Xenophobia in SA a symptom of Zimbabwe’s collapse, regional inertia

📅 Published: August 17, 2025

📰 Source: thestandard

Curated by AllZimNews.com

While this is true, it does little to assuage the disillusionment many South Africans have at the moment, as they thought the end of apartheid would bring about improved social and economic prospects.

Instead, for those at the margins of society, the end of apartheid has been characterised by growing inequality and the natural human instinct is to blame those who are different from them, in this case foreigners.

Make no mistake, political opportunists have taken advantage of this situation and are using it to score points, without a care of what will happen to the foreign nationals or the vigilantes that prowl public hospitals and clinics.

I am not convinced that there has been an upsurge in anti-foreign sentiment, but what we are experiencing is a result of the algorithm-mediated reality that we live in.

Narrative gravity refers to the tendency for information and interpretations to gravitate towards a dominant, already established narrative.

It can also be referred to as the “bandwagon effect” where information is filtered and understood through the lens of a popular or widely accepted story, even if the facts do not perfectly align.

In all this drama and all this emotion, I think we are missing the forest for the trees, as we concentrate on the smaller things and fail to see the bigger picture.

The question we should be asking ourselves is why there are so many foreigners – or to be specific, so many Zimbabweans in South Africa, a good number of them undocumented.

South Africa’s governing ANC has for decades mollycoddled Zimbabwe’s government even when it was clear that Zanu PF had taken a wrong turn that will have an impact on neighbouring countries.

To be honest, South Africa has always been a magnet for foreign workers, whether it was during the gold rush or getting ready for the 2010 World Cup, so migration whether legal or illegal is nothing new.

However, the latest wave of migration is being driven by a collapse in social services in Zimbabwe, which has seen public hospitals being unable to dispense even the cheapest of painkillers.

With an economy that has barely ticked in the past decade, hard-pressed Zimbabweans believe they have no choice but to seek medical attention in neighbouring countries such as Botswana, South Africa and Zambia. 🔗

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