South Africa is yet again grappling with a ghost of xenophobia. Xenophobia, an irrational fear, hatred, or deep-seated prejudice toward people perceived as foreigners or strangers, has been a defining feature of South African immigration discourse since the defeat of apartheid in 1994.
In April and May this year, violent protests organised by a vigilante group of African dissent called March and March were carried out in Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban forcing hundreds of foreign nationals to flee their homes. March and March gained notoriety in early 2026 amid rising anti-migrant tensions, this movement was founded in March 2024 by a former radio personality Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and draws a majority of its membership from the South African Zulu tribe. They are known for their peculiar dressing with leaders and participants wearing traditional elements like isidwaba (leather skirts), animal skins, and beaded accessories, which are used to signify cultural identity and sticks (such as knobkerries and induku) in hand, chanting “Mabahambe” – a Zulu phrase meaning “They must go”.
Despite the fact that South Africa is a country whose history has been shaped by decades of racial oppression, exclusion, and displacement of the Black majority during the apartheid. One might expect their lived experience would inform the nation’s approach to vulnerable and marginalised groups. Instead, African immigrants have increasingly become targets of hostility and violence. This reality stands in stark contrast to the vision of a democratic South Africa championed by Nelson Mandela and other liberation leaders, who imagined a society founded on human dignity, equality, and solidarity rather than exclusion.
To South African citizens and immigrants, xenophobic violence is not a new phenomenon. Since the mid-1990s, xenophobia and xenophobic violence against migrants have been deeply entrenched phenomena in South Africa, with each re-emergence leaving not only social tension but also a trail of destruction of both lives and livelihoods, fragmented societies, frustrated efforts of African integration,
and true globalisation.
South Africa is home to about 2.4 million migrants, just less than 4% of the population. A majority drawn from neighbouring Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Most of them live in major urban centres and townships, particularly in Gauteng (Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Diepsloot), the Western Cape (Cape Town and Kleinmond), KwaZulu-Natal (Durban), and parts of the Eastern Cape which has been hotspots for xenophobic violence. African migrants are the primary targets of these attacks, with foreign-owned businesses frequently looted and communities forcibly displaced. In recent incidents, five Ethiopians and five Mozambicans have reportedly been killed in attacks, demonstrating the human cost of a phenomenon that continues to threaten social cohesion and regional integration.
Globalisation and Africa
The idea of globalisation was popularised in modern economic discourse as a promise of interconnected prosperity, where markets, people, and opportunities would flow more freely across borders. It promised to transform the world into a “global village,” where national boundaries would become less significant and economic opportunity would no longer be confined by geography. Immigration was presented not as a threat but as a natural consequence of a more integrated global economy, enabling individuals to pursue livelihoods wherever opportunities existed.
To a significant extent, globalisation has delivered important benefits, including increased trade, foreign investment, technological exchange, migration, and new opportunities for entrepreneurship. However, across much of the world, increasingly porous economic borders have been accompanied by hardened social and political attitudes toward immigration. Unemployment, rising living costs, and economic insecurity have increasingly been blamed on immigrants. The dominant view has been that immigrants take jobs, depress wages, and strain public services and not just participants in a shared global economy.
South Africa illustrates this contradiction with particular clarity. Despite the South Africa occupying a central position in the regional economy attracting immigrant from across the continent; xenophobic sentiments against immigrants have continually emerged in several incidents across the country, targeting African foreign nationals, mostly from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Nigeria, Somalia, and Ethiopia, mostly operating small-scale businesses, such as neighborhood “spaza shops” and street vending. This is not as an isolated cultural issue but as a political and economic response: a knee-jerk reaction to the broken promises of globalisation; a promise that globalisation is the ultimate pathway to economic prosperity and openness. This is a manifestation of a broader contradiction within globalisation itself. The promise of cross-border opportunity has collided with rising economic insecurity and anti-immigration sentiment, leaving migrants to bear the burden of frustrations that originate in deeper structural and political
The promise of fair jobs and inclusion for all has not materialised for many. Instead of fulfilling the vision of a global village, globalisation has produced a world in which borders remain selectively open: open for goods and capital, yet increasingly closed in the public imagination to the very people it encourages to move. Migrants from across the African continent have borne the brunt of the challenges, frequently being scapegoated for the host country’s economic, social and cultural failure.
Scapegoating income division
The simmering anger of a disenfranchised majority has since 1998 found an outlet in xenophobic violence across the country, often in periods of heightened unemployment and economic distress. This anger is set to rise with the advancement of technology and an increase in hate speech and anti-immigrant sentiment, which has found a larger audience and an ease in vigilante mobilisation and logistics via social media. Surveys and research have established an ever-increasing immigrant hostility, with a 12% increase between 2021 and 2025 from 30% to 42% as a proportion of the South African public who stated they would welcome “no immigrants.”
Proponents of the xenophobic vigilante group Operation Dudula, which is Zulu for ‘force out’, argue that migrants exacerbate South Africa’s high unemployment rate by “stealing jobs”, strain overburdened public services, and commit crimes and drug trafficking – claims which contradict multiple economic studies and policy analyses.
