- 1 week ago
On this week's DW News Africa, we explore the rise of South Africa's anti-immigrant movement. As thousands of foreign nationals are forced from their homes, we examine what's driving growing xenophobic sentiment, who stands to benefit from it, and the impact it is having on migrant communities across the country.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:05This is DW News Africa.
00:07Coming up, what's driving South Africa's growing xenophobia?
00:11Tens of thousands of foreign nationals have been driven out of the country since May
00:15as a populist anti-immigrant wave sweeps across the country.
00:19The civic group behind the campaign, March and March,
00:22shows no signs of stopping their June 30th deadline
00:25for immigrants in South Africa illegally to leave has come and passed.
00:30Now they've declared a new cutoff, September 30th.
00:33Today we're asking what is really behind this anti-immigrant movement
00:37and who is profiting from it?
00:52I'm Krissi Mundua. Welcome.
00:54You may have seen reports of foreign nationals being attacked and forced from their homes
00:59and businesses in South Africa.
01:01Anti-immigrant activists blame people from other African countries for crime and unemployment.
01:07And they have popular support.
01:09This isn't new.
01:11I was living in South Africa in 2008, the most horrific period of this violence,
01:15when 60 people were killed in xenophobic attacks in the country's townships.
01:20The violence has occasionally flared up since then.
01:23This time, an organisation called March and March is leading the campaign.
01:28The group first came to prominence in 2025,
01:31when its volunteers stationed themselves outside public hospitals and clinics,
01:35demanding people show a South African ID to access healthcare.
01:39By early 2026, March and March was protesting across the country.
01:43Foreign nationals, with or without documents, were harassed
01:46and sometimes assaulted during these protests.
01:49Now, the group then announced a June 30 deadline for all illegal immigrants to leave the country.
01:55Panicked foreign nationals in their thousands fled their homes and sought safety at consulates,
02:00police stations and churches.
02:02March and March's leader says it will continue.
02:06Our message to African presidents is we want them to come and fetch their people.
02:10We're not fighting with them.
02:12We are asking them.
02:13In the end, we will be accused of xenophobia.
02:16But we won't stop telling them to leave.
02:20Because anyone who is here illegally shouldn't be here.
02:25Some people hope that March and March will fizzle out.
02:28I can tell you, we'll keep on marching, even if there are only four of us.
02:32March and March isn't going anywhere.
02:36I'm joined by Hasina Ghori, who will be with me throughout the program.
02:40She's a South African journalist at the country's public broadcaster, the SABC,
02:44where she's led national coverage of major events.
02:47And we've also invited Mike Siluma, who is deputy editor of South Africa's biggest Sunday newspaper,
02:52the Sunday Times.
02:53Welcome to you both.
02:56Hasina, I want to begin with you.
02:58We have just heard the leader of March and March saying that the organization isn't going anywhere.
03:05What do we know about this group and its rise?
03:09So Jacinta Nikobezi, Zuma, who we just heard,
03:11has really emerged as this prominent voice against anti-immigrants in South Africa.
03:17She leads the group called March and March.
03:21They're civic organization, relatively new.
03:23And they've really honed in on the real frustrations of South Africans against unemployment,
03:29against basic service delivery, as well as the issue of the borders,
03:34which they seem to feel that South African government has really lost its control of that.
03:39And what's really interesting with March and March is their conversation and the way that they're communicating.
03:46They're using populist rhetoric that we've seen.
03:48And internationally, it will be very familiar, really taking a very complex social and economic issues
03:54and putting that blame onto migrants.
03:58And what March and March has done as well,
04:00and what we've seen in this specific wave of anti-immigrant rhetoric,
04:04is that they went online.
04:05They're not only relying on going and mobilizing to the ground.
04:08There's a very synchronized, very sophisticated kind of accounts that are being used
04:13to create this feedback loop.
04:16So actions that are taking place on the ground, but then really disseminating it
04:22and creating a kind of echo bubble that seems to make the issue bigger than it is,
04:27seems to really invoke this idea that more South Africans are, you know,
04:33really believing and saying the same things.
