In 2008, as South Africans were slaughtering international migrants, I went to visit my son in Arusha, Tanzania.
I will never forget the fear and horror on everyone’s faces as we discussed the situation over lunch with his mum and friends. They wanted to know what was happening in SA. I had no answer. I was ashamed to be South African. During that year there were 72 deaths due to xenophobic violence, according to Xenowatch.
Over the past two weeks I was again ashamed to be South African as the xenophobic “dom kops” went for Miss SA contestant Chidimma Adetshina because she has a Nigerian surname. During Women’s Month the ANC — which still says it is the leader of society — the Gender Commission and the women, children & people living with disabilities ministry said nothing.
The hatred some South Africans have towards Nigerians is irrational and misplaced. It is irrational because there were only 24 ,718 Nigerians in SA in 2022, according to that year's census, a slight decline from 26,341 in the 2011 census. Nigerians accounted for only 1% of the 2.4-million international migrants in SA in 2022.
To be clear, these statistics are not for documented international migrants. The department of home affairs has not produced such statistics for almost a decade. In March Stats SA released a report, Migration Profile Report for SA, that collated information from various government departments and home affairs was the only one that did not provide updated statistics. In the report, the statistics on documented international migrants were for 2015.
SA is a violent nation that murdered 75 people a day and perpetrated sexual offences against 150 people, mostly women, each day during 2022/23. We have been one of the worst murder and rape nations in the world since long before there were international migrants or Nigerians in the country — yet some people have the nerve to scapegoat them for the crime crisis.
According to Census 2022, international migrants accounted for 3.9% of the country’s population. This is not high by international standards, and they accounted for a lower share of SA’s prison population. According to the Institute for Security Studies, from 2017 to 2021 there was an annual average of 3,566 sentenced and unsentenced international migrants in SA prisons This was equivalent to 2.3% of the average total prison population of 158 ,365 during the five-year period.
In the two-year period from January 2019 to December 2020, the Institute for Security Studies says 30 foreign nationals were convicted for murder and 42 for rape. Of the 942 drug-related convictions, 39% were for dealing in drugs and 61% for the minor charge of possession. The institute concludes that: “There is no statistical relationship between international migration in SA and crime. There is also no evidence that most immigrants commit crimes or are responsible for most crimes in the country.”
Therefore, people who scapegoat international migrants for SA’s crime crisis are either xenophobes who are full of hatred or do not have a basic understanding of maths. The hatred of Nigerians is also misplaced because the xenophobic mob should be directing its anger at the ANC for 30 years of misrule, which has produced the world’s highest unemployment rate.
Over the past week I have watched about seven hours of ANC briefing sessions during and after its six-day national executive committee and lekgotla meetings. It was painful to watch. “Why do you put yourself through such torture?” a friend asked. It is clear that the “leader of society” is a shadow of its former self.
The ANC does not have single new idea on how to confront the country’s unemployment crisis. The statement after the ANC meetings talked about expanding public employment and implementing sector master plans. But the 2024 budget cut R9.4bn from public employment, and the seven department of trade, industry & competition master plans account for only 4.4% of total employment.
• Gqubule is research associate at the Social Policy Initiative. He writes in his personal capacity.
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