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South Africa’s immigration crisis is not the root problem but a symptom of decades of state failure, corruption and economic exclusion. The writer makes a call for ethical leadership, institutional renewal and a national reconstruction programme.
By MADINY DARRIES
South Africa is once again standing at a dangerous crossroads. The recent rise in xenophobic violence, anti-immigration mobilisation, and public anger directed at undocumented foreign nationals is deeply troubling. No society can justify violence against vulnerable people. No citizen has the right to assault, intimidate, threaten, or unlawfully remove another human being from a community, a workplace, a clinic, a school, or a home. Immigration law must be enforced by the state, not by mobs.
But if we are serious about taking South Africa forward, we must also be honest enough to say that the current anger did not appear from nowhere. It was not created by one organisation, one march, one leader, or one slogan. Groups such as March & March, Operation Dudula, and others may be the visible faces of this moment, but they are not the root cause of the crisis. They are symptoms of a deeper national breakdown.
The real question is not simply: who is marching? The real question is: why has South Africa become such fertile ground for this kind of anger, fear, resentment and social fragmentation?
The answer lies in three decades of state failure
For 30 years, the ANC-led national government has presided over a country with enormous potential, deep natural wealth, a sophisticated economy, strong institutions, and a population that wanted dignity after apartheid. Yet, instead of building a capable, ethical, developmental state, it allowed corruption, cadre deployment, incompetence, patronage, crime and institutional decay to become normalised.
Today, South Africans are living with the consequences.
They see collapsing municipalities. They see broken roads, water cuts, electricity failures, crime-ridden communities, failing public hospitals, struggling schools, hijacked buildings, informal settlements growing without proper planning, and cities slowly losing control of basic governance. Johannesburg is perhaps the most visible example of this decay. Once the economic heartbeat of the country, it now reflects the consequences of unstable coalitions, weak administration, cadre politics, financial mismanagement, urban decay, and years of neglected infrastructure.
When citizens live in that environment, anger will find a target. And in a country with high unemployment, poverty, weak border control, corruption at Home Affairs, and real concerns about undocumented migration, foreign nationals become an easy target.
That does not make xenophobia right. It explains why the ground is so combustible.
We must be able to hold two truths at the same time.
The first truth is that South Africa cannot tolerate xenophobic violence. It is morally wrong, socially destructive and politically dangerous. It turns poor people against poor people while the real architects of state failure escape accountability. It creates instability, damages South Africa’s reputation, threatens regional relations, and deepens fear in communities already under pressure.
The second truth is that illegal immigration is a legitimate national concern. A sovereign country has the right and responsibility to know who is within its borders, who is working, who is accessing public services, who is undocumented, who has legal status, and who must be processed through the law. No country can function properly when border management, documentation, policing, labour enforcement and municipal planning are weak or corrupt.
The tragedy is that the ANC government failed on both sides. It failed to protect South Africans from lawlessness, unemployment and collapsing services. It also failed to manage immigration properly, humanely and lawfully. Into that vacuum stepped anger, opportunism, populism, vigilantism and social conflict.
Some commentators want to focus only on the organisations now leading the protests. They ask who funds them, who influences them, who benefits from polarisation, and whether foreign or external forces are exploiting South Africa’s instability. These questions may have value. There will always be players with agendas. There will always be opportunists who exploit public anger. There will always be political actors who use fear to build power.
But that cannot be where the analysis ends.
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External players can only exploit a society that is already weak. Polarisation only takes root where trust has already collapsed. Vigilantism only grows where people no longer believe the state will act. Populism only succeeds where citizens feel abandoned.
That is why the real indictment is not only against March & March or any other anti-immigration movement. The deeper indictment is against the political leadership that allowed South Africa to deteriorate to this point.
The ANC inherited a country wounded by apartheid, but full of possibility. It had the moral authority, international goodwill, institutional infrastructure, and democratic mandate to build a new society. Instead, liberation was reduced too often to access to the state, access to contracts, access to positions, and access to patronage. Political liberation was achieved, but economic liberation for the majority was never properly delivered.
Millions of black South Africans remain excluded from meaningful economic participation. Townships remain underdeveloped. Rural communities remain marginalised. Young people remain unemployed. Housing backlogs remain unresolved. Crime has become a daily reality. The education system still fails too many children before they even enter the labour market. The economy remains too concentrated, too slow-growing, and too inaccessible to those outside established networks.
In this context, social grants have become both a lifeline and a warning sign. They protect millions from absolute destitution, and no humane society should dismiss their importance. But grants cannot be the foundation of a national future. A grant is not economic liberation. A grant is not ownership. A grant is not industrialisation. A grant is not dignity through productive work. When a state relies on grants while failing to create jobs, it does not build citizens; it manages poverty.
