South Africa and the renaissance of xenophobia

ALL POLITICS IS LOCAL, after all, and South Africa’s politics is typical. In a country where the new high road to power is the street and the new sentiment for seizing power involves suborning local people and inciting them against migrants, politics is taking the rest of the country down the path of irreversible decline. While an average South African may live in denial of the problem or choose to construe it entirely differently, the reality is that South Africa is steadily losing it and may come to terms with this sooner than later. South Africa’s crisis is further complicated among its people by the deliberate distortion of facts, particularly those involving its history, economy and politics.

Mantras and messages that evoke strong sentiments and tend to obliterate an understanding and good grasp of the true causes of South Africa’s problems appear to have been inordinately and disproportionately promoted by politicians and accepted as the inviolate truth by the people. Those politicians have successfully found what to blame in their crude attempts to garner and sustain huge followership. The meteoric rise of Jacob Zuma to the presidency of South Africa typifies a case study of South Africa’s deterioration on many fronts. The social and economic decay Zuma presided over during his nine years in office – from May 2009 to February 2018 – nearly totally eclipsed the positive achievements attributable to his indigenous predecessors.

Zuma rode to power on the back of his charisma and street smartness. Unfortunately, however, neither of the two could sustain him till the end of his tenure nor helped in making him a good president in office. Zuma reportedly latched on his huge support in the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to hasten Thabo Mbeki’s exit from office as a president that had a very feeble and thin political support base, quite unlike Nelson Mandela, his former boss and predecessor in office.  Kgalema Motlanthe who took the reins of office in September of 2008 had to step down in May 2009 when Zuma took over. Before the end of Zuma’s own regime, his ruling ANC had to ignominiously push him out of office to save the party that was evidently coming to ruins as it was already widely recognised as notorious for its many transgressions, chiefly corruption within.

It was becoming obvious that the ANC – a party that has been in power since Mandela took office in 1994 till now – was gradually losing appeal. Since nature abhors vacuum, other political groups became potential replacements. One of them is the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a party led by Julius Malema, a dogged, indomitable and fiery campaigner against the White domination of South Africa’s economy and previous political influence. Malema’s harsh rhetorics found acceptance among many South Africans. More recently, another pressure group that is turning political has found its own niche in South African politics. The group, popularly known as Operation Dudula, is currently gaining wider appeal and followers. Its only one central message is the eviction of foreigners, particularly migrants from other African countries. Although that message did not start with Operation Dudula, it blossomed under Zuma’s regime.

Under Zuma’s watch, South Africa slid into an economic downturn that still plagues the country till now. The tendencies to violence against foreign nationals have been blamed on Zuma himself who was adjudged as being less than welcoming to foreigners.  Malema of EFF accused Zuma of leading South Africans to believe that violence is the solution to their problems. He said “there is no country in Africa that can survive in isolation.” But his statement was at variance with that of a traditional ruler who was supposed to rally people together. The speech made in March 2015 by the Zulu’s king, Goodwill Zwelithini, was unequivocally xenophobic. His statement, made in isiZulu, contained clear instructions. “We ask foreign nationals to pack their belongings and go back to their countries,” he was quoted as saying.  In essence, it seems like many South Africans of low and high estate still carry over the racist mentality from the years of Apartheid rule. And this seems like finding expression in the violent reactions, especially to foreigners in their country. Coming from politicians and traditional authority is enough motivation to further promote intolerance and violence against the foreigners. And now, a pressure group is all out to give vent to this in the form of a political agenda.

Retaliation could cost South Africa dearly, and excessive fixation on migrants to the exclusion of other causes of their economic crisis could negatively affect the impression about and relationship with South Africans living elsewhere in Africa as people could single out South Africans and their businesses for violent attacks in those countries where they reside. It began to happen in the aftermath of the 2019 xenophobic attacks on non-South Africans. In Lagos, one highbrow outlet of Shoprite supermarket chain was destroyed by angry youth in a reprisal attack against South Africa for attacking Nigerians living in that country.

With “Operation Dudula,” in a matter of time, South Africa will very likely lose its “rainbow” colour. And that loss will emanate from toxic local politics arising also from hostile sentiments and intolerant rhetoric, ushering in a new wave of xenophobia. It could become a pariah nation. The case of Operation Dudula is a single-message barefaced onslaught against Africans of other nationalities other than South Africa. The vigilante group that has metamorphosed into a political party has apparently found a rallying point in the message that their name connotes. Dudula, in Zulu language, means to “force out,” “push out” or “knock down” and refers to the movement’s goal to expel migrants. The group, undoubtedly, thrives on unsubstantiated claims, rumours and fear mongering to manipulate the sentiments of South African citizens, blowing the foreigners’ offences out of proportion and blaming the presence of migrants for many of South Africa’s social issues. On the accusation of citizens’ unemployment attributed to foreigners, it is important to put the migrant population in perspective. It is true that there is a steadily rising unemployment in South Africa and about a third of South Africans have been unemployed since 2021, causing widespread suffering for the population.