04:36And what also is interesting and important to note is after their first wave last month,
04:41they did not stop action.
04:43They really have stayed true to their cause and said they will continue.
04:47They've given another arbitrary date for later next month,
04:50but also saying they'll continue to protest until the elections.
04:54And until they heard, they're also meeting with political parties,
04:57with civic organizations.
04:59So expanding their reach from just a civic organization that seems to speak on anti-immigrant issues,
05:05but now becoming a social, civic organization that will be able to speak on greater South African issues.
05:13Right.
05:14And Mr. Suluma, March and March is not officially a political party,
05:19but as Asina is saying there, it seems to have taken over the political agenda in the country.
05:25Is that justified?
05:27Does South Africa have an immigration crisis?
05:32You know, when you're talking about March and March taking over the political agenda,
05:38I would say, first off, that they've actually also encroached onto the governance agenda.
05:46A lot of what they have been doing, you know, looking for people who are allegedly illegally in South Africa,
05:52going from shop to shop, from place to place, saying people must leave, setting deadlines, etc.
05:59Talking about border control, for example, that's all government's job.
06:05You know, it should not be left up to either political parties or civic movements to be doing that.
06:12So what you are seeing is them actually occupying the space that government ought to be occupying,
06:19running the country properly, making sure that the borders are secure,
06:23our national security is looked after, the interests of South Africans are looked after,
06:31vis-a-vis the interests of people who are coming from outside, which happens in any other country.
06:36You know, all countries have got regulations, you know, on controlling the ingress of people,
06:42either as refugees or to work.
06:45If you've got a civic movement that is able to stop a country practically from functioning
06:49or forcing thousands of people out of the country,
06:53it means that the political parties and parliament and government have lost grip of the situation in the country.
06:59Now, the latest official figures from South Africa's Border Management Authority
07:03indicate how many foreign nationals had been repatriated through the country's various ports of entry.
07:09It's almost 90,000.
07:11Malawian nationals made up the largest group with more than 54,000 repatriations,
07:16followed by 28,000 Zimbabwean nationals.
07:19And that headline figure also includes nationals from Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana, Uganda and Kenya, among others.
07:27Now, local corner shops in South Africa have served as a key battleground in ongoing anti-immigrant protests.
07:35Many of the shops are owned and run by immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Somalia.
07:40We take a look at who benefits when foreigners are pushed out.
07:46This is Tabang's superstore.
07:48But it wasn't always called that.
07:52On the 1st of July, that's when the previous owners, they were taken out by the community.
08:01So that from then, after three or four days after, then we occupied the space.
08:06Then when they left, they took everything out.
08:09So everything that is inside there is owned by me, 100%.
08:14This video shows the moment the previous owner, an immigrant, was removed from his shop.
08:21Police stand guard while it happens.
08:23The man, from Ethiopia, was too scared to talk to us on camera.
08:29Tabang Moshe has long agitated for this kind of takeover.
08:33Marching against immigrant-owned shops in 2024.
08:40We want all these foreigners who are operating business-wise, they must actually stop.
08:46And us South Africans, we must actually take charge of the economy of our country.
08:50Now, 20 months later, he feels like his efforts were justified.
08:57At night, you come here at night here, it's packed.
09:00At morning, in the morning, it's packed.
09:02So people are always coming here.
09:04So it's good.
09:05The community is, they are happy.
09:06I asked Moshe about his feelings towards the former owners.
09:11Obviously, me being a businessman, I understand that when you are building something from scratch
09:17and it comes to a flame, it doesn't sit well with you.
09:22I know that very well.
09:23So my heart fell for them.
09:26So it was nothing malicious, it was nothing of jealousy or anything,
09:31but we are just trying to be South Africans doing what is right for South Africa.
09:36The June 30 deadline has not only affected immigrants.
09:40Other shops in the community previously owned by immigrants remain closed,
09:45meaning residents must now travel into town to buy items if they can't find them here.
09:53Hasina is still with me and we are now also joined by Adam Habib, a South African academic.
09:59He served as vice chancellor of Fitz University in Johannesburg
10:02before taking a post at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.
10:07Welcome, Professor Habib.
