South Africa is confronting a shameful moment. Across Johannesburg, Pretoria, and the coastal city of Durban, groups of anti-immigrant activists have reportedly gone door to door, demanding papers, threatening families, and taking on functions that belong to the state alone.
When the state abdicates, the mob does not hesitate to legislate.
The politics of the scapegoat
Immigration has become the lightning rod for anxieties that are really about labour, land, and a broken promise of shared prosperity. The tragedy is that the very people targeted are, more often than not, fellow Africans.
