Motsoko Pheko: XENOPHOBIA IS NOT THE WORD YOU THINK IT IS : AND AFRICA IS AVOIDING THE REAL CONVERSATION

By Neo Makatse

Let’s stop hiding behind slogans.
Let’s stop outsourcing accountability.
And let’s stop pretending this is a uniquely South African disease.
Because it isn’t.

This Is Not Just South Africa

From informal crackdowns in Kenya, to trader tensions in Ghana, to labour resentment in Malawi, to periodic expulsions and border frictions across the continent, Africa has a migration problem it refuses to name honestly.

Not because Africans hate Africans.
But because African states are failing Africans.
And when states fail, pressure doesn’t disappear, it moves.

It crosses borders.
It shows up in townships, clinics, classrooms, and labour markets.
And then we call the explosion “xenophobia” as if that explains anything.

The Lie We Tell: “It’s Just Hatred”

No. It’s not just hatred.
It is pressure without policy.
It is solidarity without structure.
It is Pan-African rhetoric with zero implementation.
And most dangerously, it is silence where there should be policy.

Let’s Talk About What We’re Avoiding

1. Undocumented Migration :The Taboo

We cannot build unity on illegality.
People are moving across borders without documentation, without tracking, without integration systems.
That is not a moral judgment, it is a governance failure.
You cannot run a modern state any state without knowing:

* Who is entering
* Why they are there
* How long they stay
* What systems they are using

Ignoring this does not make us Pan-African.
It makes us administratively blind.

2. Schools The Silent Pressure Point

South Africa’s classrooms are already stretched.

Now add:

* Unplanned population inflows
* No proportional fiscal transfers
* No regional education burden-sharing

And we pretend this is sustainable?
Who pays? The South African taxpayer.
Who plans? No one.
This is not xenophobia. This is a policy vacuum.

3. Hospitals Compassion Without Capacity

Healthcare cannot run on goodwill alone.
Clinics are overwhelmed. Waiting times stretch. Resources thin.
Yet we refuse to have an adult conversation about:

* Cross-border health funding
* SADC-level health agreements
* Cost-sharing mechanisms

So what happens?
Resentment fills the gap where policy should be.

4. Labour The Hypocrisy Nobody Wants to Touch

Let’s be honest brutally honest.
Who hires undocumented migrants?

South Africans.

For:

* Gardening
* Domestic work
* Waiting tables
* Informal retail

Why?

Because they are cheaper.
Because they are more vulnerable.
Because they can be exploited.
So let’s stop the performance.

You cannot:

* Exploit cheap labour
* Undercut wages
* Ignore labour laws

…and then pretend the problem is “foreigners.”
That is not xenophobia.
That is an economic system built on exploitation.

The Question Nobody Wants to Ask Other African States

Here is the uncomfortable truth:
Migration is often not about opportunity.
It is about escape.
So we must ask, directly, not diplomatically:

What is happening in:

* Zimbabwe
* Nigeria
* Ethiopia
* Somalia
* DRC
* Malawi

that pushes people out at scale?

Corruption.
Governance collapse.
Elite capture.
Broken economic systems.
You cannot demand open borders while exporting instability.
Pan-Africanism cannot be built on one country absorbing the consequences of another country’s failures.

African Unity Or African Evasion?

We love the language of unity.

“Borders must fall.”
“Africa must be one.”

But unity is not poetry.
It is policy.

Real African Unity would mean:

* Labour mobility agreements
* Skills recognition frameworks
* Shared tax contributions
* Cross-border social service funding
* Enforcement of labour protections
* Coordinated migration systems

Right now, we have none of that.
So what we call “unity” is actually unmanaged movement.
And unmanaged movement always becomes conflict.

The Skills Debate Let’s Be Serious

To say South Africans lack skills while migrants fill low-wage roles is intellectually lazy.
These are not scarce skills sectors.

They are:

* Underpaid
* Informal
* Unregulated
* Exploitative

The real issue is not skills.
It is wage suppression.
It is labour arbitrage.
It is a race to the bottom.

Crime, Impunity, and the Line We Must Draw

Another uncomfortable truth:
Communities have the right to safety.

Stopping:

* Drug networks
* Violent crime
* Lawlessness

is not xenophobia.
It is governance.
But here is the line we must not cross:
Criminality must be addressed as criminality, not nationality.
Otherwise we collapse into mob justice, and everyone loses.

So What Is the Real Problem?
Not xenophobia.
Systemic failure across multiple African states and the absence of a continental response.

What Must Be Said Clearly

* South Africans are not wrong to ask questions about pressure on public services
* Migrants are not wrong to seek survival and dignity
* Employers are complicit in exploitation
* Governments across Africa are failing to coordinate

Everyone is telling half the truth.
And half-truths are what keep the crisis alive.

The Real Conversation We Need

If we are serious about African Unity, then we must be serious about:

1. Fixing governance in every African country
2. Creating legal, structured migration systems
3. Protecting workers all workers from exploitation
4. Sharing the cost of public services regionally
5. Building economies that people do not need to flee

Final Provocation

You cannot insult South Africans into silence.
You cannot shame migrants into invisibility.
And you cannot build unity on denial.
If Africa wants open borders, then Africa must build functional states.
Until then, what we are seeing is not xenophobia.
It is the collision between human survival and political failure.

And that conversation is long overdue.

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