This is the real powder keg.
South Africa has a large population that has been politically liberated but economically excluded. It has a state that promises dignity but often delivers dependency. It has communities that are told to be patient while elites enrich themselves. It has citizens who are expected to obey the law while watching politically connected people escape accountability. It has borders that are expected to function while the institutions responsible for managing them are weak. It has municipalities expected to deliver services while they are captured by incompetence, corruption and factional politics.
This is not sustainable.
So where to from here?
South Africa needs more than another speech, summit, commission or election slogan. It needs a national reconstruction programme – a South African Marshall Plan – rooted in ethical leadership, institutional rebuilding, economic inclusion and social cohesion.
First, the state must re-establish the rule of law. Immigration must be managed firmly, fairly and humanely. The country needs secure borders, modern documentation systems, functioning Home Affairs offices, proper asylum processing, employer accountability, action against corruption, and lawful deportation processes where necessary. South Africans must see that the state is in control. Foreign nationals must also know that they will be treated according to law, not mob justice.
Second, vigilantism must be confronted without dismissing legitimate public concern. Government cannot simply label every person concerned about illegal immigration as xenophobic. That is dishonest and dangerous. But it must also make clear that no movement, party or community structure has the right to enforce immigration law through intimidation or violence. The state must listen to citizens, but it must never outsource law enforcement to the streets.
Third, municipalities must be rescued. South Africa cannot be rebuilt if its cities continue to collapse. Local government must be professionalised. Cadre deployment must end. Senior appointments must be based on competence, not political loyalty. Municipal finances must be cleaned up. Infrastructure maintenance must become a national priority. Where municipalities are failing, there must be decisive intervention with measurable turnaround targets, not endless political excuses.
Fourth, the economy must be opened to the excluded majority. This requires more than slogans about transformation. It requires township industrialisation, support for small businesses, skills development linked to real economic sectors, apprenticeships, infrastructure investment, local manufacturing, agricultural development, tourism expansion, and access to finance for emerging entrepreneurs. Economic inclusion must move from policy documents to actual ownership, employment and productive participation.
Fifth, South Africa needs moral and ethical leadership. The crisis we face is not only technical; it is moral. A country cannot be rebuilt by leaders who see the state as a feeding trough. It cannot be rebuilt by people who use race, poverty, immigration and identity as tools of political survival. It cannot be rebuilt by leaders who speak about the people while serving themselves. We need leaders who understand that public office is a sacred trust, not a career opportunity for cronies.
Sixth, South Africa must build a new national compact. Business, labour, civil society, faith communities, traditional leaders, professionals, ethical politicians, and ordinary citizens must come together around a shared rescue mission. This cannot be left to political parties alone. The country is too fragile, and the stakes are too high. We need a broad coalition of genuine patriots who care more about the future of South Africa than about party loyalty.
Finally, we must be honest enough to question whether the current political system is producing the leadership South Africa needs. Democracy should not mean voting every few years for parties that destroy institutions between elections. Democracy without accountability becomes a ritual. Democracy without competence becomes chaos. Democracy without ethical leadership becomes a cover for corruption.
March & March is not the root cause. Operation Dudula is not the root cause. Foreign nationals are not the root cause. They are part of the current political and social expression of a much deeper national crisis.
South Africa does not need dictatorship. It does not need authoritarianism. But it does need a fit-for-purpose governance model that rewards competence, punishes corruption, strengthens accountability, protects communities, and ensures that elected leaders cannot continue destroying institutions without consequence.
The future of South Africa will not be secured by blaming foreigners. It will also not be secured by pretending illegal immigration is not a problem. It will be secured by confronting the real disease: state failure, economic exclusion, corruption, incompetence, and the collapse of trust between citizens and government.
March & March is not the root cause. Operation Dudula is not the root cause. Foreign nationals are not the root cause. They are part of the current political and social expression of a much deeper national crisis.
The root cause is a failed political order that promised liberation but delivered exclusion for too many, enrichment for the connected, and decay for the country.
South Africa now has a choice. It can continue down the road of scapegoating, violence, denial and collapse. Or it can face the truth, rebuild the state, restore the rule of law, include the excluded, and create a new national project around dignity, work, safety, accountability and shared citizenship.
The time for managing symptoms is over.
South Africa needs reconstruction. South Africa needs ethical leadership. South Africa needs a Marshall Plan. And above all, South Africa needs leaders and citizens brave enough to tell the truth: the country will not be saved by anger alone. It will only be saved by justice, competence, courage, and a common commitment to rebuild what has been broken.
Madiny Darries is an IT consultant and entrepreneur. He is also a social activist who regularly contributes to public discourse within the South African Muslim community, with a particular focus on accountability, justice, Quranic thinking, and institutional reform.
