The politics of ‘us vs them’ – and who profits

With the highly contested local government elections around the corner, it should come as no surprise that xenophobia is once more rearing its ugly head.

It’s a trend that seems to resurface every election cycle – whether local or national.

Throw into the mix a struggling economy, high unemployment, and poor service delivery, and you have the perfect storm for blaming foreigners for the situation the country finds itself in.

This has led to the prominence of groups such as March and March, which recently protested in Pretoria and Johannesburg. Other anti-foreigner groups, such as Operation Dudula, joined them. Both groups are opposed to “illegal” immigration and often use broad generalisations and false claims about foreigners they blame for the country’s failures. Political parties such as Gayton McKenzie’s Patriotic Alliance and Herman Mashaba’s ActionSA also campaign on anti-immigration rhetoric.

Earlier this week, the Ghanaian government wrote to the AU asking that the issue of attacks against African nationals be placed on the agenda at the June meeting in Egypt. The protests have also seen tensions rise between Nigeria and South Africa, with Nigeria saying it had demarched South Africa’s chargé d’affaires on the issue.

In this week’s edition of Friday Briefing, liberation struggle veteran Mavuso Msimang – who spent 30 years in exile in several African countries during apartheid – argues that South Africa’s recurring xenophobic violence is not a spontaneous social phenomenon but a predictable consequence of state failure and political evasion. You can read his submission here.

The Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) Dr Steven Gordon details how South Africans’ attitudes towards foreigners have changed from 2003 to 2025. Read more about the HSRC study here.

In-depth writer Muhammad Hussain explores how xenophobia is carefully sold to South Africans through a toxic mix of myths and political strategy. Read that analysis here.

Moving away from xenophobia, Hussain speaks with Tumelo Thebe, the new mayor of Maluti-a-Phofung. Find out what Thebe hopes to do in six months to turn around one of the country’s most dysfunctional municipalities here.