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From Anti-Apartheid to Anti-Immigrant, Nativist Wave Sweeps South Africa
ByLouis Freedberg
Jul 6, 2026
Three weeks ago, I arrived in South Africa, the country of my birth. It was June 16, the 50th anniversary of the 1976 uprisings in Soweto, one of the most significant dates in the country’s history
On that day in 1976, students rose up to protest being forced to learn Afrikaans (the official language of the apartheid regime) in school. Nearly two dozen were killed that day, and many more in other parts of the country in subsequent weeks and months
The protests jump-started the anti-apartheid movement, leading eventually to the release of Nelson Mandela in 1990 and the first democratic elections in 1994 — which I reported on for The San Francisco Chronicle
“A Better Life for All” was the slogan of the winning campaign of Mandela’s party, the African National Congress, which is still the ruling party
Mandela’s expansive vision is far from being realized. Nowhere is that clearer than in the widespread abuse, violence and even fatal attacks foreign migrants face
I arrived to find that anti-immigrant and vigilante groups had set an arbitrary “deadline” of June 30 for all undocumented immigrants to leave the country. Almost all migrants are from neighboring African countries like Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe, but also further afield like Congo, Ghana and Nigeria
It was disturbing, to say the least, to realize that South Africa is contending with an anti-immigrant campaign that on some levels is at least as nightmarish — and arguably even more violent —than the one undocumented immigrants face in the United States
Here, however, the right-wing vigilante groups leading the campaigns are not made up of white racists trying to restore their country’s segregationist past. Rather they are led by black South Africans who are using the country’s deep poverty and an unemployment rate officially set at 32.7 percent, to stir up hostility toward immigrants
A big difference between South Africa and the United States is that at least here the current government led by President Cyril Ramaphosa is trying to protect immigrants from xenophobic attacks
But xenophobia has been rampant in South Africa for years. And by Ramaphosa’s own admission, the ANC government has not done enough to stem it – and at times has been complicit in fueling it
“There have been weaknesses in the way migration has been managed,” Ramaphosa conceded in a speech to the nation earlier this month ahead of the June 30 date. “We accept that responsibility and we are taking decisive action to correct these shortcomings.”
One example: the government’s Special Investigating Unit found that the immigration system has been treated as a “marketplace,” in which permits and visas have been sold by corrupt officials
To deter violence, the government mobilized police and other security forces in key areas where most violence was expected as the deadline approached. Still fresh in the memory is the bloody vigilante campaign in 2008 when 62 migrants were killed, and tens of thousands were displaced, often in squatter settlements abutting black townships
Fortunately, the government’s proactive response made a difference. According to police reports, out of 120 protests and marches on June 30, all but 12 were largely peaceful ones
But in the weeks leading up to June 30, thousands of migrants “voluntarily” fled their homes and crowded into “repatriation centers” to try to board government-sponsored buses to their home countries. A half dozen governments have intervened directly to repatriate their citizens by land and air. Thousands are still awaiting “repatriation” on the border in the far north of the country, in harsh conditions
Unfortunately, immigrant children have been disproportionately affected. In some black townships and poor rural communities, protesters have demanded the expulsion of foreign students from public schools. In other instances, immigrant children have been blocked from accessing life-saving treatment at health clinics
Compounding the problems is that the same myths circulating in the United States — vastly overstating the negative impacts of foreign migrants, and understating their positive ones, for example — are prevalent here as well
For example, March After March, the organization that spearheaded the most recent protests, claims that there are 15 to 30 million illegal immigrants here. In actuality, there are only about 3.1 million migrants — both legal and undocumented. Together, they make up only 5.1 percent of South Africa’s population of 63.5 million
Compare that to the foreign-born population in the U.S. which comprises 14.8 percent of the total population
It is a sign of progress that the violence many were dreading did not materialize. But as one veteran anti-apartheid activist told me, just avoiding violence represents a “low bar” for measuring progress
Both legal and undocumented migrants still face significant threats. Even as the government continues to repatriate thousands of immigrants, and steps up efforts to deport others, anti-immigrant groups have pledged to continue to hold weekly protests
The reality is that even if all foreign residents in South Africa — documented and undocumented — are repatriated or deported, that would not make much of a dent in reducing unemployment or crime, two of the key flashpoints here
So much has been accomplished since students rose up in Soweto a half century ago. Apartheid is dead. Afrikaans, the most immediate target of the Soweto youth protestors 50 years ago, is no longer a compulsory course in the country’s schools
But the xenophobia here dishonors the memory of those who died on June 16, 1976, and hundreds more who died in the subsequent weeks and months. The inheritors of Mandela’s vision will have to do much more to stop it
Louis Freedberg is a veteran journalist who reported on South Africa and youth issues for Pacific News Service and many other publications. He was born and raised in South Africa and reported on the 1994 elections and the transition to democracy there
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