SOUTH AFRICA: THE TRUTH OF XENOPHOBIA
I don’t normally post often, but after seeing so much hate and prejudice that has hurt my heart and soul, I feel that I should speak out.
I am not sure if you have seen the recent influx of comments about South Africa and it’s increase in xenophobia across the country, but I’d appreciate it if you read this.
Firstly, I want to say shame on all of our citizens who are supporting or contributing to the xenophobia occurring in our country right now. Our people have faced much hardship and suffering, but we cannot allow it to harden our hearts and forget who our real enemy is.
Our citizens are blindsided by our own anger and suffrage at the hands of our government powers, who weaponises it to shift blame onto the immigrants in the country and avoid responsibility for their own corruption and neglect to gain political support.
To be clear, the people doing this are people who have economic power and influence over citizens due to past positions in the government, namely Jacob Zuma and Jacinta Zuma. The current president, Cyril Ramaphosa, and his party have condemned any acts of xenophobia and violence. The government and population majority are not in any support of the xenophobia.
The xenophobic attacks in South Africa are unlawful, unjustifiable and unacceptable. No African should ever bleed on our South African soil just for wanting a better life for themselves.
The fact that there are actually citizens who have so easily been brainwashed into believing that they are criminals, drug users and job stealers is absurd. Look at those words again—tell me, do they look familiar? Are these not the same words that have been said over and over again by supremacists, dictators and tyrants in order to control and manipulate their people? How could we fall for that so easily when we are one of the prime victims of racism and systemic oppression?
I believe that these attacks should be fully addressed and condemned, and that us citizens must make an effort to prevent xenophobia and discrimination against our fellow Africans.
Our crime, unemployment and poverty is not caused by immigrants. It is caused by our corrupt government that has been filling their pockets with our tears for decades. Our economic struggle is caused by lack of maintenance, industrial expansion, infrastructure development, job opportunities and education; all of which have been prevalent for years.
What has been done about it?
We are told that we cannot afford to open more schools, but Cyril can afford to stuff taxpayer’s money into his couch?
We can’t afford more homes and shelters to decrease poverty, but we can spend millions on a public pool that still doesn’t exist?
We can’t afford more homes and shelters to decrease poverty, but we can spend millions on a public pool that still doesn’t exist?
Stop blaming innocent people just because it is easier than fighting against the government. Stop hurting our own citizens and comrades over something as trivial as where they are born and what they look like.
For a country that has 11 different national languages, that prides itself on its racial and cultural diversity, we are not showing much acceptance for people from different soil.
How can we, as the Rainbow Nation, not be able to embrace all of Africa’s races and colours?
Following that notion, I would also like to comment on how citizens from other African countries are seemingly using the actions of a few as an excuse to discriminate and slur against South African people and perpetuate their own racial and xenophobic stereotypes, which have many times proven untrue. I want to highlight that many of these false accusations and stereotypes are not only incredibly misleading, insulting, and ignorant, but can also be incredibly dangerous.
This hate circulating between South Africa and the rest of Africa is, yet again, proof that all African countries hate one another.
It is important not to push the rhetoric that xenophobia is popular amongst South African people. Most citizens do not support these attacks, and condemn the anti-illegal immigration protests. Many people and organisations have protested for the foreigners to stay in South Africa. There are also long-standing laws that not only try to prevent discrimination of foreigners, but also protect them.
Xenophobia-targeted attacks have taken less than 1000 foreigner and citizen lives since the first anti-illegal immigrant protest in 2008. Compare this to the average estimated 25,000–27,000 murders occurring in South Africa per year. People are forgetting that the crime in South Africa has always been significantly high. In fact, South Africa is often discovered to be the most dangerous country in the world, containing 3 of the top 5 most dangerous cities globally. With an average murder rate of 45.2 per 100,000 people, in a population of roughly 60 million, South Africa records more absolute murders per year than the entirety of Europe, North America, and Australia combined, and is 959% higher than the average G20 country rate.
