For nearly two decades, South Africa has suffered recurring bouts of xenophobic attacks. From deadly riots in 2008 to the rise of Operation Dudula, thousand of foreign nationals have been displaced time and again.
https://p.dw.com/p/5DPTWAttacks on foreigners have been recurring in South Africa over the past two decades, resulting in widespread destructionImage: Kim Ludbrook/dpa/picture allianceAdvertisementFor more than two decades, South Africa has had to reckon with repeated outbreaks of anti-immigrant violence targeting mainly African migrants and refugees from some neighboring nations and beyond.
Critics say that political rhetoric around immigration, combined with deep economic frustration, has helped fuel this sense of hostility toward foreigners; time and again, foreign nationals have been beaten, displaced, killed and had their businesses looted in various parts of the country.
DW takes a look at how xenophobia in South Africa has evolved over the years.
After the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa became a major destination for migrants seeking work and stability. Many arrived from neighboring countries that had been facing economic collapse, conflict or political repression.
At the same time, South Africa struggled with soaring unemployment, inequality and increasingly poor service delivery while the government's focus was largely on nation-building during this fresh chapter.
But while political power structures shifted, much of the country's wealth, land and major businesses have remained concentrated in white hands to the day, leaving the deep economic inequalities inherited by decades of segregation largely unchanged.
A 2021 World Bank study found that the richest 10% of South Africans — identified as mainly white — still own more than 85% of the country's wealth.
Attacks on migrants in townships started becoming more prevalent during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Foreign shop owners were accused of "stealing jobs" or undercutting local businesses, especially in the informal economy.
In May 2008, xenophobic violence erupted in the Alexandra township near Johannesburg before spreading across the country.
According to the UN refugee agency UNHCR, at least 62 people were killed, more than 670 injured and over 100,000 displaced during the attacks. Many of the victims were migrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Somalia.
One of the most infamous images of the violence showed Mozambican migrant Ernesto Nhamuave being burned alive by a mob in the Ramaphosa informal settlement near Boksburg.
Then-President Thabo Mbeki condemned the attacks, saying at the time that no one "in our society has any right to (…) explain naked criminal activity by cloaking it in the garb of xenophobia."
However, Mbeki's administration was heavily criticized for this approach, with many commentators labeling his administration's frequent framing of such attacks as opportunistic acts of crime rather than deep-seated anti-immigrant sentiment as "denialism."
Human Rights Watch later said the string of attacks had exposed "deep-rooted intolerance and poor local governance."
Another major wave of violence broke out in 2015, mainly in the cities of Durban and Johannesburg. Countless foreign-owned shops were looted and burned.
According to Human Rights Watch, at least seven people were killed and thousands displaced during this wave of attacks.
The violence followed controversial remarks attributed to the late Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, who reportedly had said at the time that foreigners should "pack their bags and leave."
Several African countries organized evacuations for those wanting to leave South Africa during these turbulent times: Neighboring Zimbabwe sent buses to bring its nationals home, while Malawi and Mozambique also assisted returnees with logistics.
In September 2019, violence swept through parts of Johannesburg and Pretoria once again.
According to South African police figures cited by Reuters, at least 12 people were killed, and hundreds of businesses looted or destroyed. Nigeria evacuated more than 500 of its citizens from South Africa.
The attacks triggered a diplomatic crisis across Africa, with Nigeria even temporarily boycotting the World Economic Forum on Africa hosted in Cape Town.
President Cyril Ramaphosa condemned the violence, saying that there "is no justification for any South African to attack people from other countries."
Yet critics again argued that the government continued to frame the unrest as being rooted in crime rather than calling it out as pure xenophobia.
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The anti-migrant group Operation Dudula emerged in the township of Soweto in 2021, and quickly garnered national attention for its amibitions.
The movement organized marches against undocumented migrants, conducted raids on businesses and accused foreigners of taking jobs from South Africans while overburdening public services in the coutry.
Human rights organizations accused the group of fueling vigilantism and xenophobia, including blocking foreign nationals from accessing healthcare, schools, and informal trading spaces.
Dudula: Fighting for South Africa or fighting Africans?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Zandile Dabula, the leader of Operation Dudula, told DW at the time: "The escalating crime, drug trafficking, human trafficking, that's bad," linking these phenomena to foreign nationals while insisting that Operation Dudula only sought to fight irregular immigration and crime.
The movement later even registered as a political party ahead of the 2024 elections, and has been growing since, alongside other anti-migrant groups.
Tensions around immigration have remained high in recent years, particularly against the backdrop of South Africa's escalating economic crisis: South Africa's official unemployment rate stood at nearly 33% in the first quarter of 2025, according to Statistics South Africa, while youth unemployment remained above 45%.
Fresh outbreaks of violence in 2026 have triggered protests from leaders in Ghana and Nigeria, with a renewed criticism of South Africa's handling of xenophobia. Nigeria's Foreign Minister Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu stressed: "Nigerian lives and businesses in SA must not continue to be put at risk.”
Nigeria has meanwhile expanded its official response to the latest attacks by announcing a "voluntary repatriation” program for its citizens after two of its nationals were killed as part of the recurring violence.
At the same time, South Africa's presidential spokesperson Vincent Magwenya rejected claims of widespread xenophobia resurfacing in the country, stating that "South Africans are not xenophobic."
He added that what is being observed at the present are merely "pockets of protest, which is permissible within our constitutional framework."
South Africa: Legitimate grievances or veiled xenophobia?To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video
Around the world, migrants are frequently cast as scapegoats for deeper structural problems, reaching from inequality and corruption to weak economic growth and state failure.
In South Africa, this scapegoating has overwhelmingly targeted Black African migrants, who make up more than two-thirds of South Africa's estimated three million foreign residents.
As these outbreaks continue to recur, many observers warn that the country's problem with xenophobic violence has become cyclical, resurfacing whenever economic or political pressures intensify, and revealing how quickly hardship can be turned into hostility.