But South Africa’s current population is estimated at 60 million people, whereas the highest number of immigrants as of July 2020 was 2.9 million people, by one estimate, approximately five percent of the country’s population and thus the highest percentage of migrants compared to the total population of any African country. Results from Census 2022 showed that the SADC region remained the dominant source for international migrants, contributing 83.7 percent of the total migrant population, which has probably not increased since the xenophobic showdown of 2019. Another source has it that, with one in three South Africans unemployed, South Africa has been described as one of the most unequal societies in the world. But the number of migrants living in South Africa has been grossly exaggerated. A 2022 report by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), an independent research organisation based in the capital, Pretoria, showed that there are about 3.95 million migrants in South Africa, making up 6.5 percent of the population, a figure considered in line with international norms.

Operation Dudula was established in Soweto – a township of Johannesburg – in June 2021. It emanated from an online solidarity movement called “Put South Africa First” on X, formerly known as Twitter, in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of its members are unemployed and disgruntled young people who have credited Operation Dudula for being more effective than the government in getting rid of undocumented migrants. Their understanding of South Africa’s post-Apartheid history is warped and incomplete and could have been intentionally so as many of them grew up through the early years of the political transition from White minority rule to black majority rule. They are building on the history of events that started shortly after the end of the Apartheid rule. The upsurge in migrants’ population then arose from the new hope the citizens from many other countries found in South Africa, which motivated them to move over there, seeking opportunities for better living.

The South African anti-migrant group was the first to formalise what took the form of sporadic waves of xenophobia-fuelled vigilante attacks in South Africa that began shortly after white-minority rule that ended in 1994 when South Africans began to see many foreigners of African origin coming from other African countries. Since then, there have been bouts of xenophobic attacks from time to time. The hatred for migrants cuts across various social strata. The xenophobic rhetoric used by some public officials, politicians and anti-migrant groups has helped sustain the myth that the country is already overrun with migrants. Former president, Zuma, was a role model in this camp. The rise of this group also feeds on the decline of ANC. Current polling suggests that support for the governing ANC – the party that was once led by Mr Mandela – could fall below 50 percent for the first time. This might create opportunities for Operation Dudula to gain more followers as it aims to contest this year’s general election, in which case it will probably latch onto ANC structure and diminish its membership. However, the fact that Dudula is now being registered as a political party does not automatically guarantee that it will be allowed to run in an election, let alone win. But, should it be on the ballot, it might corner appreciable positions and become a political party with some official influence.

Operation Dudula members, finding a common ground in the hate message and conspiracy against foreigners, voted Zandile Dabula as president in June 2023. “Our country is a mess,” she said, surmising without any proof that “foreign nationals are working on a 20-year plan of taking over South Africa.” With the rise in popularity of Operation Dudula and its fixation on accusations against foreigners, just like many other notable political figures, it seems very unlikely that South Africa will find any meaningful solution to the lingering and rising problem as one of their members reportedly said that  “most of the drug addicts are South African rather than foreign nationals.” She argued that the foreigners “are  feeding our own brothers and sisters” with drugs “so that it can be easy for them to take over” South Africa. They seem misled and obsessed with the accusation that people who sell drugs are not South African citizens but rather citizens from countries such as Ethiopia, Malawi, Somalia and Zimbabwe.

They fail to reckon that a bulk of revenues accruing to South Africa’s economy emanate from South African companies’ investments in many of the countries of origin of the migrants. For instance, a South African hospitality enterprise, running chains of hotels, a major telecom company operating in many African countries, an entertainment company that has continental coverage, a supermarket chain, and many more are from South Africa.

The prospects of Operation Dudula in government in South Africa looks scary, especially if they control the levees of power at the centre. It looks like their mission could cost South Africa dearly, especially if Operation Dudula wins and has some notable representatives in office after the election. Altogether, the prognosis of South Africa looks gloomy if power goes into the hands of Operation Dudula. It could begin a process of rapid and irreversible decline of a country hitherto held as Africa’s economic powerhouse. It could signal the beginning of the end for South Africa’s prospects for economic growth and expansion as other countries are very likely to reciprocate in kind against South Africa. In this case, diplomatic relations and economic cooperation could become strained and development could be further slowed down. For now, we are observing the direction to which South Africa would drift.