… Slams Pretoria over inciting comments
…. 3.9m migrants population proof we are not xenophobic – S’Africa’s envoy
By Nkiruka Nnorom
The Federal Government and its South African counterpart yesterday clashed over the cause and label of anti-migrant violence in South Africa with Abuja accusing Pretoria of inciting commentary and Pretoria insisting that South Africans were not xenophobic considering the 3.9 million migrant population.
The exchange took place at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, roundtable discussion with the theme: “South Africa’s ‘Xenophobia’ in Comparative Perspective”, in Lagos.
Speaking at the event, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Amb. Sola Enikanolaiye, decried what he described as inciting rhetoric by some South African government officials, saying that it creates the environment for violence and erodes Nelson Mandela’s legacy.
He said while Nigeria acknowledges South Africa’s right to manage migration, it was gross distortion to scapegoat foreigners for structural problems they did not create, and insisted that Nigerians and other African migrants were not responsible for the economic challenges in the country.
“Nigerians did not create unemployment. Migrants did not design dysfunctional municipal systems. Migrants did not create corruption or institutional weaknesses.
“These are challenges faced not only by South Africa, but many other countries, including my own. Indeed, recent reports drawing on official economic evidence continually highlight that migrants constitute only a relatively small proportion of the South African population,” he said.
Citing South Africa’s 2022 Income and Expenditure Survey, he noted that the foreign-born population was estimated at about 3.1 million, or 5.1 percent of the population, arguing that public discourse sometimes creates the impression that the country is “totally being overwhelmed by foreigners” when evidence showed otherwise.
The minister expressed concern over recent statements by some South African leaders which he said portray entire categories of migrants as “drug lords, criminals, parasites, drug thieves, or threats to national survival.”
“When leaders describe entire categories of people in those terms, they create an environment in which violence can be socially permissible. Such rhetoric does not help situations such as this,” he warned.
To address the crisis, Amb. Enikanolaiye, proposed six steps, including faster processing of legal migration routes to avoid creating undocumented populations; ensuring the state maintains monopoly over law enforcement and not surrender it to mob action; responsible use of language by political leaders; evidence-based public information; activation of early warning mechanisms and the Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission; and deeper people-to-people diplomacy.
3.9m migrants population, social welfare prove otherwise – S’Africa’s envoy
South African Consul General in Lagos, Prof. Bobby Moroe, rejected claims that South Africa was a xenophobic country, insisting that the country’s constitution, laws, and treatment of migrants prove otherwise.
The diplomat argued that the size of South Africa’s migrant population disproved the xenophobic tag.
“Let me state our position very clearly: South Africans are not xenophobic. We cannot take isolated incidents of criminality performed by a few groups to make a determination on whether South Africans are xenophobic or not.
“If South Africans were xenophobic, I don’t think South Africa would be host to 3.9 million migrants, which is the largest host of foreign nationals on the continent,” he said.
According to him, documented and undocumented migrants make up about 6.3 percent of South Africa’s 65 million population with one in every 16 people of the number, or 2.4 million documented.
He added that South Africa hosts about 187,000 refugees and asylum seekers as of June 2025, and that the Nigerian community alone is estimated at 800,000.
“For comparison, Nigeria hosts about 1.3 million migrants, Kenya 2.2 million, and Ivory Coast 2.5 million. Even with those figures, South Africa is still at the top,” he said.
Current xenophobic tension threatens Pan-African project – Prof. Osaghae
For his part, Prof. Eghosa Osaghae, Director-General, NIIA, said the fate of Africa rests on how Nigeria and South Africa work together, warning that current xenophobic tensions threaten the Pan-African project.
He recalled the “golden days” of Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki, and asked: “It’s not so long ago that Nigeria and South Africa had a healthy rivalry… So, you will ask, what has happened?”
He noted that South Africa’s history of “separate development” and “exclusionary ownership” under apartheid created a template where “if you don’t belong here, you will be out of this place.”
“Internally, these things we are seeing were already beginning to take place,” he said, referencing the black-on-black violence and hostel ethnic allocations in townships before 1994.
He rejected the idea of South African exceptionalism, saying: “Students of comparative politics know that societies that are very different are still comparable. Exceptionalism cannot have a place, because there is no system that is so unique that it can stand alone.”
Expulsions in Ghana, Nigeria, Uganda were politics, not xenophobia – Prof. Otubanjo
Professor Femi Otubanjo, a research professor at the institute, said past mass expulsions of foreigners in Ghana, Nigeria and Uganda were political actions and not xenophobia, arguing that South Africa was “perhaps the only country in Africa” where fear of foreigners has turned into mass mob violence.
He cited four major expulsions in Africa’s post-independence history to buttress his point.
He recalled Ghana’s Aliens Compliance Order of November 1969 under Dr. Kofi Busia, which gave undocumented foreigners 14 days to regularise or leave. “About 1 million to 2 million foreigners left Ghana within a year. Half of these were Nigerians,” he said.
He also cited Uganda in 1972 when President Idi Amin expelled Asians with British passports “because he thought they were the ones leading the Ugandan economy,” and Nigeria’s 1983 expulsion under President Shehu Shagari, when “more than 2 million foreign nationals were expelled.” That was followed by another in 1985 under General Muhammadu Buhari, when about 700,000 undocumented foreigners were expelled, 300,000 of them Ghanaians.
But Prof. Otubanjo insisted these were not borne out of xenophobia, saying: “The Nigerian people were not known to have been hostile to fellow Africans and I still know today most Nigerians die to any foreigners.
“Africans generally, because of our colonial culture, are very hospitable to foreigners, particularly West Africans. I know Nigerians are some of the most hospitable people in the world.”
Ne noted that the South African case does not fit the same pattern.“South Africa, interestingly, is perhaps the only country in Africa in which the fear and resentment of foreigners by a significant proportion of the population have been translated into mass movements whose major focus is harassment, threats and violence at foreigners, particularly Africans.”
He listed the episodes: 1994 in Alexandra, 1998, 2008, 2019, and “the more recent episode of April, May 2026,” which he said led to Africans “fleeing for their safety and their lives from unrestricted mobs of xenophobes.”
