cent. We felt like the proud vanguard of African freedom."}],[{"start":254.3,"text":"Nowadays I spend much of my time in Stellenbosch. But even here, in the splendid isolation of the Cape Winelands, I have for the past few months fielded calls from panicked relatives and friends concerned for my safety. Many imagine the rampaging hordes have already descended on my verdant valley, armed with pangas. I have assured them, repeatedly but unsuccessfully, that I am safe. The other day, a Nigerian friend called. “What are you still doing in that place,” he asked in evident astonishment. “All of us are looking at them with sadness and shock, because they have just told the rest of us that we are not brothers.”"}],[{"start":292.15000000000003,"text":"For those of us who believe that an increasingly integrated Africa is our path to survival in a dysfunctional and hostile world, we have a lot of repair work to do."}],[{"start":310.25000000000006,"text":""}]],"url":"https://audio.ftcn.net.cn/album/a_1782970905_1391.mp3"}