Protesters sing and chant as they gather during a protest march against undocumented migrants in Durban on May 6.RAJESH JANTILAL/AFP/Getty Images
Anti-migrant protests in South Africa have triggered a wave of demands for retaliation in some of Africa’s biggest countries, fuelling a rise in nationalism that threatens to fragment the continent.
The growing hostility to foreigners has led to protest marches and violence in several South African cities in recent days, with vigilantes assaulting African migrants and forcing many shopkeepers to close their doors.
Some anti-immigration activists have announced that migrants must leave the country by June 30. Others have blockaded clinics and schools to keep foreigners out, despite court rulings upholding their right to health care and education.
The assaults and intimidation have sparked a backlash in countries such as Nigeria and Ghana, where local media are now filled with patriotic outrage and sharp criticism of Africa’s most industrialized country.
Opinion: The U.S. is playing economic hardball with Africans’ health
Ghana is seeking to put the anti-migrant attacks on the agenda of the African Union next month, a move that would put South Africa under a harsh new spotlight. The South African government has threatened to respond by demanding a debate on the conditions that push migrants to leave African countries − an implicit reference to corruption and poor governance in the countries that are criticizing it.
In the wake of the reported violence against migrants, many African countries – including Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Lesotho and Nigeria − have issued warnings to their nationals in South Africa, advising them to stay indoors and remain cautious during protests. Ghana and Nigeria have made formal diplomatic complaints to Pretoria and have begun organizing evacuation flights for hundreds of their citizens to return home.
The backlash against South Africa could damage its trade and investment prospects, analysts say. Some politicians in West Africa are calling for retaliation against South African retail and cellphone companies that have a presence across the continent.
Until there is an assurance that “no African is dehumanized on African soil,” the continent’s full potential will never be realized, Ghanaian foreign minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa said in a letter to the African Union last week.
A demonstrator wearing camouflage fatigues takes part in a protest against undocumented migrants in Cape Town on May 8.RODGER BOSCH/AFP/Getty Images
He noted that African countries had supported the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa during the era of white minority rule before 1994. The persistence of attacks against foreigners is undermining African solidarity and weakening Africa’s continental free trade agreement, he said.
Two days later, South African foreign minister Ronald Lamola issued a lengthy statement denouncing Mr. Ablakwa’s letter. He insisted that his country still has a “Pan-African heart” – but he vowed that any African Union debate on anti-migrant attacks would lead his government to propose a debate on “the push and pull factors of migration” − including poor governance and lack of democracy.
Sporadic eruptions of anti-foreigner violence have repeatedly occurred in South Africa since 2008, with more than 430 people killed in the attacks, according to Xenowatch, a research project by the African Centre for Migration and Society at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council said its surveys have found a “marked increase in hostility towards immigrants” in recent years. More than 40 per cent of those surveyed last year said they wanted no immigrants in the country – the highest level of hostility since the surveys began in 2003.
“Immigrants are increasingly perceived as an economic threat,” the council said in a report this month. It also found that 77 per cent of respondents blamed immigrants for rising crime rates.
Studies by research groups in South Africa, however, have found that migrant populations have a relatively low crime rate and contribute to the economy by creating jobs and paying taxes.
The anti-migrant protests could cause enough reputational damage to hurt the South African economy, according to Ofentse Davhie, a researcher at the Johannesburg-based Centre for Risk Analysis. In a commentary this week, he warned that the evacuation flights are signalling to the business community that South Africa is “not a safe operating environment.”
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa tried to defuse the issue this week, saying the violent protests and criminal actions were merely “the acts of opportunists who are exploiting the legitimate grievances” of the poor. He vowed to stop the vigilante groups that are trying to take over state functions by searching private homes and stopping people to check their identification. “Such lawlessness will not be tolerated,” he said.
The escalating feud between South Africa and several other African countries is another sign of widening splits in the continent. In one dispute, African countries were unable to agree on a joint candidate for the top post at the United Nations. They have also failed to agree on who should join the UN Security Council as the African representative if the council’s permanent membership were expanded, as has recently been discussed.
Deportations, meanwhile, have become an increasingly accepted tool on the continent. South Africa’s government says it has increased deportations by nearly 50 per cent over the past year, removing as many as 60,000 people annually. Egypt has deported thousands of Sudanese migrants back to their home country, despite the raging war there, while Sudan itself has deported an estimated 12,000 migrants to South Sudan over the past year.