As South Africa grapples with rising tensions over immigration and social decline, Ven. Sizwe Ngcobo warns against blaming foreign nationals for the country’s failures. The Africa Day opinion piece calls for unity, lawful governance and Ubuntu-driven solutions instead of xenophobia, fear and scapegoating.
As the continent celebrates its unity and its promise, South Africa finds itself at a crossroads — and the road we choose matters deeply. We are tired.
Tired of unemployment, drugs, violent crime, crumbling infrastructure and the sight of children sleeping on cold pavements.
That exhaustion is real, and it is righteous. But exhaustion, left unchecked, can curdle into something dangerous — into the scapegoating of fellow Africans who share our soil, our struggles, and our sky. Africa Day was born from the conviction that this continent's people are stronger together. It was forged in the fire of liberation, in the wisdom of Ubuntu — I am because we are.
It is a painful irony, then, that some voices among us now call for foreign nationals to be driven from their homes "before buildings are burned."
