Chapter 7: Discourse, Zimbabwean Migrants in South Africa and the Politics of Viscerality: The Case of the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP)

If anything characterises the contemporary world, it is the question of the border and the figure of the migrant both of which have become subjects of contentious debate around the world. In recent years, the border and the migrants have become political tools in the hands of those seeking political office and sites of all kinds of violence. In the United Kingdom, for example, the Brexit vote of 2016 was driven mainly by the question of how to regain control of the border. Following the migration crisis of 2015/2016, the whole of Europe has been confronted with the question of how to keep unwanted ‘others’ outside the borders of the European Union. Migrants to the United States and Europe have also been met with high walls, detention centres, camps, and waiting zones. The neoliberal idea of the nation-state as a closed space that belongs to some (citizens) and not to others (non-citizens) is, however, not only limited to Europe and America. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa has witnessed a steady increase in the number of African migrants flocking into the country from different parts of the continent, resulting in violent tension between migrants and citizens. This chapter deploys Achille Mbembe’s ideas on the border and the politics of viscerality to analyse migration discourses in contemporary South Africa, with a particular focus on Zimbabwean migrants and the controversial Zimbabwe Exemption Permit. We explore how South Africans perceive Zimbabwean migrants and migration in the context of debates about whether the Department of Home Affairs should terminate or extend the Zimbabwe Exemption Permit (ZEP) which allowed Zimbabwean migrants to live and work in South Africa. We examine how the anger, frustration, and disappointment associated with contemporary South Africa influence the ways in which South Africans perceive Zimbabwean migrants. We argue that Zimbabwean migrants have become scapegoats in South Africa not only because they are perceived as responsible for aggravating black pain but also because they are seen as outsiders who can never understand the pain and suffering that South Africans are experiencing.