10:08So here we've just seen an example of a South African taking over a business
10:13that was previously owned by an Ethiopian immigrant, a spaza shop.
10:18Now, supporters of March and March, this movement will say that this is a success story.
10:22But is it really?
10:26Well, I think it depends what you mean by a success story.
10:29If a success story is meant to be that have they put this issue on the national agenda,
10:36then there's no doubt March and March have been able to put it onto the issue
10:41and they've got politicians talking about it and they've got action being done.
10:46But I don't think it is a success story in the sense that the actions that they advocate
10:53and the kind of behavior that they're undertaking is both illegal and frankly immoral and anti-developmental.
11:04I think to argue that some South African can walk in and take over the shock
11:13of an Ethiopian national simply because that person is an immigrant is an unacceptable, illegal act.
11:21And I think that South Africa allows that kind of behavior to its peril.
11:27I think that the fact that police, the police services have not taken action
11:33against South Africans that have done such illegal acts is also unacceptable.
11:39And it creates a violent society that does not observe its own constitutional provisions.
11:49I think it's shocking that the police service have indulged it.
11:53I think it's shocking that politicians have engaged and indulged it.
11:59And I think that there is an urgent need to bring back the law in the way we manage the
12:08issue of immigration
12:10and the actions of people who are trying to act against immigrants in our community.
12:19Yeah.
12:20And Hasina, just to bring you back into the conversation,
12:22because there is this aspect of inequality in South Africa.
12:26What do we know, what do the numbers tell us about black participation in the South African economy?
12:33I think to understand South African economy and how blacks participate,
12:37we have to understand the history.
12:38During apartheid, black South Africans were deliberately excluded from formal education,
12:43the formal sector, and also from gaining access to capital to start businesses.
12:49And this is what has been trying to be redressed by government over the last 30 years
12:53as we went into the dawn of democracy.
12:55And in reality, right now, many South Africans are still excluded.
12:59And they find themselves outside of the formal economy.
13:02They find themselves in the informal sector, in township businesses,
13:06which we know as spaza shops or corner shops or smaller businesses or small manufacturing.
13:12And to understand the immigration issue and why it becomes a fault line,
13:16we have to understand that this is the same container that both the foreign nationals
13:20and most or majority of black South Africans participate in, in that township economy.
13:25And they both begin to fight for that very small sector.
13:30And what we find with the foreign nationals is that they may have access to capital
13:33that allows them to access and enter into these informal businesses
13:38where some South Africans, yet again, are excluded once again,
13:41even in this informal sector, which was made aware most of them had.
13:45And that's the only place that they can access businesses.
13:49And I think this is just the reality of where we are
13:52and how black South Africans participate in the economy.
13:57Many foreign nationals have left South Africa because of the campaign against them.
14:02Miriam Omade is a Zimbabwean mother of three who lived in South Africa since 2015.
14:07In June, she returned to Zimbabwe after facing violence and harassment from anti-immigrant groups.
14:13I have three children. The first one is in grade 6. The last one is in grade 8.
14:21It's not easy. It's very difficult, especially when you come back to start something in Zimbabwe.
14:27It's very, very difficult.
14:31I'm just sitting at home without work.
14:34I don't know what I'm going to do when the schools open.
14:40Two of my children stayed here in Zimbabwe, but I had one with me in South Africa,
14:46who now needs to be registered in school.
14:51A lot of money is needed for school enrolment, which I don't have.
14:55I don't have a job.
14:57Come September, I don't know how I'm going to pay for school.
15:07Coming back to you, Professor Habib, many people coming to South Africa
15:11from essentially fleeing countries that have extreme poverty,
15:17there's conflict, where democracy is in decline.
15:20Can Pretoria take a more active role in addressing some of the factors
15:26that are pushing people from their countries?
15:30I think Pretoria needs to do far more than simply deal with other countries.
15:37It has to get its own act in order.
15:40I mean, Asina made an important point earlier about our history
15:42and the nature of inequality in the township economy.
15:46But it is also the problems of South Africa,
15:49also a product of the failure of the post-apartheid government itself.
