[Reuters] Munera Mokgoko was just three when apartheid fell. She can barely remember, much less fathom, the swell of hope that accompanied Black liberation three decades ago, shaped by Nelson Mandela’s vision of social equality and pan-African solidarity.
See: "Hutu and Tutsi solidarity"
"South Africa doesn’t have any ubuntu," the 33-year-old said, using a Zulu word meaning humanity, ahead of an election in which the ruling African National Congress (ANC) is pledging to crack down on undocumented migrants from the rest of the continent.
"It’s like we don’t know how to welcome people."
Mokgoko’s Tanzanian husband is among many African migrants who have flocked here since the end of white minority rule and met with the colder side of the "Rainbow Nation", a name used by Mandela and others in the 1990s to describe South Africa’s aspirations to be a beacon of multicultural harmony.
Public resentment at immigration has become a hot issue in the run-up to the May 29 vote. It’s the first national election in which most people in South Africa — which has a median age of about 28 — have no memory of decades of apartheid, the fight for freedom or the ANC liberation movement’s rise to power in 1994.
Idi Rajebo, Mokgoko’s 34-year-old husband, and thousands of other hopefuls fleeing rural penury in much poorer nations like Tanzania and Malawi have packed themselves into decrepit minibuses, footslogged through bush and bribed border guards to reach Johannesburg, the "City of Gold".
He and dozens of others ended up crammed into a derelict apartment tower that was being taken over — or "hijacked" — by criminals, where toilets overflowed and drug addicts drooped over stairwells.
"It wasn’t nice," said Isaac Simon, 39, a Tanzanian friend of Rajebo’s who ran a kitchen on the ground floor.
"We all had the same idea: make some money and get out."
Dozens didn’t get the chance. Nine months ago, the Usindiso apartment block burst into flames, killing 77 people — mostly migrants — and leaving hundreds homeless.
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