JC: 🎶 [conducts imaginary orchestra, singing] 🎵

“Some- where, over the bor- der

MO: I think you mean ‘Rainbow’. 🌈

JC: Not any more. We were that nation … but it is a long time since Joe Mafela and Strike Vilakazi could celebrate “Okongo Mame”. These days, there are far too many kalangas everywhere one looks, and locals are starting to resent them sharing our air.

MO: I witness that. It is uncomfortable.

JC: I was treated by Nigerian doctors in Helen Joseph Hospital. This is not aimed at that kind of work. Everybody knows we need qualified people.

MO: How did it get to this?

JC: The finger of suspicion points at immigration officials!

MO: Must be. But, I sit and think “I know so and so, a Congolese guy, and it is unthinkable asking him to return to his home country. He has been here for years, and is one of us.”

JC: I have just such friends. On the other hand, I was an illegal immigrant in England for nearly four years, and could not get to stay there even though my grandfather was born there. So, I am the wrong guy to come to for sympathy.

MO: Very puzzling.

JC: Not really, it is two things. One, a class thing. Nobody wants working class people - Brits did not like West Indians, but did not want to drive buses and tubes, and the Carribeans slipped in and took those over. And two, we are at tipping point.
No matter how decent and hard working they may be, or whether we want to do that sort of work, the perception is that there are too many ‘Over The Borders’ around.
Would South Africans work in gardens for a decent wage? Of course! Every town council has groundsmen and gardeners. It is just that the average householder can’t or won’t afford that wage level, and foreigners have slipped in. Effectively, no pun intended, they are blacklegs. Is that a better word than ‘scab’?

MO: How will the householders in leafy suburbs do without gardeners? Where will people shop without spazas?

JC: They will make a plan. Afrikaners made the farmer co-ops. Our people will learn bulk buying. They will group and mechanise, too. I will be writing soon about an Aussie guy named Merv, a gardener, still working at 91 years old.

MO: Do you know any Malawians?

JC: As delivery bike guys and gardeners only. I feel for them. Malawi is not hopeful. Zim has loads of minerals and fertility, but Malawi has nothing much to sell. We can tell Zim guys to fix their country, but Malawi is another question. This guy is back in Zim staring down his future and he does not sound upbeat.

MO: You wrote about this somewhere, didn’t you?

JC: Yes, on my own blog.