Former South African President Thabo Mbeki has responded to the growing anti-immigrant sentiment in the country, asserting that undocumented African migrants are not responsible for South Africa’s unemployment crisis. Speaking at the Thabo Mbeki Foundation and AUDA-NEPAD Business Breakfast, he emphasised that many South Africans are misdirecting their anger and overlooking the true causes of the nation’s economic challenges.
His remarks come amid heightened concerns for the safety of foreign nationals in South Africa, with nearly 300 Ghanaians returning home this week due to increasing anti-immigrant protests that have alarmed migrant communities. Mbeki acknowledged that South Africa is facing significant issues, including high unemployment and crime rates; however, he firmly rejected the notion that undocumented African migrants are the source of these problems.
“We’ve got many problems here. The problem legitimately led to high levels of unemployment; that’s correct. High levels of crime, that’s correct. But the finger is being pointed at the wrong people.” According to him, the roots of South Africa’s unemployment crisis lie elsewhere. “The levels of high unemployment in this country are not due. They are not due to undocumented Africans. They are not.”
Mbeki said South Africa’s economic trajectory and declining growth rates were well documented and had nothing to do with immigration. “We know the history in detail of how South Africa, from 1994 to 2008, achieved growth rates reach 6%. From 2009, it goes the opposite direction. It isn’t caused by undocumented immigrants.” He argued that those responsible for the country’s economic decline have escaped scrutiny while migrants continue to be blamed.
“The people who cause that decline, they are laughing in a corner there, because we’re pointing not at them, but we’re pointing somewhere else. It’s wrong.” Mbeki predicted that Africans from across the continent would continue coming to South Africa regardless of efforts to stop them. “The Africans will continue to come to South Africa. It doesn’t matter what you do.”
He said South Africans must find practical ways to deal with migration rather than treating migrants as the source of the country’s problems. “You are not going to solve the problem of unemployment here by shouting against undocumented Africans and leaving the culprit.” In one of the most forceful moments of his address, former President Thabo Mbeki argued that the true drivers of unemployment remain unaddressed, even as public anger is misdirected. “The culprits are sitting here. I could even name them, but we are pointing fingers at the wrong people,” he declared.
Mbeki cautioned that many citizens are “chasing after ghosts” instead of confronting the economic realities, urging the nation to face “truth” rather than “fiction.” He reminded South Africans of the continent’s shared liberation history, stressing that Africans across the continent stood together during the anti-apartheid struggle. “People are beating drums about the wrong people and failing to understand the organic connection between Africans here and Africans across the continent. We are bound by the same struggle—you cannot turn against them,” he said.
Source: Abubakar Ibrahim
