Looming carnage: On the dangerous anti-migrant mobilisation in South Africa

The mobilisation of the populist right internationally draws on and misdirects people’s real grievances against the wrong targets (vulnerable groups instead of the systems perpetuating their insecurity). Similarly in South Africa today – as in Belfast, elsewhere in Europe and in the US – we see that this deflection of people’s anger will prevail every time against a purely human rights paradigm that simply appeals to people’s morality, but doesn’t address their material concerns. A purely moralistic approach can be easily written off as elitist and out of touch.

In South Africa, characterised by sky-high levels of poverty, unemployment and hunger, undocumented migrants have become the target of a dangerous mobilisation. March and March, a shadowy movement, together with organisations like Jacob Zuma’s MK party, have given migrants until 30 June to leave the country, threatening not only to repeat, but massively intensify previous xenophobic waves. Similar in its modus operandi, this orchestrated attack threatens to be even greater in scale than the July 2021 looting and riots that devastated South Africa, which had its epicentre in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, and was linked to Zuma and regional networks with a largely “tribal character”. This movement however is tapping into discontent that is national in nature, because it purports to address issues that affect virtually every community in South Africa.

It is in this context that progressive activists have had to confront a shocking (but not surprising) level of anti-foreigner sentiment among politically aware South Africans. An example of this is a large (more than 500-member) WhatsApp group of former anti-apartheid activists, of which I am a member. It is painfully obvious to me from reading the comments in this group, and in social media generally, that merely moralising about the ills of xenophobia is to completely misread the mood in many communities and workplaces, where people are directing their anger against foreign migrants instead of the system that has failed them.

What needs to be pointed out is the stark reality that the carnage that threatens to unfold will devastate not only migrants but all poor people and workers. Only reactionary political forces will benefit from promoting this unfolding chaos, in the run-up to our local government elections, perversely presenting themselves as being in support of ordinary people.

It is in this context that I sent the letter below to my comrades in the activist WhatsApp group in an attempt to draw attention to the devastating consequences this unfolding pogrom will have on the very people this movement claims they want to help. DM

This piece reflects the personal perspectives of the author.