It is starting to get ugly out there again. Before, the hunt for foreign nationals happened on the streets of the townships where spaza shops were set alight or in the rural vineyard areas that made seasonal workers from other African countries the target. Now it is happening within some of our universities but also in government departments where the overwhelming majority of employees are black South Africans.
Xenophobic hatred makes suspects out of people for the singular misfortune of having been born in another African country. This week an oversight committee in the Gauteng premier’s office, under political pressure from members of the legislature, was forced to find the qualifications of foreign nationals and, while at it, their status as naturalised citizens. Because the smaller political parties have found a vulnerable chink in the armor of the ruling party: a sensitivity to hiring other Africans as the unemployment crisis hits hard among South African born natives.
The Premier responded to a parliamentary question in which he revealed that 700 foreign nationals are employed in the education department out of more than 107,000 on the approved establishment (less than 0.7% of total personnel in the sector). Who are these people? Mainly teachers from countries like Zimbabwe who provide critical skills in the teaching of gateway subjects like mathematics and the physical sciences.
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They were hired because they are really good in their disciplines and deliver the results that keep the National Senior Certificate results from complete implosion. And what these foreigners often do is take up jobs in deep rural areas of the country where the few, aspirant middle-class graduates would rather not spend their professional lives. Are they taking the jobs of the natives?
No, because there are very few black South Africans qualified with science degrees in math, physics and chemistry thanks to a lousy education system; and the few with such prized qualifications are taken up in the former white schools who need to project the veneer of equity in their own ranks. In education, what these foreign nationals are doing is saving the country from complete embarrassment in these subjects and, on the other hand, offering education to generations of young black people to become competent in these important fields.
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