When strife threatens regional integration

For the past five years, John Soko, 39, was ranked among the most successful cross-border traders at Jenda Rural Growth Centre in Mzimba.

He has been going to South Africa to buy various goods for sale back home.

But it is only six months ago when Soko, who comes from Inkosi Mzukuzuku Jere in Mzimba, suffered a major blow to his cross-border trade following a wave of xenophobic attacks on immigrants in South Africa.

The Zulus launched their second series of attacks on hapless immigrants early 2015, dozens with machetes and other types of weapons they could lay their hands on.

The first time immigrants were subjected to these attacks in South Africa was in 2008 when over 60 foreigners were estimated to have been brutally killed.

While condemning the acts, National Initiative for Civic Education (Nice) Trust executive director, Ollen Mwalubunju, says the ‘undemocratic practices carried out by irate South Africans on foreigners presents a good case study of how ill-informed citizens can pose as a big threat to regional integration’.

Mwalubunju warns that the repeat of anti-immigrant attacks in South Africa has potential to undermine efforts to harness benefits of regional integration, which may, in turn, lead to the crippling of economies of most African countries.

Mwalubunju cites countries such as Liberia, Sierra Leone, Cote d’Ivoire and Guinea-Bissau whose economies were brought to their knees when neighboring countries cut their trade and business activities with the war-torn states as conflicts and civil strife took a toll in the four countries.

“This could have been avoided if citizens were empowered with civic awareness and knowledge to enable them to be effectively engaged in various socioeconomic and political processes between and/or among African countries

Lack of civic awareness and knowledge are the major contributing factors to the African-to-fellow-African hatred as citizens cannot be effectively engaged in various socioeconomic and political processes like regional integration,” he explains.

He states that regional integration is largely dependent on how citizens in member states internalise and appreciate democratic governance and globalisation.

At the height of xenophobic attacks, a South African writer, Kuseni Dlamini, noted that African-to-fellow-African hatred is a complex issue for one country to resolve.

Dlamini said xenophobia is a global as well as regional problem requiring all the countries to tackle.

He urged states and government to use the crisis to begin a global and regional strategic conversation about a collective global and regional approach to managing immigration.

South Africa’s destiny and prosperity are inextricably intertwined with the rest of Africa and vice versa. The damage is not irreparable.

Mwalubunju agrees, saying ‘no economy big or small can survive in isolation’.

“That’s why we have South African companies such as Game Stores and Shoprite plying their trade freely in our country even to the extent of selling vegetables and tomatoes, which could also be sold by Malawians,” he states.

He says as a way of contributing towards strengthening regional integration, Nice has entered into a partnership with GIZ-Progress with a view to sensitising Malawians on Southern African DevelopmentCommunity (Sadc) Regional Economic Integration (REI).

He says the partnership will see Nice carrying out district-based sensitisation campaigns on regional integration, starting with selected border districts so that citizens understand various protocols relating to movement of goods and people within regional blocks like Sadc. n