XENOPHOBIC ATTACKS IN SOUTH AFRICA: Failure of Capitalism

Another wave of xenophobic attacks in South Africa has affected Nigerians alongside other African migrants in South Africa. Some have been killed or injured while shops have been destroyed and looted in the recurrent violence. Reprisal or retributive actions in South Africa and possibly in Nigeria and elsewhere can further worsen the cycle of violence.

By Peluola Adewale

There have been reports of the South African police supporting the violence or looking the other way.  There is also tacit support of Cyril Ramaphosa/ANC government in South Africa for the action partly because of the local government elections in November 2026 given the growing unpopularity of the ANC government. Besides, Ramaphosa’s government is happy that foreigners are blamed for its own failure to guarantee decent life for the majority of South African people. Ahead of June 30, 2026 deadline given to the African immigrants to leave South Africa by xenophobic groups like Operation Dudula and March on March, many African countries including Nigeria repatriated their citizens.

NIGERIAN CAPITALIST RULING ELITE ALSO CULPABLE

However, the working people of Nigeria must not be deceived by the grandstanding of the Nigerian ruling elite, talking tough over the attacks in South Africa.  First, it is the ruinous anti-poor policies of all capitalist governments in Nigeria since independence and particularly since 1999 that is responsible for the collapse in living standards and absolute lack of decent jobs and opportunity which is forcing layers of the working class, middle class and youth in Nigeria to run out of the country in pursuit of greener pasture. While Nigeria has effectively become one of the poverty capitals of the world despite its enormous riches in human and material resources, the other side of the coin is that at the same Nigeria is home to the richest back person from Africa.

Suffice to add that this paradox actually defines the real nature and character of the capitalist system as an unjust and inequitable system. This means that running out of the country has now become the only option open to many to escape the crisis. A majority of Nigerian immigrants in South Africa, Europe and America are escapees from the hellish conditions of poverty, lack of jobs and opportunity as well as the daily insecurity and violence in Nigeria. While the world is focused on the xenophobic attacks in South Africa at the moment, thousands more of Nigerians and African nationals are trekking through the Sahara desert and drowning in the Mediterranean Sea in the hope of reaching European shores.

FAILURE OF ANC

In a similar vein, it is the ruinous anti-poor policies of decades of apartheid and post-apartheid African National Congress (ANC) governments that is responsible for the inequality and mass poverty that grips the mass majority of the black South African populace. After over three decades of self-government, the hope and aspiration of the black population have been shattered with the ANC becoming a tool for the implementation of anti-poor capitalist policies which has created a new black capitalist elite while driving the mass majority of blacks further down the ladder. The Cyril Ramaphosa ANC government is simply a continuation of the ruinous past, only the clique at the top has changed. As a result of the despair and desperation and with the South African labour leadership not mounting an effective struggle to unite the working class and find a lasting way out of the crisis, the poorest sections and potentially even layers of the workers and middle classes of the South African population are being led erroneously to believe that other African nationals including Nigerians are responsible for their plight.

However, while South Africa is currently the epicenter of xenophobic attacks in Africa, such reactionary response to the crises of capitalism is not peculiar to South Africa alone. It is much like we saw happen first in Ghana in 1969 when Nigerians were forcefully expelled from the country and secondly in Nigeria in 1983 during the infamous “Ghana must go” episode following the end of the oil boom of the 70s. Over two million Ghanaians and other African nationals were forcefully expelled by the Shagari government then. This shows how the capitalist ruling elite often fan embers of division in order to turn attention of the masses away from the real causes of their misery. They are comfortable when the problems are not put at their doorstep. Not only against foreigners, such tactics are also used by rival factions of the Nigerian ruling class denouncing so-called “outsiders” from other Nigerian states.

FOR WORKING CLASS SOLIDARITY AND UNITY!

All the above therefore means that in the real sense of the word, the poor South African workers and youth who are involved in these xenophobic attacks as well as the Nigerian and other African migrants who are being attacked are victims of the same conditions of capitalism. The only way out is for a united struggle of the working classes of Africa countries to challenge and defeat their capitalist ruling classes and enthrone a workers-led government armed with socialist policies.

South Africa’s economy and Nigeria’s economy are sizeable and have the potential to rapidly provide a decent and happier life for a majority of their populations if they were run in the interests of the working people. Officially over 40% of South Africans of working age are either unemployed or have given up looking for work. Over 60% of Black South Africans live in poverty, over 30 years after the end of the Apartheid regime was meant to have brought equality. But the end of Apartheid did not end capitalism and the insatiable greed of the capitalist elite. Even the World Bank describes South Africa as “the most unequal country in the world by any measure”.

Therefore, these xenophobic attacks in South Africa and the daily insecurity and violence in Nigeria itself show the urgency for mass struggle to develop and mass workers’ parties built to end this unjust system. Otherwise, the alternative is barbarism. Under a workers-led government armed with socialist policies, the key sectors of the economies of both countries will be placed under public ownership and democratic management. By doing this that it is possible to begin to utilise the enormous wealth of both countries, and set an example to Africa as a whole to break with capitalism and begin to provide decent jobs, quality public education and health care and a living wage for all.

Therefore, rather than call for attacks on South African businesses and even nationals, demands on the Nigerian government to begin to provide affordable and quality education, decent jobs and opportunities. It is the absence of these which is one of the reasons many Nigerians are running out of the country in droves only to be slaughtered or sold as slaves in Libya and injured, attacked or killed in xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

Therefore, the labour movement in Nigeria must take a bold step by calling solidarity marches to condemn the xenophobic attacks while also placing the blame on the government whose ruinous policies is responsible for the movement of able-bodied Nigerians abroad in search of greener pasture. With such mass rallies, labour can begin to build the momentum for a 24-hour general strike and mass protest, as a first step, for living wage, reversal of anti-poor policies, for decent jobs for all and investment in public education and healthcare, nationalisation of the keys sectors of the economy under democratic workers control and management.

By and large, while xenophobic attacks must be unequivocally condemned, it should be stressed that anti-poor policies of the capitalist governments of South Africa, Nigeria and other African countries and failure of capitalism in the neo-colonial economies create the condition for the menace.  So, it requires the unity and solidarity among the working people of Africa in struggle for socialism to begin to overcome and defeat xenophobia and all divisions.