Almost three decades as a democracy, South Africa remains a highly unequal society. The Covid-19 pandemic and its economic impact have done little to stem the tide of negative sentiment against foreign nationals, who are persistently seen as competing for and taking away scarce resources from struggling South Africans.
Radio Islam International hosted Prof Loren Landau, Migration and Development Unit at the Univ. Of Oxford and WITS University's Centre for Migration in Society and XenoWatch.
Landau says Xenophobia has always existed but what we are encountering is "a heightening of threat", and the attitudes of Xenophobia might translate into violence and are indeed translating into politics.