Xenophobia - The Evil Story of the Beginnings of Fascism in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

This paper presents a critical view of the literature on Xenophobia in South Africa with an over-arching objective of presenting the issues as they really are with regard attacks and violence against foreign nationals in South Africa. This paper hypothesizes that the majority of literature on Xenophobia in South Africa has failed to establish the real factors causing Xenophobia. Field work were undertaken in some selected areas known to be "hot spots” of attacks on foreign nationals in the Vhembe District, Limpopo Province for data collection. In addition, literature review and Key Informant Interviews (KIIs) were conducted to gather more data. The results of this paper revealed that Xenophobia existed in the study area. While attacks and violence seem to be emanating from Xenophobia, results from the ground revealed that the major cause has largely been criminality committed by some foreign nationals on locals forcing reactions from the locals. Foreign nationals should be educated on the dangers of engaging in criminality while in the country before they could be allowed entry into the country, while locals should be educated on international laws governing immigration.