It is also true that undocumented migration can create space for criminal activity. But we have to be honest: immigrants are not the main drivers of crime in this country. Data from the department of Correctional Services shows that foreign nationals make up around 11% to 14% of inmates, while South Africans make up the majority. So the idea that crime is mainly caused by immigrants is simply not true
The imperative is not merely to condemn xenophobia but to render it obsolete
There is something deeply dishonest about how few South Africans discuss immigration. They have become comfortable with moral grandstanding while communities collapse under the pressure of uncontrolled migration, criminal syndicates, collapsing infrastructure, drug networks and economic exclusion. The ordinary South African who raises these realities is quickly condemned before they are even heard
Berita’s Workers’ Day performance becomes a powerful meditation on migration, memory and xenophobia in a nation built through labour, movement and forgotten solidarities
The Communists don’t feature as a force of any kind in opinion polls and when it has tried its luck in local by-elections it has been routed, at times struggling to get even a handful of votes. All indications are that it will have zero impact in the local elections
Xenophobia offers a simple but misleading explanation for a complex crisis. It reframes mass unemployment, failing public services and weak governance as a question of belonging
Female migrants cite barriers to accessing local healthcare facilities
The judgment complements a November ruling meant to stop groups such as Operation Dudula from blocking foreign nationals from entering government hospitals and clinics and denying their constitutional right to healthcare
The hostility directed at migrants often stems from ignorance of civic rights and scapegoating by politicians wanting to deflect blame from their ineptitude
Politicians all over the world are deflecting people’s anger and resentment at their failings onto a convenient scapegoat
The artist’s latest exhibition, spanning 40 years, celebrates ‘the victory of memory over forgetting’
Xenophobia is festering across the world. In South Africa it carries a dangerous legitimacy, cloaked in the language of liberation, and now embodied in open fascism of Operation Dudula
South Africans are suffering from self-imposed apartheid-like systems and views – having to prove their rights by carrying IDs (similar to the dompas system) and being judged by the colour of their skin (too dark) and language
But there is hope. Poor South Africans, the very people Operation Dudula claims to represent, are standing against this form of hatred and extreme violence
Revolutions are seeded not just in hunger, but in the fear of decline, particularly among those who thought they had escaped it
The Human Rights Commission and legal experts say the Constitution, the National Health Act, the UN Refugee Convention and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights obligate South Africa to provide basic healthcare to all people in its borders
Talk to people to understand why they fled their home county and the difficulties they face in South Africa
State disinvestment in public services, infrastructure and manufacturing ensured that millions would remain trapped in cycles of poverty, with or without immigration
History and data shows people from Zimbabwe, who are not asking for handouts, have given a great deal to South Africa
Xenophobic attacks remind us of what happens when the government fails to deal with citizens’ needs.
Racist posts can go viral in seconds, showing the world that South Africa’s divisions are not history, and reminding us that we still have work to do
The battle against this manipulation is collective, requiring unified action from all who seek to preserve democracy and human rights
This excerpt is from the recently published book, The Black Atlantic’s Triple Burden: Slavery, Colonialism and Reparations (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2024)
In the fight are Patrick Soon-Shiong and Jeff Bizos, who put pressure on the editors of the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post, X’s Elon Musk and Silicon Valley’s Peter Thiel
South Africa stands out as a country that strongly defends democracy
The toxic xenophobic politics pushed by Gayton McKenzie and the Patriotic Alliance debases us all
The X-word gets trotted out like a beauty pageant contestant to dismiss legitimate border control issues
Populist parties have made considerable gains in the wake of the government’s insecurity-inducing economic policies
Unlike ANC governments, we must practise consistent, inclusive solidarity and internationalism
The former president pointed to several inconsistencies in the paper, and called for it to be improved
The country shows that, despite socio-economic problems, a society can be tolerant of migrants — and the attitude of leaders has a lot to do with it
Ethiopia’s public attitudes should be blueprints for other African countries