Although the overt racist and xenophobic reactions following last month’s appointment by South Africa’s ruling African National Congress of Xiaomei Havard as a replacement member of parliament have largely died down, many party members are now wondering how someone with no previous political experience or other relevant credentials was able to get the seat.
“Aside from attending a few gatherings of the ANC Women’s League (ANCWL), several Chinese and SA business gatherings, and attending Brics (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) forums, Havard appears to have undertaken no real ANC activism,” wrote The Citizen journalist Eric Naki.
“I have never seen her in any [national general council] or provincial meetings,” said an unnamed ANC party member. “Why don’t they show such pictures. Where is the evidence? I have never heard her arguing politics anywhere.” (THE CITIZEN)
Commentary By Yonela Dinko on the Xiaomei Havard Appointment
- BLACK EXCLUSION: “Black people’s anger at the deployment of Havard can at least be understood within the context of hardened hearts over time by enduring inequality, lack of sufficient opportunities and the historical exclusion. Black people have been passed over for opportunities in corporate spaces, cultural spaces, and now in the only space they can truly claim; in government.”
- CHINESE ANXIETY: “It cannot, however, be denied that the apprehension about Chinese people is also born out of what can be described as a soft global domination project by the Chinese, an imperialistic project of sort without guns and soldiers but with Chinese presence in countries and the splurging of the yuan.”
SUGGESTED READING:
- Eyewitness News: Yonela Diko: Xiaomei Havard and the Enduring Challenges of Pluralism
- The Citizen: SA’s Chinese-born MP: how surface-level xenophobia detracts from deeper concerns by Richard Chemaly
