South Africa’s Xenophobic Violence and the Unresolved National Question

South Africa is once again witnessing a surge in xenophobic violence targeting African migrants. Recent attacks have generated widespread fear, with reports of harassment, deaths, injuries, and the destruction of migrant-owned businesses. In response, several embassies, notably those of Ghana and Nigeria have urged their citizens to remain indoors, while diplomatic pressure on Pretoria has intensified.

This is not an isolated episode. Major outbreaks in 2008, 2015, and 2019 followed a similar pattern of violence and displacement. These attacks are often attributed to economic insecurity, high unemployment, and deep social inequality, conditions under which migrants, particularly Black Africans, are perceived as competitors for scarce opportunities. President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the violence and reaffirmed the state’s monopoly over the use of force. Yet such responses have done little to address the deeper drivers of recurring unrest.

Political rhetoric has played a role in shaping public sentiment. Statements by some politicians calling for crackdowns on undocumented migrants have blurred distinctions between legal and illegal residents, effectively legitimising suspicion toward all foreign Africans. Still, inflammatory rhetoric alone cannot account for the intensity of the violence. It amplifies grievances but does not create them.

Expulsions of foreigners by African states are not without precedent. In 1969, under Kofi Abrefa Busia, Ghana’s Alien Compliance Order led to the expulsion of millions of migrants, including Nigerians. In 1983, Nigeria, under Shehu Shagari, deported over two million West African migrants. But these were state-directed policies. South Africa’s xenophobic violence is distinct: it is largely driven from below, by citizens rather than by formal government decree. This bottom-up character makes it both more volatile and harder to contain.

At its core, the violence reflects South Africa’s unresolved “national question.” Since the end of apartheid, the country has grappled with building a unified, non-racial state while addressing entrenched inequalities rooted in its past. The promise was not only political inclusion, but also economic redress and social justice.

That promise remains only partially fulfilled. Persistent unemployment, inadequate service delivery, and stark inequality have fostered widespread frustration. In this environment, an exclusionary form of nationalism has taken hold, one that frames citizenship as a basis for economic entitlement and casts foreigners as illegitimate claimants. Migrants, often among the most vulnerable, become convenient scapegoats for systemic failures.

The rise of this nativist sentiment signals a deeper crisis: the erosion of the inclusive vision that underpinned South Africa’s democratic transition. Xenophobic violence, in this sense, is not merely a law-and-order problem. It is a symptom of a stalled nation-building project.

Unless South Africa addresses the structural roots of inequality and reasserts a genuinely inclusive national identity, such cycles of violence are likely to persist.

Shaibu A. Gariba
https://www.linkedin.com/in/shaibu-gariba/

Email: shaibu.gariba@gmail.com

By Shaibu A. Gariba

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