Trevor Noah Slams South African Xenophobic Attacks On Foreign Nationals

South African comedian and television host, Trevor Noah has a sharp message to his fellow South Africans who are on a violent rampage against their fellow black African immigrants.

During an episode of his show on Comedy Central, Trevor Noah criticized the wave of violent outbreak against foreign nationals across the country.

“Your anger and outrage is misplaced. African immigrants don’t own lands, don’t run companies, don’t own mining companies, don’t operate trophy hunting companies, do not ship out capital to European banks,” Noah said.

The talk show host pointed out that there are about 2.3 million immigrants living in South Africa.

A majority of these include Africans, Chinese, Bangladeshi, Indians, middle easterners, and Europeans who are not born in SA.

He said out of this number, only 1.6 million are Africans.

He was quick to add that the 1.6 million Africans mostly run small shops, vending, service industries, etc. or hold small to mid-management level jobs and that these may lay claim to less than 0.00001% of the wealth in South Africa.

On the other hand, Noah argued, white people in South Africa make up about 8.7% of the population and control over 85% of the wealth.

Although there are increases in black CEOs and managers, these are mere servants and just there as optical presentations.

Noah pointed out that there are about 6,000 Europeans families who own over 85% of agricultural lands in South Africa.

“So, when I hear South Africans claiming that other Africans are competing with them on dwindling/scarce resources, I say that your anger and outrage is misplaced.

“I don’t see fellow Africans as a competitor but a fellow compatriot who is struggling to feed his family and have some comfort in this short lifetime.

“If you feel undeserved in wealth distribution, please research again who controls that wealth and it has nothing to do with some Nigerian, Zimbabwean or Mozambican working in a restaurant or an Ethiopian running a small shop, or a Ghanaian mechanic working hard in the sun,” Noah said.

In 2017, Amnesty International issued a press release that pointed to the laxity in the South African security authorities in dealing with these outbreaks that can be traced to 2008.

There are incidences of immigrants being stabbed and set ablaze by angry mobs of South Africans.

The international human rights watchdog, while monitoring the situation tasked the SA authorities to the appropriate action to ensure the protection of all immigrants.

Courtesy: First News