15:53Too little development, too much enrichment, too much corruption,
15:58and not enough service delivery.
16:01It is precisely those things that have impacted heavily
16:05on the domestic economy,
16:08and that hasn't enabled the growth or the jobs that are required.
16:13And it seems to me that the first thing that the South African government
16:16has to do is get its own act in order
16:19and start focusing on development and the promises of its own constitution.
16:25Secondly, it then needs to work with other regional actors,
16:30with other governments in sub-Saharan Africa
16:33and in Southern Africa in particular,
16:35to make sure that those economies are also working,
16:38so that there isn't a push from those countries
16:42by their citizens to come to Johannesburg
16:45or to South Africa to make a livelihood.
16:48What we need is a greater openness of political elites
16:56across Southern Africa and sub-Saharan Africa
16:59to take the concerns of their citizens seriously,
17:03to create a political economy
17:06that allows all of their citizens to participate,
17:10to earn an income, to earn a livelihood.
17:13And I think that that is a kind of double-edged coin
17:20that needs to be understood.
17:22What South Africa does both internally
17:23and then what it does more broadly in the region
17:27in partnership with other political actors.
17:32And Hasina, coming back to you,
17:35give us a sense of what the reality is
17:37for undocumented migrants in South Africa.
17:41I think the reality for undocumented migrants is uncertainty.
17:45And that uncertainty starts way before they even enter
17:47into South Africa.
17:48I've been covering the migration issues
17:50specifically around Africa and into Southern Africa
17:52for the last decade.
17:54And I remember the stories of women
17:56and their flight to just enter into South Africa
17:59on disputed or irregular routes,
18:02the sexual assault that they may face,
18:04but also just the amount of money they would have to pay
18:08just to enter into the country
18:09and to access the asylum seeker system.
18:12And once they get into here, as we mentioned,
18:15they most likely only have access to informal work
18:19where they'd find themselves exploited,
18:21paid way below the minimum wage
18:23that is in law in South Africa.
18:24They don't have access to the bargaining power.
18:26And then what they find themselves is always
18:29with that threat of deportation,
18:31with raids that come from immigration offices,
18:34where they find themselves then threatened
18:35by having to pay large sums of protection fees
18:39just to stay within the country.
18:41And now with this fear,
18:42and while March and March is a relatively new,
18:45you know, movement that has taken place,
18:47there's been sporadic and mushrooming
18:49of these constant attack on foreign nationals
18:52that happen in various different informal sectors
18:55throughout the time that an illegal
18:57or undocumented migrant might be in the country.
19:00So a lot of uncertainty.
19:02And this really disputes the rhetoric that we hear
19:04that migrants come into the country,
19:06undocumented migrants,
19:07and they have access then to housing,
19:10to healthcare, and, you know, just work as well.
19:14And it really shows that they are also being exploited
19:18and their entire process comes from desperation.
19:22Many of them leave, as we mentioned,
19:24and heard from the professor
19:25and from the stories that we hear,
19:27leaving spaces of uncertainty as well.
19:29So that really is a reality of many of those
19:32that enter into South Africa.
19:35Professor Habib, thanks very much for your insights.
19:38We appreciate that.
19:41So what's been the response
19:43from South Africa's political leaders?
19:45Well, in a virtual question and answer session
19:47with members of parliament,
19:49President Sororam Aposa apportioned blame
19:51outside of the country.
19:53There have been activities
19:57that we have observed
20:02by a number of forces outside our country
20:07that have been bringing
20:10to bear their influence
20:13in this whole process.
20:16Quite a bit of this is being propelled
20:19and instigated from outside of South Africa.
20:23We are at work and working it through
20:26and deciphering precisely the various roles
20:30that have been played by our own people,
20:33as well as those we perceive to be outsiders
20:38who want to disturb the stability in South Africa
20:43by getting South Africans
20:46to seem to be at war
20:48with Africans from other nations.
20:52Mr. Suruma, what outside forces
20:55is President Sororam Aposa referring to?
20:58I think that the whole question
21:01of outside forces influencing or directing
21:04what has been happening with March and March
21:07is a misrepresentation of what is happening.
21:14I do believe that it is possible.
