President Cyril Ramaphosa went on national television this week to tell South Africa and the world that South Africans are not xenophobic. But the numbers from the Human Sciences Research Council tell a different story. The share of South Africans willing to welcome all immigrants has dropped from 26% to 15% in four years. The bloc that wants no immigrants at all has grown from 30% to 42%. That is the highest hostility recorded since the survey began in 2003.
So which is it?
On this week’s Sharp Sharp, Rob Rose and Zukile Majova are joined by Patrick Smith from Africa Confidential to answer that question properly. Zuks has a story that cuts through the noise. In his village in Mthatha in the Eastern Cape an Ethiopian shopkeeper has lived inside a South African homestead for decades. Not in a shop. Inside someone’s home, protected by community norms, because that is how things actually work on the ground. When someone tried to attack that shop it was reported to the induna as an attack on a villager’s property. That is not xenophobia.
The real story, Rob and Zuks argue, is a decade of state failure. Porous borders, broken promises, 500 million rand meant for local spaza shop owners that disappeared, and politicians from the ANC to ActionSA using immigrants as a scapegoat in an election year. Ramaphosa’s speech was strong on authority but weak on accountability. He validated the marchers’ grievances while claiming South Africans are not xenophobic. He cannot do both.
Patrick widens the lens to the continent and the world. Nigeria expelled three million West Africans in 1983. Ghana kicked out half a million Nigerians in 1969. From Texas to Middlesborough this is a global moment of ethno-nationalism being weaponised by governments everywhere. South Africa is not an exception. It is part of a pattern.
They close with the World Cup. Bafana play Mexico tonight. Zuks wants a 2-1 win. In 2010 when Bafana were knocked out South Africans all supported Ghana. Then Luis Suarez knocked Ghana out. Now Ghana is being repatriated from South Africa. That is the episode in one sentence.
Listen now on Spotify and Apple Podcasts.
