Xenophobia offers a simple but misleading explanation for a complex crisis. It reframes mass unemployment, failing public services and weak governance as a question of belonging

Female migrants cite barriers to accessing local healthcare facilities

The judgment complements a November ruling meant to stop groups such as Operation Dudula from blocking foreign nationals from entering government hospitals and clinics and denying their constitutional right to healthcare

The hostility directed at migrants often stems from ignorance of civic rights and scapegoating by politicians wanting to deflect blame from their ineptitude

Politicians all over the world are deflecting people’s anger and resentment at their failings onto a convenient scapegoat

The artist’s latest exhibition, spanning 40 years, celebrates ‘the victory of memory over forgetting’

Xenophobia is festering across the world. In South Africa it carries a dangerous legitimacy, cloaked in the language of liberation, and now embodied in open fascism of Operation Dudula

South Africans are suffering from self-imposed apartheid-like systems and views – having to prove their rights by carrying IDs (similar to the dompas system) and being judged by the colour of their skin (too dark) and language

But there is hope. Poor South Africans, the very people Operation Dudula claims to represent, are standing against this form of hatred and extreme violence

Revolutions are seeded not just in hunger, but in the fear of decline, particularly among those who thought they had escaped it

The Human Rights Commission and legal experts say the Constitution, the National Health Act, the UN Refugee Convention and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights obligate South Africa to provide basic healthcare to all people in its borders

Talk to people to understand why they fled their home county and the difficulties they face in South Africa

State disinvestment in public services, infrastructure and manufacturing ensured that millions would remain trapped in cycles of poverty, with or without immigration

History and data shows people from Zimbabwe, who are not asking for handouts, have given a great deal to South Africa

Xenophobic attacks remind us of what happens when the government fails to deal with citizens’ needs.

Racist posts can go viral in seconds, showing the world that South Africa’s divisions are not history, and reminding us that we still have work to do

The battle against this manipulation is collective, requiring unified action from all who seek to preserve democracy and human rights

This excerpt is from the recently published book, The Black Atlantic’s Triple Burden: Slavery, Colonialism and Reparations (Johannesburg: Jacana, 2024)

South Africa stands out as a country that strongly defends democracy

The toxic xenophobic politics pushed by Gayton McKenzie and the Patriotic Alliance debases us all