21:17I mean, there is no country that does not have,
21:20that's why countries spy on each other
21:21and try to impose their agendas on one another, etc.
21:25So I have no doubt that, you know,
21:27there are lots of outside, for example,
21:30Israel, which is not friendly to South Africa,
21:33and I know that they've got a vested interest
21:36in what happens in South Africa, for example.
21:39The relationship, for example, with Israel
21:43is not a good one.
21:43It's actually a very bad one,
21:45especially after South Africa took Israel to the ICJ.
21:49So I think they are referencing those kinds of countries.
21:56America, for example, does have a, obviously,
21:59a vested interest in what happens in South Africa
22:01and it does talk to people in South Africa,
22:04in this case, talking to the white right wing
22:10and saying that it's welcoming
22:12white Afrikaner refugees, etc.
22:14So there are other countries which have got,
22:16who are trying to direct the internal agenda
22:19in South Africa, the political agenda
22:21and the economic policies of South Africa.
22:24That is true.
22:25But to say that outside countries are solely
22:30or mainly to blame for what has been happening
22:32with March and March, I think it's overstating the case.
22:35The root cause is internal
22:37and it has to do with government failures
22:40to do what government ought to have been doing
22:42and what ought to be doing right now.
22:45Yeah.
22:45And Hasina, as has come up,
22:47this also happens to be an election year in South Africa.
22:52And yes, a very historic one.
22:54This is the first one where the country is going
22:57into an election while being in a coalition government.
23:00And while immigration is not central for this elections,
23:04it's become one of the key campaigning points
23:08for many different political parties.
23:09Not central because it's local government elections, right?
23:11So local issues are not the best.
23:13Yes, usually that's where what would be the central part.
23:17But many different political parties
23:18are jumping onto this campaign
23:20because they're seeing it as a very clever
23:23and effective communication method
23:26to really hone in on the dissatisfaction
23:29of local South Africans, the majority of them,
23:31who are really suffering from basic infrastructure crumbling.
23:36We have water issues, we have electricity issues,
23:38we have basic infrastructure that has not been updated.
23:41And it seems that migration seems to be the easy scapegoat
23:45for many of these political parties to claim
23:47that we'll clean up South Africa,
23:48we'll make South Africa good for South Africans
23:51by removing these foreign nationals
23:53that have entered into our, you know, environments
23:56and are taking these very scarce resources that we have.
24:01And we saw it with various different opposition parties
24:03that are using it, using it on their billboards,
24:06using it in election manifestos.
24:07And it's going to be interesting going forward
24:09whether South Africans actually stop and say,
24:12but how does this really impact us
24:14in our everyday day-to-day life?
24:16And what are the key issues beyond just immigrations
24:19that these different parties bring?
24:21Right.
24:22Well, Mr. Mike Saluma, thank you very much.
24:25We appreciate your insights.
24:30Thanks for having us.
24:33March and March does not speak for all South Africans.
24:36In fact, many are speaking out against the movement.
24:38Take Operation Ubuntu,
24:40a coalition of more than 60 social justice organizations.
24:44It held demonstrations in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban
24:47with a simple message.
24:48South Africa's challenges won't be solved by blaming migrants.
24:52For the government to act and the police to do what they are supposed to do
24:57in making sure that they defend and protect the vulnerable groups
25:01and stop the vigilantism that is happening.
25:04The idea that the xenophobes represent the interests
25:08and the ideas and the sentiments of the entirety of South African society is false.
25:13The government is quiet for now.
25:15What they are doing is just they are leaving us,
25:18people to be divided and to fight against each other.
25:20Many, many ordinary people have come out to say,
25:23actually, you don't speak for us.
25:25We understand that the crisis we are confronted by
25:28is not caused by our poor working class African brother or sister
25:32who is selling tomatoes on the street,
25:34but it is those who hold economic power,
25:37those who contribute to the concentration of the economy
25:39in the hands of a few.
25:42And that's it for the program.
25:44Be sure to check out our other stories on dw.com forward slash Africa.
25:47We're also on social media.
25:49See you next time.
25:50Bye-bye.
Comments