Reflecting on xenophobia in South Africa

The violence against foreign Africans has undermined and will continue to undermine the African National Congress’s foreign policy of positioning South Africa as a so-called moral force.

It will undermine South Africa’s influence in Africa as well as in continental and global institutions. It is likely to result in African countries not supporting South Africa as it pushes for reforms to make global trade, institutions and technology transfer fairer to developing countries and will undermine the country’s efforts to push for social justice around the world.

It was reported that several African ambassadors and high commissioners snubbed South Africa’s flagship Africa Day event this week in Moruleng by not attending, in what was seen as a protest against attacks on foreign nationals from African countries.

Demonstrations against migrants, mostly from other African countries, have been building for months after a flare-up late last year when undocumented foreign nationals were blocked from accessing clinics and hospitals. Vigilantes are threatening to remove undocumented migrants by 30 June.

Many progressive South African civil society organisations, Pan-Africanists and activists against rights violations elsewhere have either strongly supported the violence against African migrants or have remained silent.

South Africa has significant trade relations with African countries. South Africa’s trade with the rest of Africa accounts for about 24% of the country’s total global exports. South Africa is central to African continental institutions, such as the African Union and the Pan-African Parliament and to pushing for a pro-African global agenda.

Expanding African trade is key to South Africa’s trade diversification strategy. Rising xenophobia in South Africa will undermine the country’s Africa trade expansion strategy.

Some of the influx into South Africa of migrants from failing African countries has been self-inflicted by the ANC government. In its long-standing foreign policy, the party has supported autocratic African governments misgoverning their countries, forcing citizens to search for food and jobs elsewhere.

Most African countries are still battling the impact of economic crises caused by the Covid pandemic, Russia’s war against Ukraine and now the US and Israel’s war with Iran. The US, under Donald Trump, has introduced high trade tariff barriers, which have undermined African, developing and industrial economies.

The US has cut development aid to African and developing countries.

The governments of most African countries are deeply corrupt, make patronage appointments to the state rather than appointments based on competence and award government contracts through patronage-based empowerment approaches. 

Many adopt ideological, populist or nonsensical policies that have failed elsewhere, resulting in economic decline, state failure and political instability. Instead of deepening democracy, strengthening good governance, tackling corruption and introducing merit, many failed African governments cling to power.

A third of African countries are run by coup leaders who promise democracy, resource empowerment for ordinary citizens in the public and private sectors and transformation. 

However, these promises have largely benefited the connected. 

Another third of African countries are run badly by long-ruling autocratic liberation and independence movements or family dynasties. These autocratic regimes violently crush all domestic opposition. Many ordinary African citizens, fighting for survival under these regimes, often have no choice but to search for livelihoods elsewhere.

With many African economies in dire circumstances, run autocratically, corruptly and incompetently, with hungry citizens blocked from seeking refuge in the US or developed countries, South Africa and neighbouring African countries perceived to be relatively economically stable and better governed become alternative options for many Africans oppressed by their governments.

The US and many developed countries have in recent times tightened their borders to block migrants from Africa and developing countries from entering their shores.

South Africa’s economy is also facing multiple crises, state and infrastructure failures and the collapse of the rule of law because of corruption, incompetence and anti-business, populist, ideological and patronage-based ANC policies.

The collapse of the rule of law in South Africa has allowed shadow informal groups, whether gangsters, minibus taxi operators or construction mafias, to dominate key sectors of the economy.

As the ANC declines, many breakaway parties from the ANC and new extra-parliamentary groups, are weaponising the foreign African migrant issue as a route into politics, in similar ways to how populist politicians exploit South Africa’s apartheid past, racial divisions and apartheid legacy of poverty and lack of opportunities to secure votes.

South Africa’s border management, like home affairs and the rest of the public service, has been plagued by incompetence, inefficiency and corruption because of cadre deployment, cadre-based BEE and the failure to hold officials accountable because they are linked to the ANC or ANC-aligned trade unions. Nonsensical policies have also undermined the capacity of the border management public service.

