Chapter 6: Conclusion and Recommendations
6.2 Conclusions
As stated above that, the previous chapter examined the responses from the participants regarding xenophobic attacks that affect the population, which in this study is the population of Durban that has been affected by extreme xenophobic attacks in 2015. The 2015 xenophobic attacks caused terrible destruction in this area where many people lost their belongings and many foreigners displaced. It can be concluded that this study is comparable to other studies conducted such as the study by Felicia Lombard in 2015. This is because in the Lombard’s study similar results noting extreme damage to the well-being of the population were also recorded. However, in both studies, it was observed that maltreatment of people by one another can result in serious problems including committing crimes and deaths which was exactly happened during the 2015 xenophobic attacks in Durban.
This study had three objectives that were stated in chapter 1 as follows;
❖ To understand the major causes of 2015 xenophobic attacks in Durban.
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❖ To examine the impact of 2015 xenophobic attacks on the well-being of Durban population.
❖ To evaluate the role to be played by citizens in reducing xenophobic attacks in Durban.
These objectives starting with the first objective which was to understand the major causes of 2015 xenophobic attacks in Durban has been successfully met. This objective has been met because the study found that some of the major causes of those attacks were the shortage of employment which made local citizens take out their anger on foreigners. This can be seen in chapter 2 where I discussed three hypothesis on the causes of xenophobic attacks. During that chapter, it was discussed that scapegoat hypothesis is when local people (South Africans) direct their frustrations of different problems at foreigners, especially Black African foreigners.
While isolation hypothesis argued that locals are not used to foreigners and suggest that xenophobia is a product of ineffective isolation policies of the apartheid government. Whereas, bio-cultural hypothesis argues that, it is when xenophobia is unequally applied to foreigners. This is because, on many occasions where people had mistreated foreigners, they were identifying them in terms of identity. During the research, it was noted in the reviewed literature and discussed by the majority of study participants that foreigner’s migration statuses are usually associated with illegality because some of them enter the country illegally and involve themselves in crime according to the findings. Furthermore, this can also be seen in chapter 4 where I discussed responses from study participants.
Moreover, it can also be concluded that for the immigrants to cross South African borders is particularly easy. This is because of the number of problems such as unemployment, crime, and poverty are the ones that the participants believed to be caused by the illegal immigrants which is one of the reasons that made the South Africans to attack foreigners. However, it was discussed that these problems were considered to be causes as well as the impacts of 2015 xenophobic attacks in Durban. However, it was observed that these problems were the main causes of the 2015 xenophobic attacks. Therefore, it can be concluded that the security in South African borders is not ensured as the country have many foreigners believed to be illegal and involved in criminal activities that mostly affects the well-being of the population of Durban.
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This study concludes that the socio-economic issues including poverty and unemployment have caused the 2015 xenophobic attacks in Durban. However, it was discussed that these issues relate to and influence one another. This is because it was noted from the reviewed literature in chapter 2 and from interviews conducted that when people suffer poverty they are usually unemployed and vice versa. However, it was also noted that unemployment and poverty were the causes as well as the impact of the 2015 xenophobic attacks in Durban. Furthermore, it was discussed that these problems tend to be dominant in Townships. Therefore, the study has achieved its first objective by understanding the major causes of the 2015 xenophobic attacks.
It can also be concluded that the second objective of the study that was to examine the impact of the 2015 xenophobic attacks on the well-being of Durban population has been achieved. This is because during the study it was argued that, the well-being of Durban population was largely affected as there were some people who lost their employment because of being unable to go to work due to fear of being killed. This can be seen in chapter 2 and chapter 4 of this study. It was discussed in these chapters that those who lost their employment also suffered poverty because of inability to afford their daily needs. However, it was noted that the xenophobic attacks affected even school children because some of them dropped out of school. Therefore, it can be concluded that the 2015 xenophobic attacks have largely affected the population of Durban. Furthermore, it was discussed that the effects of the 2015 xenophobic attacks were also the causes of those attacks.
Therefore, it can be concluded that this study has achieved its second objective because it has identified the impact of the 2015 xenophobic attacks on the population of Durban.
This study has also achieved its third objective which was to evaluate the role to be played by citizens in reducing xenophobic attacks in Durban. This is because it was discussed that members of the community are very important in attempts to stop xenophobic attacks in the community as they are the main people interacting and fighting with foreigners every day which could be easy for them to find solutions since problems resulting from those fights affects them. This study has also concluded that stakeholders such as the NGOs and government can play a vital role to address the issue of xenophobic attacks in the country. Therefore, it can be concluded that the community members are important to combat xenophobic attacks.
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This study concluded that South African people are basically nice people and most people in every province in this country have a certain way of welcoming a visitor. This is because people from these provinces have a certain proverb they use which refers to caring for their visitors. For example, in South African provinces such as Limpopo, people use proverb like, ‘Isisu somhambi asingakanani kodwa singangophonjwana lwembuzi’ and in KwaZulu-Natal, they replace
‘Uphonjwana lwembuzi’ with “Intso yenyoni’ which means a visitor can be always given a special treatment because the little that you have, the foreigner cannot finish whatever you have because they are not there forever. Therefore, it can be concluded that South African people are kind but problems including unemployment, poverty, and crime make them unkind and attack people from other countries.