@Am_Blujay They are just starting . After this they are heading to rural areas where people built in communal lands they dont originally come from without getting authorised by the ministry of lands.
Two opposing things can be correct at the same time
Its true that SA has been overun by migrants
Its also true that they are scapegoating the migrants coz if systems were working there wouldn't be too many migrants.
The common denominator in all this is poverty
Xenophobia in South Africa: A Wounded Society Looking for a Visible Enemy
The root of xenophobia in South Africa is not immigration itself.
The root is a wounded society looking for a visible enemy.
Recent attacks on migrants have once again exposed a painful reality. African migrants are being blamed for unemployment, crime, poverty, and failing public services. Yet if we are honest, these problems existed long before the latest arrivals crossed our borders. The foreigner has become a convenient target for anxieties whose origins lie much deeper.
South Africa’s xenophobia cannot be understood without understanding our history.
The first driver is material despair. Millions of South Africans live with unemployment, insecurity, and diminishing hope. Youth unemployment remains catastrophic. For many young people, the promise of democracy has not translated into meaningful economic opportunity. This is not simply an economic crisis. It is a crisis of dignity. When people feel excluded from the future, anger accumulates. That anger seeks an object.
The second driver is state failure. Broken Home Affairs systems, porous borders, corruption, weak policing, collapsing municipal services and growing poverty create a perception that nobody is in control. Communities experience daily insecurity while those responsible often appear absent or unaccountable. Migrants then become the visible face of failures that originate elsewhere.
The third driver is political opportunism. Throughout history, politicians and movements have converted social pain into political capital. Fear is mobilised. Frustration is redirected. Instead of addressing the structural causes of unemployment, inequality and exclusion, vulnerable groups become scapegoats. Xenophobia is not only an expression of anger. It is often politically harvested.
But there is a deeper layer that is rarely discussed.
Apartheid was not only a system of racial discrimination. At its core, it was a cheap labour system. Land was taken, movement restricted, enterprise suppressed, and education deliberately narrowed. Hendrik Verwoerd, the chief architect of apartheid, made the intention explicit when he declared:
“There is no place for the Bantu in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour.”
He also asked:
“What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice?”
These were not isolated remarks. They were a blueprint. The objective was not to educate Africans to become entrepreneurs, owners, innovators or competitors. The objective was to produce labour. Generations were conditioned to seek employment rather than create enterprises, to depend on wages rather than build wealth, and to serve an economy from which they were largely excluded.
Thirty-two years into democracy, another uncomfortable truth remains. While political power changed hands in 1994, economic power has proved far more resistant to transformation. Large sectors of our economy remain concentrated in patterns established under apartheid. Wealth, ownership, access to capital and market power are still heavily shaped by historical privilege.
For millions of South Africans, political freedom has not yet translated into economic freedom.
This is where the xenophobia debate becomes especially tragic.
Many migrants arrive with little more than courage, determination and hope. They open shops, restaurants, repair businesses, transport services and small enterprises. They work long hours, pool resources, support one another and create livelihoods where none previously existed.
History teaches us that great cities and great nations are often built by people willing to take risks in pursuit of a better life. New York, London, Toronto, Nairobi, Johannesburg and countless others were shaped by migrants and entrepreneurs. They did not simply create wealth for themselves. They created jobs, services, supply chains and opportunities for others.