Infrastructure supporting border management — roads, digital technology and logistics — has also been neglected, in the same way as other state infrastructure. The state and security agencies delivering many border management services have also been decimated by cadre deployment, BEE and corruption.

If all Africans from other African countries left South Africa, jobs for locals would not automatically appear, public services would not suddenly become more effective, the housing needs of the homeless and those in informal settlements would not immediately be relieved and crime would not be eradicated unless the real causes are addressed with the political will that has so far been lacking.

What should be done? Corruption in the border management public service, SOEs and security services needs to be tackled. There must be merit-based appointments. Employees in the sector have to be held accountable, regardless of their connections to the ANC. 

Civil society organisations will have to play a stronger oversight role to ensure that the border management public service, SOEs and security services are honest, deliver efficient services and make personnel and contract appointments based on merit.

The national government must also end ideological, anti-growth and anti-business policies that collapse businesses and cause unemployment. It must genuinely tackle corruption, introduce merit-based appointments and reform state BEE contracts.

World-competitive public education, including STEM education and industry-relevant subjects such as accounting, economics and entrepreneurship, as well as service competence and broad reading and thinking skills, must be at the centre of education policy. This means there cannot be a 30% pass mark or mathematics literacy.

South Africa cannot continue with a school system in which close to 500 schools do not offer mathematics, more than 2 000 schools do not offer economics and more than 900 schools do not offer physical science. Vocational education, technical colleges and artisan training must be dramatically expanded. Appointments to vocational, technical and higher education institutions cannot be based on cadre deployment, nor should procurement be based on cadre-BEE, as is currently the case. 

Businesses have to be closely involved in providing and guiding technical and vocational education, rather than politicians or state officials who have never worked in the real economy.

South Africa’s foreign policy must be changed immediately so that it no longer supports autocratic African governments that suppress their citizens while destroying their states and economies, forcing hungry citizens to flee to South Africa and other countries. 

South Africa’s foreign policy must instead push for democratisation in other African countries and for prudent economic policies. South Africa must make its trade policies more pragmatic rather than ideological or based on past liberation struggle relations, diversify its trade, and ensure the country is not captured by one country, whether China or the US.

Citizens must hold their leaders and parties accountable for supporting autocratic governments in Africa, as this will continue to destroy African economies and force hard-pressed citizens in these countries to seek refuge in South Africa.

Voters must oppose cadre deployment as a policy through which politically connected ANC cadres are repeatedly appointed to different state departments, SOEs and agencies based on political connections rather than skills, recycling failure repeatedly.

Voters must also oppose BEE policies that enrich politicians, civil servants and trade unionists. Only BEE policies that build small businesses, foster technical and vocational skills, create artisan training, deepen STEM school education, strengthen industry-relevant economic, accounting and service skills and build public housing and infrastructure should be supported.

Most importantly, ordinary black South Africans will only secure a better life if voters stop supporting people who have never worked outside politics or the state and stop supporting leaders who are corrupt, incompetent, unruly or violent.

Black voters will have to make the psychological transition to voting for leaders and parties based on competence rather than colour, ethnicity or liberation struggle credentials. 

Voters must also stop supporting leaders based on their struggle-song singing ability or ‘revolutionary’ slogan shouting.  They must stop supporting leaders who are violent, who call for ‘revolution’ and who blame all South Africa’s problems on apartheid, colonialism, ‘white monopoly capital’, the World Economic Forum, a global Western conspiracy or communities and groups that are different from them, or who weaponise South Africa’s historical ethnic and racial divisions.

The danger is that, after blaming all South Africa’s problems on foreign Africans while continuing to ignore the real reasons for both South Africa’s problems and the presence of undocumented foreigners in the country, many people may then move on to blame groups in South Africa that are racially or ethnically different from them for the country’s ongoing problems.

William Gumede is an associate professor at the School of Governance, University of the Witwatersrand and author of South Africa in BRICS (Tafelberg).

This is an edited extract of his presentation prepared for the Africa Day roundtable discussion, ‘Africa Reimagined: Sovereignty, Governance, Youth and the Continent’s Future’, hosted by the SABC’s SAFM.