Displaced migrants at Sherwood Park in Durban are demanding that they be sent back to Malawi and not to the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng.
Kim Heller
The latest surge of anti-immigrant sentiment in South Africa is both painful and polarising. Tensions are rising as increasingly strident calls by some political formations for undocumented migrants to leave the country grow louder by the day.
With the November local government elections looming, South Africa is becoming an ignitable political battleground where legitimate frustrations over unemployment, poor service delivery, crime and economic hardship are being weaponised.
Grievances are real. For millions of Black South Africans, life remains a daily struggle for survival. Community fury is constantly fuelled by crumbling infrastructure, poor service delivery and lack of economic opportunities. The rage of Black South Africans is justified. However, the African migrant being scapegoated for South Africa's socio-economic crisis is more of a victim than a villain.
