South Africa Cannot Claim Continental Leadership While African Migrants Are Treated as Scapegoats

South Africa wants to be heard as one of Africa's indispensable diplomatic powers. Leadership becomes difficult to defend when people from neighbouring countries are repeatedly treated as the explanation for failures in jobs, policing and public services.

The case

AP reported Nigeria's parliament suspending official engagements with South Africa amid anti-migrant violence and deaths involving Nigerian nationals.

State & Power's view

Xenophobia survives because it offers politicians and movements a cheap substitute for governing. Migrants become visible targets for problems created by weak growth, inequality, housing shortages and state failure. A serious government should confront that lie directly.

The strongest counterargument

South Africa faces real pressure on services, unemployment and crime, and not every complaint about migration is xenophobic. Governments are entitled to enforce immigration law.

What matters next

Prosecutions, political rhetoric, migration administration and whether Pretoria treats attacks as a national political crisis rather than episodic disorder will determine whether trust can recover.

Editorial note

This is a State & Power opinion article. Factual claims are linked to primary documents or high-trust reporting. The conclusion is the author's editorial judgment, not a claim of neutral reporting.