While it is true that the attacks on foreigners and the beliefs I mentioned earlier are built on racism and xenophobia, it is not xenophobic for South Africans to want more secure borders and illegal immigration policies. I don’t support the anti-illegal immigration protests, but I cannot believe how much hate South Africa has received for it when secure borders are considered one of the most fundamental foundations for a secure country.
South Africa is not the United States of America, no matter how much people like to call it the “USA of Africa”. South Africa is a third-world country, and South Africans are very aware of that. People are portraying a false idea that South Africans have forgotten that they are in Africa. It surprises me that people need reminding that many of the problems that African immigrants are fleeing from, also exist in South Africa, just like every other African or third world country.
Here are a few examples of what that would be like:
Unemployment rate of 32%,
15 million taxpayers out of over 60 million civilians, 28 million of which are surviving on grants
10,000 average annual reported rape cases
360,000 – 400,000 estimated annual rape cases
25,000 – 27,000 average murders per year, of which only 10-15% are solved
One of the largest rates of femicide and GBV
Large-scale gang violence and organised crime
Frequent sex and drug trafficking.
This isn’t even including the corruption, inflation, tax, the lack of maintenance, the unequal distribution of land and resources, the stealing of tax money, the inequality and wealth gap between black and white people, and more.
South Africa does not have the skills, resources, and infrastructure needed to support our population. When a struggling nation is stretched in resources, adding more people without growing the resources only stretches it further.
Now, it is true that immigrants are not at all the main contributors to any of these when compared to our South African citizens. This is why many people are against the anti-illegal immigrants protest, as they know that these will all still be prevalent with or without the foreigners. That being said, it does not mean that there aren’t actually many in numbers.
Having un-secured borders can actually heavily increase and grow the criminal activity committed by South African citizens.
Open migration routes stretching across South Africa to many neighbouring countries are frequently used for the sex and drug trafficking mentioned above, as well as human smuggling, organised crime and gang violence, due to its easy accessibility and lack of border security. Meaning that not only can criminal groups of neighbouring countries use it, but also the many criminal groups of our own.
Just like every country, South Africa has laws and regulations in place for the protection of both immigrants and citizens and their country. Asking people to obey these laws is not wrong. Illegal immigrants in South Africa are often exploited; they will be forced to work more hours than allowed, are often abused and mistreated, and are paid less than the minimum wage. When these employers and employees are caught, the employers will get a slap on the wrist and then continue hiring and exploiting illegal immigrants.
Due to the frequent occurrence of this, South Africa has now passed laws and regulations so that the employers will be imprisoned as punishment, furthering their methods to protect immigrants.
The scale of the xenophobic attacks are no where near what it is made out to be. There have been 4 mass protests from 2008 to 2026, with less than 1000 foreigners and citizens killed by targeted attacks. There are many, many African countries with far worse instances of xenophobia and afrophobia, including countries actively selling refugees and immigrants into sex and labour trafficking, modern day slavery of black people, ethnic cleansing, and full-scale genocide. I cannot believe that other African countries are pushing the notion of South Africa being the most xenophobic, hated African country when these crimes are actively being committed.
I am now going to tackle some of this misconceptions and lies that are being said about South Africa:
1. Comparing South Africa to Israel
This might just be one of the most inaccurate, offensive, and absurd comparisons I have ever seen. Not only because of South Africa and Palestine having a long 30+ year alliance, or because of South Africa being one of the biggest advocates against Israel, or because of many African countries that condemned South Africas policies against Israel (some being amongst the biggest allies of Israel as-well), but also because there are several African countries committing mass ethnic cleansing and genocide on multiple forums.
South Africa alliance with Palestine dates all the way back to the 1960-1990s, where the African National Congress (ANC) freedom fighters allied with the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) during apartheid, when the white supremacist government was sitting in ties with Israel.
Once that apartheid regime ended, Nelson Mandela, the first black president of South Africa, declared "We know too well that our freedom is incomplete without the freedom of the Palestinians.", Formally cementing the alliance and stance on the Israeli occupation of Palestinians.
