Through 30 years of our work, PLAAS has learnt that African citizens want the same thing: a safe piece of land with their families to call home, and no one is threatening to take it away from them. The rise of vigilantism, hate-speech, violence, human rights violations, terror, and other unlawful behaviour in South Africa against African citizens is a shameful blight on the leadership of our country and society. Afrophobic and xenophobic threats, intimidation, violence, and inhumane behaviour towards African migrants is in profound contradiction to the values we hold at PLAAS. PLAAS rejects all forms of hatred towards people. Our institute remains a safe space for all who work and study here, regardless of nationality.
A unilateral ultimatum has been issued by vigilante groups for migrants to leave South Africa, with protestors charging on migrants with illegal threats to loot their shops, assaults, vigilantism, and other forms of unlawful behaviour, marking clearly the race and class distinction some members of the public have drawn. Desperate South Africans are intimidating countless thousands, even millions, of people escaping injustice where they were born, forcing them to run for their lives.
Much has been said and written to make sense of how and why some groups using hate-filled language have manipulated legitimate grievances by working-class South Africans – chronic joblessness, failed service delivery, crime and gangsterism, homelessness and landlessness, corruption, and economic stagnation – and laid them at the door of some of the most vulnerable people in our society: African migrants. Fearful movements use Afrophobia to misdirect people’s anger with failed systems and scapegoat migrants for deep-seated socioeconomic crises.
We understand this anger all too well. For over three decades, PLAAS’s research has underscored the severity of poverty, landlessness, and failed policies that poor and working-class people have been forced to live with. By remaining unaccountable for these failures, political, public, and corporate leadership have allowed vigilante groups to threaten our democracy.
As a community dedicated to the struggle for social justice, land rights, and livelihoods, we at PLAAS understand that this is a regional and universal struggle. The histories of conquest, dispossession, colonialism, and neoliberalism have shaped our realities, conflicts, and the many drivers of human mobility across the continent. The fight for justice and dignity is a universal one, internationalism and African solidarity must remain a core principle we defend as a foundation of our democracy. We commend members of the public who have stood up to and rejected Afrophobic responses to legitimate governance issues.
We stand with all African citizens, the poor, and working-class people struggling peacefully for livelihoods and a dignified life in South Africa.
