In recent weeks, xenophobic protests against migrant workers in South Africa have rekindled due to record unemployment figures and poverty worsened by COVID-19. Operation Dudula, which translates to “drive or push back” in Zulu, is the most recent demonstration organized by anti-immigrant South Africans, most prominently members of the Zulu nation. On February 19, witnesses reported a mob of about 2,000 people gathered at a migrant center in the township of Soweto, accusing foreign workers of “stealing jobs that belong to South Africans.” This was the group’s second demonstration. A week earlier, members of the same mob marched in Hillbrow, Johannesburg.

Though economic output expanded yearly by 5 percent or more in the early 2000s, the jobless rate in South Africa has since increased by more than 20 percent in the past two decades. In November 2021, it rose to 34.9 percent from 34.4 percent, in the third quarter. 

Industries that suffered the most were trade, community, and social services. In July, riots and strikes were reported in South Africa’s two largest provinces, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, by contribution to GDP. Gauteng is the commercial hub that encompasses the capital of South Africa, Johannesburg, and is the main province foreigners immigrate for more job opportunities.

“Strict labor laws and a skills shortage, reduce the ability of South African companies to hire new workers,” according to an article about South Africa’s rising unemployment rates. But, this issue has been a lasting effect of an apartheid-era strategy, which placed so-called townships on the outskirts of cities, where most Black citizens were “compelled to live.” This segregation has caused a lasting economic disparity between many Black citizens and South Africa’s small White population. Wealthy and middle-class whites are mainly concentrated in city centers and connected suburbs, while the majority of the Black citizens live in outside townships. 

In post-Apartheid South Africa, the growing population has led to political and economic disparities. Some claim that the violence against foreigners due to growing unemployment rates, and high crime has been fueled by a long history of xenophobia.

Anti-immigration sentiment is not new and has persisted for the past two decades. In 2008, attacks against foreigners left at least 62 people dead. In 2015, another seven were killed for the same reasons. The most recent protests occurred in Johannesburg in 2019, which resulted in at least 12 casualties when armed mobs attacked foreign-owned businesses. Ten of them were South African, according to the government. 

The Zulu protestors, on the other hand, argue that high crime rates are linked to migrants living illegally in townships outside of the nation’s major cities, particularly Johannesburg. They have alleged that drug lords and foreigners have illegally occupied and set up shacks at primary schools and government subsidy (RDP) houses in Motsoaledi. The leader of Operation Dudula, Nhlanhla Lux Dlamini, in his 30s, claimed their demonstrations are to “restore law and order.”

Another protestor, Bhekani Thusi, supported Dlamini’s claim, saying that the Soweto march was not xenophobic and that it expressed the law. 

An Operation Dudula protestor, Victoria Mamobogo, who is also a part of the #PutSouthAfricansFirst movement, called on local shop owners to employ South Africans and meet the employment ratio implemented by the department of labor. She also called on the government to only accept migrants with critical skills, saying foreigners “who are unemployed should go and face unemployment in their own countries.”

This sentiment is expressed in the nation’s international migration law, the White Paper, in which the government seeks to balance liberal immigration policy with necessary regulation that puts its citizens first. In regards to immigrants, it claims to support only those who “add value to our growth and development…[mainly] those who invest,” such as entrepreneurs and foreigners with expertise in the trade. But to the contrary, border controls have remained lax due to the government’s Growth, Employment, and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy established after the dismantling of Apartheid in 1996. 

Zimbabweans “will do the same work that a Zulu or a Korsa person in South Africa will do but for cheaper,” said Daphne Osborne, a 20-year-old from Durban, on a phone call. She has relatives in Johannesburg who claim that Zimbabweans and other migrants escape their oppressive countries only to hide in South Africa’s townships. 

The immigration issue in South Africa is not only an economic and political issue, it is a humanitarian crisis. In a country of 60 million citizens, about 3.9 million are foreigners, many of whom seek refuge from the poor and oppressive environment of their home countries. Over three-fourths of South Africa’s immigrants come from other countries on the African continent. The largest group of migrants, accounting for 24% of all immigrants, have come from Zimbabwe.

Sharon Ekambaram, head of the Refugee and Migrant Rights Programme at Lawyers for Human Rights in Johannesburg, welcomed the reversal of a plan issued by the government in December of 2021. The plan would’ve forced about 200,000 Zimbabweans to return to a home with a low economy and political repression. It allowed permit holders to apply for different visas and for immigrants living in South Africa pre-2009 to remain. The majority of Zimbabweans are illegal and do not hold permits.

“It does call for a debate on how we manage movement in the region without infringing on peoples’ human rights and their dignity,” said Ekambaram. Many of the nation’s migrants are Zimbabweans driven south by two decades of politically linked violence and economic collapse.

International human rights documents, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, express the necessity of accepting economically or politically repressed refugees. 

According to Daphne’s relatives, Zulu people have allegedly killed foreigners in the townships, most notably, migrants from Zimbabwe. A housemaid who works for the Osbornes contacted her friends who live in a township outside Johannesburg. “They are not saying anything,” she said on a phone call, “[they] are scared for our lives. [They] can't give information.”

Police said they are keeping an eye on the current demonstrations, though the protestors have not committed any unlawful acts. The most recent protests have not shown violence yet. But even so, the past has proven it difficult to charge violent protestors with illegal acts or xenophobia. Most protestors claimed to be fighting for their own economic opportunities, but targeted killings and hatred toward particular foreigners from Zimbabwe have shown differently. 

The government of South Africa has been undergoing a changing political and economic environment for the past two decades. There is a lack of a strong foundation for immigration laws and structured labor regulations. In a country stuck with decades-old laws and strategies, “there has not been robust support for a forward-thinking regional migration plan to meet the challenges of tomorrow.”

It is estimated that the jobless rate for South Africans will reach 38.6% in 2026. The government has claimed to be working on a new plan to instill quotas for foreign workers in South African companies. While this is a step in a more structured and regulated migration policy, more needs to be done about the economic and political disparities that exist amongst the nation’s own citizens. The development and training of Black citizens from townships and other poor communities should be prioritized for the future of the nation’s Black population and for youth entering the workforce. There is also a necessity for the creation of more jobs to accommodate South African citizens and the politically and economically repressed refugees.

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