History is of no essence to those ruling the streets today in South Africa. It will amount to a sheer waste of time and energy to assume that the street stalkers and protesters on the streets of cities and townships in South Africa now will heed the voice of reason. The backdrop is not far-fetched. Those who have so much energy to dissipate against non-South Africans living in South Africa presently have either a warped sense of history of the country in the previous half-a-century or they were never taught about how South Africa got to become what it is today.
Philosophically, it is reasonable to assume that those exercising parallel authorities against immigrants in South Africa now are yet to be emancipated from “mental slavery,” to borrow an expression popularised by a notable musician. To say the least, the fact that those holding the government hostage are intractable countrymen and women, mostly uninformed, uneducated, unrefined and unfriendly is a pointer to where the crisis of intolerance against foreigners is coming from. Operating on the basis of powerfully and skilfully taught misinformation and brainwashing, the violence meted out by those disgruntled elements has its roots in resentment disguised as justice.
People who no longer feel a sense of accomplishment in their own land and lives feel powerless and alienated. To fill the void they outsource their need for achievement to movements, drawing a sense of progress, not from their personal lives but from the causes they attach themselves to. In Carl Jung’s observation, once inside a movement, individuals become possessed by collective identities. People who refuse the burden of becoming themselves dissolve into the group mind, of one type of “ism” or another. Like other forms of isms, nationalism is the case in South Africans. In this case, they resort to a blighted and corrupted form of nationalism, pushed to the extreme. It exerts such power, offering readymade identities and moral clarity, like the “go and fix your country, we are fixing ours” mantras.
As described by Jung, these serve as crutches for the lame, shields for the timid and nurseries for the irresponsible. Once absorbed, the individuals are no longer fully themselves. They are merely a mouthpiece for the collective archetype that has seized them. Another philosopher, Nietzsche, revealed the venom at the core of these movements. In his book titled “Thus Spoke Zarathustra”, Friedrich Nietzsche described the Tarantulas, the moral preachers who spin webs of ideology in the name of justice. They claim to champion the weak but their real motivation is resentment. They cloak envy and revenge in noble language, seeking not to uplift but to tear down the strong, to drag everyone to the same level.
In South Africa, a vigilante group turned political pressure group called “Operation Dudula” quite directly fits into Nietzsche’s description, as “Dudula,” in Zulu language, means push down, knock down or remove something by force. To Nietzsche, this is the poison of movement: morality twisted into vengeance. Operation Dudula is the latest group to use gross inequality in South Africa as a launchpad for attacks on immigrants. Their core message is based on sentiment that arose from a poor understanding of the workings of a modern nation-state and its occupants.
To put South Africans’ misplaced anger and resentment in economic and official perspective, the South African mining industry remains a source of well-paying jobs, according to the Minerals Council of South Africa. Another source says mining employed 477 000 people or 4.7 percent of South Africa’s total workforce in the third quarter of 2023. The Africa Mining and Engineering Review, in 2025, disclosed that, in 2024, for every R10 million in output generated by the mining sector, the industry supported approximately eight formal jobs across the economy.
But the mines in South Africa no longer work or provide jobs like before. For instance, South Africa is moving away from coal in a quest for green energy and farming. At least, one power station has been closed. As of April, Komati near Bethal had been retired, ending its generating capacity of 1,140MW. Since 2019, in South Africa there are a number of mines on care and maintenance due to their inability to secure a government-issued closure certificate. In August 2025, South Africa’s Assmang was weighing the closure of its Beeshoek iron ore mine after failing to secure a contract to supply its sole customer, the ailing steel producer ArcelorMittal South Africa. It was estimated that the closure of the mine could result in the loss of 688 jobs. Assmang is a joint venture between African Rainbow Minerals.
It has been disclosed that millions of people could be impacted by mine closures in South Africa. A research report published by the University of Cape Town (UCT) in February 2024 quantified the risks associated with closing down mines across South Africa. It noted that mine closure is a growing concern in mining areas of the country. However, this is one of the key issues the government of South Africa is failing to address and properly communicate to the angry countrymen and women who have resorted to a perverted reasoning that the migrants are taking the jobs of their citizens. The government plays politics with unemployment, and it connives at scapegoating illegal immigrants by the protesters.
The lazy narrative of “taking our jobs” as proclaimed among South African protesters is at the centre of their animosity. A trader who is a foreigner is also considered as taking the job of a native South African. Meanwhile, many streets, neighbourhoods and suburbs that were clean before have been taken over by mounds of thrash. Many corporate buildings are now abandoned. Every sign of governance failure is evident. While the protesters’ arguments ring hollow, the tacit complicity of the government is clearly evident as many high ranking officials in government and even traditional authorities – who ought to rein them in – are culpable.
There have been cycles of xenophobic attacks against immigrants over the past 30 years since the official end of the Apartheid regime and the years of majority black rule. They follow a pattern. Whenever there is political tension, an inflation period, a shift in the economic market or frustration of service delivery, the subject of illegal immigrants resurfaces. Every possible allegation can easily be fabricated against every perceived immigrant, legal or illegal – they see no difference. They accuse a Congolese of crossing many countries’ borders but don’t talk about Asians and Europeans who crossed oceans. A Tanzanian young man who went to South Africa strictly for studies has been manhandled by a vigilante mob which doesn’t want non-South African blacks in South Africa. A Ghanaian street trader was rounded up and told to go back and fix his country.
Since the onset of the on-going protests in South Africa, social media has remained awash with reactions questioning what many describe as a consistent pattern of double standards in how different groups are treated. The same anti-immigrant foot soldiers cannot dare set their feet on the white-dominated areas of towns. A man was assaulted with a weapon in Braamfontein and left bleeding after a group of shirtless men carrying sticks and shields diverted from the approved route of an anti-immigrant protest organised by South Africa’s March and March Movement recently. Police accompanying the protest appeared unable to direct the crowd back to the approved route. To further prove some form of complicity, about a thousand people reportedly came from various groupings, including ActionSA and the MK Party, to support the anti-immigrant protest.
That there could be some motivation or mischief that has successfully escaped public notice about South Africa’s supposed moral stance against Israel and in support of Palestine, remains a subject of intense debate. The October and November 2025 mysterious flights involving a total of 329 Palestinians arriving in South Africa on October 28 and November 13, 2025 have drawn heavy criticism against authorities in South Africa. These are the same authorities that proclaim moral consciousness on affairs in Gaza, while they even took Israel to the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
On the anti-immigrant hate, some argue gullibly and glibly, saying, “stop blaming people, blame the system.” Clearly, that appears evasive as the South African government has, ironically, remained passive about these Afrophobic incidents. The whole world is taking note as it witnesses yet another cruelty meted on other Africans by South Africans. They continue showing us how they embarrass different hardworking African brothers from different black nations.
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Dr. Olukayode Oyeleye, Business a.m.’s Editorial Advisor, who graduated in veterinary medicine from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, before establishing himself in science and public policy journalism and communication, also has a postgraduate diploma in public administration, and is a former special adviser to two former Nigerian ministers of agriculture. He specialises in development and policy issues in the areas of food, trade and competition, security, governance, environment and innovation, politics and emerging economies.
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