Research and empirical evidence carried out have established that such claims are largely false and can only have detrimental consequences for South Africa’s economy and people. Evidence suggests that immigrants contribute about 9% of the country’s GDP and boost employment,. However, these findings were dismissed by Operation Dudula.
Despite this, perception often outweighs evidence. Immigrants have become symbols of economic frustration rather than its underlying cause. The result is a cycle where structural problems are simplified into visible targets.
Afrophobia
The scapegoating of immigrants for structural crisis is not a phenomenon unique to South Africa. This phenomenon has been witnessed in the USA, Britain, France, and Norway. However, this phenomenon is profound in Africa, given that the continent has long prided itself on Pan-Africanism and integration.
Pan-Africanism is an ideology that, at its core, is the belief that African people, both on the continent and around the globe, share a common history, destiny, and struggle against oppression. Pan-Africanism has been a basis of African solidarity. This is compounded by the fact that South Africa has been the biggest beneficiary of pan africanism. During the anti-apartheid struggle, Pan-African solidarity was a lifeline. Neighboring African states and the broader continent from Tanzania to Nigeria and Algeria served as the true talisman for South Africa’s liberation. They hosted exiles, provided bases for armed movements like Umkhonto we Sizwe, and consistently used international platforms to champion the anti-apartheid cause.
In turn South Africa helped transform the Organization of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU), pushed for economic integration, and became the anchor for the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD). With the fall of apartheid, South Africa stepped onto the continental stage with immense promise. Former President Thabo Mbeki heavily championed the concept of African Renaissance, advocating for “African solutions to African problems.”
However, recent waves of xenophobic violence and anti-immigrant sentiment have exposed a troubling contradiction between South Africa’s Pan-African aspirations and domestic realities. Periodic attacks on migrants from other African countries have strained diplomatic relations, challenged the ideals of African solidarity, and raised concerns about the country’s commitment to regional integration.
Contemporary hostility toward African migrants presents a striking contradiction to these Pan-African ideals. Increasingly, researchers and commentators describe this phenomenon as Afrophobia, a form of racism, prejudice, and discrimination directed at Black people, Indigenous Africans, and individuals of African descent. Beyond the human cost, Afrophobia threatens to undermine decades of efforts toward African unity and integration, including initiatives such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), which depend on the free movement of people, goods, and capital. If left unchecked, it risks eroding trust between African states and weakening the spirit of solidarity that once united the continent in common struggles for liberation and self-determination. .
The Role of South African Government
The state bears the primary responsibility of protecting those within its territory and creating conditions for economic and social advancement. The social contract theory as propounded by English philosopher Thomas Hobbes provides that citizens agree to surrender their natural rights to a sovereign authority in exchange for security and order. The existence of the government is therefore to protect and champion the interests of the political community as a whole. In the context of immigration, this requires governments to safeguard the interests of citizens by regulating immigration and using laws to balance competing interests and promote social welfare. And also ensuring that migrants and foreign nationals are protected from violence, discrimination, and exploitation.
South Africa’s recurring episodes of xenophobic violence is indicative of the government’s considerable failure to not only safeguard citizens’ interests and expand economic opportunities but also ensure that migrants and foreign nationals are protected from violence and discrimination. After the fall of apartheid, South Africa became a hub for immigrant workers owing to its new found political stability and economic opportunities. However, challenges in migration management, coupled with restrictive immigration policies and persistent socio-economic inequalities, have complicated efforts to integrate immigrants into society. The outcome of which has been an uncontrollable surge of undocumented immigrants and heightened competition over jobs, housing, and public services, creating conditions in which foreign nationals are frequently scapegoated for broader structural problems.
Ultimately, the state’s failure lies not in the presence of migration itself, but in its inability to effectively manage migration, address socio-economic grievances, and prevent xenophobic violence from recurring. While the government has repeatedly condemned xenophobic attacks, it has often been criticized for failing to address the underlying drivers of anti-immigrant sentiment, including unemployment, poverty, inequality, and weaknesses in migration management.
Conclusion
At its core, this raises a fundamental question: if globalisation promised a world in which borders would become increasingly irrelevant and opportunities would transcend national boundaries, why has migration become one of the most contested issues of our time?
Ultimately, xenophobia in South Africa cannot be understood in isolation. It is a symptom of deeper structural failures in economic distribution, governance, and global inequalities. Addressing it therefore requires more than law enforcement, vigilantism or short-term crisis management. It demands policies that ensure more inclusive economic participation, stronger protection for migrant workers and informal traders, and regional cooperation under frameworks such as the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) that make integration meaningful in practice, not just in principle. It also requires political leadership that responds to public frustration with structural reforms.
Until these underlying issues are addressed, the cycle of resentment and scapegoating is likely to persist, threatening not only social cohesion within South Africa but also the broader vision of African unity.
This article is republished from The Secularist under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Winston Churchill is a Kenyan writer and researcher with a strong interest in governance, human rights, law, and public policy. His work explores social, political, and cultural issues through research-driven analysis and commentary. He is passionate about promoting public engagement on issues affecting society, particularly youth, justice, and civic freedoms.
