Let me be unambiguous: South Africans are notxenophobic. We are a people who, through the long arc of our liberation struggle and the moral imagination of our constitution, chose to see the full humanity in others — even when the world refused to see ours. That is not weakness.
That is the product of a hard-won civilisation. But civilisation, when mistaken for an open invitation, becomes something that can be exploited. And we have been patient long enough.
The installation of an Igbo king in KuGompo City was not a multicultural gesture. It was a provocation. Our constitution’s protection of cultural life was crafted for a SA where all of us, regardless of race, ethnicity or origin, share a common stake in this democracy.
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It was not designed as a framework for foreign nationals to assert cultural sovereignty over South African communities. There is a categorical difference between a diaspora preserving its heritage and a community planting a flag in someone else’s house. Visitors to this country, regardless of origin, are guests.
Guests observe the customs of the home. They do not redecorate it. Operation Dudula and “March and March” exist because the SA state has, in too many places, failed to do its job.
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