South Africa, alongside Algeria, tried to remove Israel of observer status in the African Union, and urged the union’s 55 member states to end relations with Israel and to introduce a proposal declaring Israel guilty of genocide against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. That proposal was rejected by a coalition of African countries; Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Lesotho, Seychelles, Gabon, and Guinea, and went against other African Israeli supporters: Rwanda, DRC, Zambia, Cameroon, Kenya. Even then, South Africa still continued to try and remove their observer status.
South Africa is the country that took Israel to the UN International Court of Justice on accounts of genocide in 2024. The case has been extended to 2027. South Africa also kicked out Israeli government representatives, recalled diplomats from Tel Aviv and suspended relations with Israel.
Many high-profile South Africans, including Mandla Mandela (Nelson Mandela's grandson), humanitarian ambassador Faizel Moosa, and several journalists and activists, joined the Global Sumud Flotilla to break the Gaza blockade and provide humanitarian aid. They were then intercepted, detained and deported by Israel.
South Africa provides Palestinians 90-day visa-exempt entry, allowing families to enter legally without filing for asylum. They also accepted 153 unannounced Palestinian refugees from Gaza who were seeking refuge, and, by international law, were supposed to go to the nearest country to them. Instead, they travelled across continents to South Africa, who then still admitted them under financial and housing custody.
Why do you think that they came to South Africa instead of America, or their neighbouring Arab countries?
Why do you think they would skip all other African countries to reach South Africa, the most “xenophobic” country in Africa?
It’s because they knew that South Africa would accept and support them.
It’s because of South Africa’s history and reputation of fighting again oppressive systems and racial discrimination, and accepting refugees and immigrants from far and wide.
South Africa is one of the most vocal anti-Israel countries in the world. So please think more carefully before comparing a century-long period of enforced occupation, apartheid, martial law, genocide and tyranny, to 4 attacks that resulted in less than 1000 deaths over a twenty-year time period, especially when South Africa is the one that had to overcome the same apartheid system as the one killing Palestinians.
2. South Africa is the xenophobic capital of Africa
Contrary to this point, South Africa is actually referred to as the “migrant hub” of Southern Africa, with thousands of refugees and millions of migrants—both legal and illegal—living freely and peacefully within its borders. Yes, there are going to be individual instances of xenophobia, however these are not frequent and occur in all countries.
Unlike many refugee-host nations, South Africa has a non-encampment policy—allowing refugees to live freely within local communities, work, and access public healthcare and education.
UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) tracks 167,615 active refugees, and 82,000 asylum seekers primarily from: Democratic of Congo, Somalia and Burundi, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, and South Sudan —with combined refugees and pending asylum seekers measuring to around 250,000 individuals living within its borders
Hosts thousands of humanitarian arrivals from outside of Africa, such as Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Syria.
Total estimate of 2.2 to 2.5 million legal foreign nationals (immigrants) in South Africa, most coming from Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and the UK.
South Africa hosts an estimate of between 2-5 million illegal immigrants, with an estimated 30 000 illegal immigrants entering per month
These refugees and temporary migrant citizens are normally meant to stay for a set few months, however it is common for them to build a new life here, or stay for over 5-10 years, which many South Africans do not mind.
South African citizens run several groups that support and advocate for illegal and legal immigrants, such as Red Cross Charity. These groups are often run by black South Africans who understand the meaning of being a black African in Africa that has been victimised by colonialism and corruption.
South Africa prides itself for being a diverse, loving, and accepting country. These xenophobic attacks do not change that. We cannot be named as the most xenophobic African country after being hospitable and welcoming to millions of immigrants and refugees for several years. It is a slap in the face to all South Africans that have welcomed others into their homes, workforce and communities without ever showing prejudice or discrimination for those people, and is also a slap in the face to the democracy, freedom and diversity that South Africans across all races had fought and died for.
I hope that this has educated more people on the matters occurring in South Africa, and the importance of educating yourselves before believing in everything on social media. I am planning a making another post showing more about what is happening in the rest of Africa.
Please do not let yourself believe these false statements and claims being made by others online, as I assure you, there are far worse atrocities being committed throughout the entirety of Africa.
