Analysis
South Africa: why are Black South Africans turning against other Africans?
What remains of the promise of 1994?
Thirty-two years after South Africa’s first democratic election, the country still faces a question the end of apartheid could not resolve on its own: what becomes of political equality when it coexists with economic inequality inherited from the old order?
The ANC no longer holds the parliamentary majority it had enjoyed since 1994. Government now depends on a coalition of former opponents. Unemployment remains extremely high, while African migrants have faced intimidation, exclusion from services and violence. These developments reveal a democracy that transformed law and political power far more deeply than the material lives of millions of Black citizens.
The weight of the numbers
South Africa remains one of the continent’s most developed economies. Its industry, financial system and infrastructure give it an exceptional capacity for action. Yet this strength coexists with mass unemployment, widespread poverty and vast wealth disparities.
Much has changed since 1994: a Black middle class has grown and access to education, housing, public services and previously reserved positions has widened. But the economic and spatial structure inherited from apartheid has not been dismantled. Places of poverty, distances between home and work, school quality and ownership of capital still bear the imprint of history.
Historical inheritance explains a great deal. After three decades, it no longer absolves those who have governed.
Equality at the ballot box has not yet produced comparable equality in employment, wealth and public services.
The ANC confronts its record
The 2024 election was a rupture. With 40.18% of the national vote, the ANC lost its absolute majority for the first time. The result reflected anger over unemployment, stagnation, failing infrastructure, corruption and deteriorating public services.
Younger generations can honour Mandela without accepting that a dry tap, a failing municipality or a poor school should be tolerated in his name. The past remains important, but it is gradually ceasing to function as a programme of government.
What is a government of national unity for?
The government of national unity formed after the election prevented a major political crisis. The ANC now governs with several parties, including its long-standing rival, the Democratic Alliance. Decisions once made through a durable majority now require negotiation.
The improvement in electricity supply shows that the state retains a capacity for recovery. Yet divisions over land, expropriation, social policy and public spending remain profound. A coalition can share responsibility more effectively; it cannot create jobs and functioning services by itself.
The African foreigner and domestic anger
South Africa has long attracted migrants from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Mozambique, Lesotho, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and elsewhere. They work in agriculture, construction, commerce, transport, services and the informal economy. Some have legal status; others do not.
Weak border control, corruption and the employment of undocumented workers are real problems. The danger begins when migration becomes a general explanation for unemployment, crime, housing shortages and poor public services.
Deporting a Malawian worker does not repair a failing school. Closing a Zimbabwean shop does not automatically create a salaried job for a neighbour. Preventing a Congolese patient from entering a clinic adds neither doctors nor money to public health. Migration’s effects must be measured rather than used to explain every accumulated failure of the social system.
The migrant offers an immediate answer to a much older problem.
When private groups take the place of the state
The crisis becomes more serious when private groups assume public powers: checking papers, blocking hospitals or driving people from their homes and workplaces. A state may set rules for entry and residence; that authority cannot be transferred to the street.
Such campaigns also damage Pretoria’s relations with the continent. South Africa cannot claim leadership in the African Union, BRICS and South–South relations while allowing the impression that some Africans are unwelcome on its soil.
Achille Mbembe: hearing the warning without abolishing politics
Achille Mbembe has long connected violence against African migrants with the country’s racial history, apartheid’s legacy of violence and a national chauvinism in search of scapegoats. His diagnosis asks how social frustration is redirected towards people who enjoy even fewer protections.
He also recalls an historical debt: South African liberation movements found refuge and solidarity across Africa. His Pan-African horizon does not relieve states of managing borders, residence, labour markets and public services. South Africa must be able to address irregular migration without turning the African into an enemy.
The true balance sheet of 1994
South African democracy promised to end political domination based on race, and largely delivered. It also carried the hope that the Black majority would gradually attain the material security apartheid had denied it. Progress is real, but too many are still waiting.
The issue now exceeds the ANC’s record. It concerns the economic, social and institutional choices capable of completing the transformation begun by equal rights. The coalition will become a historic answer only if it narrows the distance between political and social citizenship. Otherwise anger will seek other targets. The African foreigner is already at hand.
Josué Yède