Racism, xenophobia, anti-immigration. Violence against migrants. Hundreds were evicted from their homes. Repatriation flight. No, this is not another xenophobic outburst in South Africa – although it could be, given the government’s attitude towards Zimbabweans and others.
Black migrants in Tunisia have fled their homes to sleep outside embassies or UN buildings. There are state-sponsored witch hunts for African immigrants and those who do not look like Tunisians by President Kais Saïed’s standards – Arabs and Muslims. Tunisians report people from sub-Saharan Africa to the police and tenants are evicted, intimidated and hunted.
Saïed has, in the last two years, fired 57 judges, dissolved the country’s Supreme Judicial Council and signed a presidential decree to take control of the electoral commission. A Constitutional amendment is also on the cards as he calls for a referendum. The process is not transparent and excludes a large part of the population.
Saïed is under pressure from inside and outside. Protests are growing in the poorest areas due to rising prices and unemployment. Debts are mounting, and they are asking for another International Monetary Fund loan. The international community called on him to stop ruling by decree and silence his critics.
Like bullies, they fear losing power to the easiest target: black migrants – as South Africans tend to do when under pressure.
In February, he told the National Security Council in Tunis that there were plans to settle migrants from sub-Saharan Africa in Tunisia. There is no proof.
He promised to use state agencies to remove people who entered his country illegally.
What happened was a scene that South Africans saw, where migrants were arrested and brutally detained, with or without legal documents. South Africans themselves have targeted migrants, sometimes resulting in death.
There was a crackdown on Saïed’s critics. Many in his country were shocked. “It’s an explosion of hatred that we can’t explain.” “This is a racist approach like any campaign in Europe… the presidential campaign aims to create an imaginary enemy for the Tunisian people in order to distract them from their fundamental problems.” “Racist and hateful.”
Saïed has found a scapegoat to torture and threaten. Bullies like him, including those in South Africa, do not create humane solutions. They do not show leadership in balancing national and international obligations, interests, security and economy.
True leaders do not choose the weak. They are involved in solving problems and strengthening countries and continents.