A 43-year-old Cameroonian shop owner in Durban, who had lived in South Africa for nearly two decades, had his door broken down by a group of roughly ten men in April 2026. That is not a protest. That is a pogrom.
The country that survived apartheid is now terrorising its neighbours
I grew up being told that South Africa was the miracle. The rainbow nation. The proof that a people could dismantle a system of organised racial hatred and build something worth living in. I do not recognise what I am watching right now.
In April and May 2026, Human Rights Watch documented a new wave of violent xenophobic attacks targeting African and Asian foreign nationals across Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban, with little or insufficient response from police. Groups like March and March and Operation Dudula organised demonstrations that turned, in the words of HRW, violent and sometimes fatal. At least seven people have reportedly been killed since March 2026.
Nigeria's foreign minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwe called her South African counterpart Ronald Lamola to demand accountability after two Nigerian nationals died in separate incidents involving South African security personnel in April. One man, Amamiro Chidierbere Emmanuel, died on April 25 from injuries sustained after being beaten by South African National Defence Force soldiers in Port Elizabeth on April 20.
Ghana formally wrote to the African Union requesting that the attacks be placed on the agenda of the upcoming Mid-Year Heads of State meeting. Mozambique, Nigeria, Ghana. South Africa's closest continental partners are now summoning its envoys. This is a diplomatic catastrophe dressed up as a domestic policing problem.
Political entrepreneurs are selling rage and the government is buying it
The people leading these marches are not grassroots activists. Daily Maverick described figures like Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and Zandile Dabula as populist political entrepreneurs who leverage social media and widespread unemployment to build personal followings. They are staging increasingly bold anti-migrant marches with little pushback from authorities.
“Vigilante groups feed off the country's frustrations and socioeconomic rights regression, unemployment, and lack of efforts to address the equity gaps that we have as a country.”
— Mpho Makhubela, Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX)
This is the oldest trick in the authoritarian playbook. When a government cannot deliver jobs, it points at the foreigner. South Africa's unemployment sits at roughly 32%. GDP growth was just 1.1% in 2025.
The ANC has spent three decades failing to build an economy that works for the poor. Now, instead of accountability, the poor get a scapegoat with a Zimbabwean accent.
The strongest counterargument, and why it does not hold
I will give the other side its moment. South Africa has an estimated 2.2 million African immigrants as of 2025, and undocumented migration does place real pressure on housing, clinics, and informal labour markets in specific urban hotspots. These are legitimate governance concerns that deserve serious policy responses.
But breaking down a man's shop door is not policy. Beating a Malawian national and leaving him to die in the trunk of a police car is not enforcement. The argument that "we are only targeting undocumented migrants" collapses the moment you look at what is actually happening on the ground: Al Jazeera reported that in practice, the distinction between documented and undocumented migrants is not clear in the rhetoric or the violence.
What the constitution says and what the streets are doing
South Africa's constitution guarantees dignity and human rights for all residents regardless of nationality. In November 2025, the South Gauteng High Court already had to issue an injunction against Operation Dudula for blocking migrants from accessing healthcare. A court order. Against people blocking sick people from clinics.
On April 27, UN Secretary-General António Guterres expressed concern over the xenophobic harassment and attacks. The African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights called for investigations and stronger protections. The world is watching. Pretoria is issuing statements.
President Ramaphosa has said targeting migrants under the guise of activism is unlawful. That is the right thing to say. It is also completely unserious when the SANDF soldiers who allegedly beat a Nigerian man to death in Port Elizabeth have not been publicly charged.
“South Africa's constitution and international human rights law protects the right to protest, but that does not include permission to commit violence.”
— Nomathamsanqa Masiko-Mpaka, South Africa Researcher, Human Rights Watch
Pan-Africanism is not a slogan you can burn down on a Tuesday
South Africa built its moral authority on solidarity. The continent sheltered ANC cadres in Lusaka, Dar es Salaam, and Lagos when apartheid made home impossible. Mozambique paid in blood for that solidarity. Nigeria funded it.
Now Mozambique's president is flying to Pretoria to beg for the protection of his citizens. Ghana is writing to the African Union. South African businesses like MTN and Standard Bank, which operate across the continent, are facing the threat of retaliatory action because the attacks have become a global story. The economic self-harm alone should be enough to force a reckoning.
What is genuinely good here, and I will say it plainly: civil society organisations like KAAX and CoRMSA are doing the hard work of documenting abuse and pushing back in court. That is real courage in a climate where the mob has political cover.
But courage from civil society cannot substitute for a government that prosecutes its own soldiers. Would you trust a state that issues a press release about human dignity while its uniformed officers allegedly beat a man to death and stuff him in a car boot? Tell me that is a functioning democracy.