As South Africa’s immigration debate continues to dominate public discourse, Ngqabutho Nicholas Mabhena, Secretary of the African Diaspora Forum (ADF), says meaningful solutions require looking beyond the country’s borders.
Mabhena told One Nation Media (ONM) that migration into South Africa cannot be understood without examining the wars, political instability, economic collapse, climate change and poor governance pushing people out of their home countries.
“Why are migrants coming to South Africa?” he asked. “The victims of wars are coming to South Africa. Rigged elections across the continent have contributed to migrants fleeing their countries and coming to South Africa.”
He said that while many African countries gained independence from colonial rule, several have since faced military coups, disputed elections, prolonged conflict and deepening economic crises.
“The guns are not yet silent,” Mabhena said, referring to ongoing conflicts across the continent despite African Union efforts to promote peace.
Beyond conflict, he identified climate change, economic collapse and poor governance as major factors forcing people to leave their countries in search of safety, stability and opportunity.
South Africa’s economic pull
Mabhena argued that South Africa remains an attractive destination because of its comparatively stronger economy, industrial base and constitutional freedoms.
Reflecting on the post-apartheid transition, he said the democratic government sought to build an inclusive “Rainbow Nation” under former President Nelson Mandela while preserving a functioning economy that remained stronger than many others on the continent.
That economic strength, he said, continues to draw migrants despite South Africa’s own severe socio-economic problems.
Competition in struggling communities
Mabhena acknowledged that South Africa continues to face extreme inequality, high unemployment and widespread poverty.
He said these conditions create fertile ground for tensions between local communities and migrants, especially in working-class neighbourhoods and rural areas where competition for jobs and limited resources is most acute.
“When migrants come to South Africa, in working-class communities and rural areas, they are viewed as competitors,” he said.
Mabhena argued that public frustration is often redirected towards migrants instead of the country’s deeper structural economic failures.
“There are those who use these frustrations to say the reason there is no service delivery in communities, or the reason people are unemployed, is because of the presence of migrants,” he told ONM.
Challenging perceptions
Mabhena also challenged what he described as exaggerated perceptions about the scale of migration into South Africa.
He maintained that the number of migrants is significantly lower than is often portrayed in public discourse, arguing that migration alone cannot explain unemployment, poor service delivery and persistent inequality.
Instead, he said South Africa’s failure to fundamentally transform its economy since the end of apartheid has left millions trapped in poverty, creating conditions in which migrants become convenient scapegoats.
Mabhena concluded that migration should be understood as the result of wider continental and domestic failures, not the root cause of South Africa’s socio-economic crisis.
He said armed conflict, disputed elections, climate change and economic decline continue to push people out of their countries, while South Africa’s relative stability continues to draw them in.
At the same time, he argued, South Africa’s unresolved inequality and limited economic transformation have fuelled social tensions that increasingly find expression in anti-migrant sentiment.
“The failure to transform the economy so that it uplifts the majority of the people from poverty has led us to where we are,” Mabhena said.
