How a diplomatic break in Nigeria over trucking in South Africa can be resolved to benefit Africa as a whole
 High tension has come to taint relations between Africa's richest and most powerful nations - mineral-rich South Africa and oil-rich Nigeria. If this condition worsens, it can only bode ill for prospects of trade between Africa's two richest and most powerful economies.
Moreover, South Africa’s relations with several African nations, but notably Nigeria, have become even more strained after Nigeria deported 600 South Africans following the attacks on its truckers and other truckers from sub-Saharan states over jobs.
Following reprisal attacks on South African students in Nigeria, the Pretoria shut down its embassy in the Nigerian capital of Abuja. To be fair, Nigeria is not the only country complaining of ill treatment of its nationals and judicial indifference towards the lives and property lost at the hands of South African truckers angered by foreign job competition.
South African truckers seek protection from non-South African drivers, many of whom have proper work permits, undercutting local trucker pricing. In response, South African gangs attacked truckers and hunted them down. Hundreds of non-South Africans, typically Malawis, Rwandans, Congolese, Tanzanians, Zambians and Zimbabweans, but more importantly Nigerians, because they have clout, have sought shelter in Durban police stations or other places, as their homes, trucks, and other belongings have been looted or destroyed.
Much of the violence has been laid at the door of the All Truck Drivers Forum (ATDF) whose banner reads "We will die for our country - we want 100%"
In response, the South African government launched a toothless "National Action Plan to combat Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance", which has yet to palpably materialise - certainly not in terms of police protection and prosecution. Judicial response has been to award a few dozen fines for traffic violations.
South Africa has a history of xenophobic attacks by black people who accuse citizens of other African countries, as well as Asian countries, of coming to steal their jobs. The wave of such attacks that swept South Africa in 2008 claimed at least 62 lives. Subsequent incidents, particularly in 2015, have displaced thousands of African migrants and led to the large-scale looting of their shops and other businesses.
But it frequently reported that South Africans hate Nigerians because they believe they are criminals, are too loud, and their men seduce local women. That's what South African protesters wrote in a petition to the Ministry of Home Affairs at an anti-immigration march on the capital, Pretoria: "They are arrogant and they don't know how to talk to people." Nigerians, on the other hand, believe that South Africans are simply "jealous of our self-confidence, and our ability to thrive and outshine", said Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, a Nigerian journalist writing on the BBC's website.
The similarities between South Africa and Nigeria are more apparent than real. On the surface, they are former British colonies with a supposed legacy of rule of law and a semblance of a parliamentary democracy. While these hallmarks of civilisation. have reached similar levels of decay, the two countries have been governed by two very different political philosophies. South Africa's governing ANC (African National Congress) embraces the Communist Party programme where it can. It supports the communist regimes of Cuba and Venezuela as much as it dares without risking the loss of US third world trade preferences. Nigeria is struggling towards normality to upgrade itself in a pragmatic free trading world, plagued as it is by deep Muslim and secular Christian divide which pits the north of Africa's most populous country with its southern region, which is tribally divided from the Yoruba and Ibo.
Add to that, the country is faced Boko Haram Islamic insurgency. Insurgents have killed tens of thousands and displaced 2.3 million from their homes and were at one time the world's deadliest terror group, according to the Global Terrorism Index. Now half the national territory is under Sharia Law. The Nigerian Army has "fallen apart", according to a former British military attache. It is short of basic equipment, including radios and armored vehicles. Morale is low. Senior officers are alleged to be skimming military procurement budget funds intended to pay for equipment of soldiers. Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari claims that Boko Haram has been "technically defeated" But Boko Haram attacks have escalated.
And when South Africa held the World Economic Forum on Africa in Cape Town, where differences might have been resolved Malawi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo did not attend due to the attacks against their citizens in South Africa. And in another move, which some interpret as a way to forestall foreign censure, the South African Parliament revived the International Crimes Bill whose purpose is to withdraw the country from the International Criminal Court.
While local media reports suggest that 800,000 Nigerians live in South Africa, official South African records say the number is 30,000. It is not clear if the official data includes undocumented migrants. "We have faced enough... These killings must stop," said Ahmed Lawan, the head of Nigeria's legislature. "The South African government must as a matter of urgency do whatever it takes to protect the lives and property of Nigerians living there."
But it is unclear whether the South African government cares about protecting Nigerians or other migrants. Police arrested more than 650 foreign nationals - including traders who had their goods seized - in Johannesburg. A court ordered that 489 of them be deported within 30 days, because they were not legally in South Africa.
In response to attacks in South Africa, Nigerian students have targeted South African firms, forcing these businesses to leave, or crippling their operations. This would only worsen Nigeria's already grim unemployment and the mean the loss of the valuable services they provide would leave a vacuum.
The National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has picketed branches of South African telecoms giant MTN, and those of supermarket chain Shoprite, turning away staff and customers. Those protests were sparked by the death of a Nigerian woman, Elizabeth Ndubuisi-Chukwu, who was reportedly strangled in her hotel room during a visit to Johannesburg.
An autopsy revealed she had died of "unnatural causes consistent with strangulation" but officials say CCTV footage showed that nobody entered her room. Police are still investigating. The Nigerian media seem to report at least one such incident every month, with numerous news outlets using the same telling headline: "Another Nigerian killed in South Africa."
According to Nigeria's government, Nigeria's President Muhammadu Buhari and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa will discuss, among others, "issues relating to the wellbeing of citizens". Nigerians have responded to the news with great hope - that President Buhari will use the opportunity to demand tangible measures from South Africa to deter its citizens from attacking Nigerians at will.
It seems this situation is bound to get worse before it gets better, as the global downturn prompted by the aftermath of the coronavirus panic, is bound to make trucking jobs more scarce and competition for them more intense. Africa as a whole is likely to become more impoverished if European and American demand does not return to something approaching previous levels.
One hope for Africa is that some of the low-end production that Asia supplies may well transfer to Africa as China's unpopularity grows, it being one of the few agenda items on which the political right and left in the West appear to agree. What will make the difference is the maintenance of political and diplomatic stability that will foster a congenial environment in which trade with Africa becomes easier that it has been and certainly better than it is today. Much will depend on how well South Africa and Nigeria sort out their differences. |
