Sickening xenophobic violence in S’Africa

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IN a toxic cocktail of ignorance, economic frustration and political manipulation, xenophobic violence has once again erupted in South Africa.

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Since late April, mobs led by anti-migrant groups such as Operation Dudula have intensified attacks on foreigners, especially fellow Black Africans, in Johannesburg, Pretoria and other communities.

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Shops owned by migrants have been looted, buildings torched, vehicles destroyed, and terrified Africans hunted like criminals in the streets.

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The scenes are disgraceful. Worse, they are tragically familiar.

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Foreign nationals are reportedly being forced to produce identification documents at schools, hospitals and business premises as if apartheid’s ghost has returned wearing a different mask.

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Several people, including two Nigerians, have reportedly been killed. In April, protesters in KuGompo City allegedly burnt properties linked to foreigners over claims that the Igbo community crowned an Igbo king, Solomon Eziko, in the Eastern Cape Province. Such paranoia reveals a frightening descent into ethnic hysteria and manufactured hatred.

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This barbarity is not patriotism. It is economic illiteracy weaponised by desperation and inflamed by opportunistic politics.

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For years, unemployed and disillusioned South African youths have been fed the poisonous narrative that foreigners are responsible for unemployment, crime and hardship.

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Instead of confronting the structural failures of governance, poor education, weak economic inclusion, corruption and collapsing public services, migrants have become convenient scapegoats.

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Politicians who should provide solutions often exploit these sentiments for electoral gain or to distract from their failures.

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But foreigners did not break South Africa.

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Most African migrants there are not criminals or parasites. Many are entrepreneurs, skilled workers and business owners creating jobs and contributing to the economy.

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Nigerians, Somalis, Ethiopians, Zimbabweans, Congolese and others have built businesses, paid taxes and strengthened local commerce. They are filling economic gaps, not stealing a country.

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South Africa’s real enemy is not the migrant trader struggling to survive in Johannesburg. It is the failure of leadership to create enough opportunities for millions of frustrated young people abandoned by the post-apartheid promise.

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The irony is painful. A country once rescued by continental solidarity is now turning violently against the very continent that stood by it during apartheid.

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Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania and many frontline African states sacrificed immensely for South Africa’s liberation.

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Nigeria committed enormous financial resources to the anti-apartheid struggle. Nigerian workers and students contributed millions of dollars to the cause.

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South African freedom fighters found refuge across Africa. Former President Thabo Mbeki and many exiles lived and studied in Nigeria. Nelson Mandela himself benefited from African solidarity, hiding for months in Nigeria, during the liberation struggle.

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Today, many young South Africans appear frighteningly disconnected from that history.

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Yet retaliatory rage across Africa will solve nothing. Calls to target South African businesses operating in Nigeria are emotional but misguided.

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Nigeria has travelled this road before. In 2019, angry youths vandalised the facilities of companies linked to South Africa following similar xenophobic attacks. The diplomatic fallout was severe, but nothing fundamentally changed.

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Besides, the economics are more complicated than populist outrage suggests. MultiChoice is now controlled by the French media conglomerate Canal+. MTN, meanwhile, has deep Nigerian ownership and a major footprint in the Nigerian economy through the Nigerian Exchange. Destroying businesses that employ Nigerians and support economic activity would amount to self-inflicted damage.

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Africa cannot build prosperity by attacking itself.

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The continent is standing at a historic crossroads with the African Continental Free Trade Area, the world’s largest free trade zone by participating countries.

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The AfCFTA was designed to break colonial economic barriers, deepen intra-African trade, encourage labour mobility and create a more integrated African market capable of competing globally.

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But AfCFTA cannot succeed in an atmosphere where Africans are hunted in African streets simply because of their nationality.

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Europe learned this lesson decades ago. After centuries of war, bloodshed and destructive nationalism, European countries chose integration over isolation.

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The European Union embraced freer movement of people, goods and services because cooperation creates shared prosperity. A Polish worker in Germany or a French entrepreneur in Spain is not automatically treated as an invader. Europe understood that economic integration expands opportunities instead of shrinking them.

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Africa must embrace the same vision.

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A continent fragmented by xenophobia, narrow nationalism and border hostility cannot compete in a global economy driven by regional blocs, strategic alliances and integrated markets.

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Africans must stop seeing one another as threats and begin seeing themselves as partners in development.

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Nigerian traders in South Africa, Ghanaian professionals in Rwanda, Kenyan bankers in Lagos or South African investors in Zambia are not enemies of Africa; they are evidence of a continent trying to connect economically.

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What Africa needs is more openness, not more walls.

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The AU has been disappointingly weak and reactive on issues that strike at the heart of African unity.

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Xenophobic violence should not merely attract routine statements of concern. The AU must establish stronger continental mechanisms for protecting African migrants, resolving interstate tensions and promoting economic integration. Silence and bureaucracy cannot substitute for leadership.

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The South African authorities need to act decisively. Those responsible for these attacks must be arrested and prosecuted.

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President Cyril Ramaphosa has condemned the violence, while Julius Malema rightly described the attacks as “self-hatred” and “a sickness.” But South Africa’s political establishment must go beyond rhetoric. Hate campaigns disguised as activism should not be tolerated in a constitutional democracy.

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Nigeria must also look inward. Part of the tragedy is that worsening economic hardship and insecurity at home are pushing more Nigerians to seek survival elsewhere.

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A country that once commanded enormous continental respect now struggles to protect its citizens abroad because its own economic and diplomatic influence has weakened. Nigerian leaders must rebuild the economy, create jobs and restore the country’s credibility in Africa.

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The Federal Government needs a far more coherent foreign policy response. Nigeria’s diplomatic missions must become proactive centres of engagement and protection, not sleepy outposts reacting after disasters occur.

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Nigerians stranded or traumatised by xenophobic violence deserve state-backed evacuation and support, not bureaucratic indifference.

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Ultimately, migration is not a crime. Human beings have always moved in search of safety, opportunity and dignity. South Africans themselves live and thrive across Africa and the wider world.

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No nation can isolate itself from global mobility while expecting economic growth and international relevance.

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The world is moving toward integration, cooperation and interconnected markets. Africa cannot afford to move backwards into tribal fear, economic isolation and self-destruction.

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If Africans continue attacking fellow Africans, the continent will keep sabotaging its own future. But if it chooses cooperation over hatred, integration over division and shared prosperity over narrow nationalism, Africa can finally begin to realise its immense potential.

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The choice is urgent. And the world is watching.

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