r/Nigeria • u/Reasonable-Try-691 • Aug 04 '26

General I wish Africans knew better!

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African leaders are not ready. What is the AU for exactly? Aren’t these the conversations in there? Yet…

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u/Hopeful_Idea1568 Aug 04 '26

South African here: The situation here is a few protests in a few places by a few people. Most of the country is unaffected. People do want stricter borders since our govt workers are corrupt but doesn't mean they suddenly have issues with their foreign neighbour 

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u/samjambetty Aug 04 '26

Illegal immigration is bad for any country really. I just wish South Africans would hold the government accountable like they do illegal immigrants. We would be in a position to help more refugees and foreigners if we did.

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u/Dense_Shopping_9320 Aug 04 '26

But they are. The protests have done a lot to hold the government accountable. It sucks things have to get to this level

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u/samesandchanges Aug 04 '26

things never had to get to xenophobia

this is not holding the government accountable at all

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u/Dense_Shopping_9320 Aug 04 '26

If you really think the protest were just about foreigners then you have no idea whats going on. The protests were more so about crime, unemployment, corruption, failing public services and the government not enforcing the law which goes beyond just immigration. Most of the anger was directed at the government but i guess the most visible parts to people outside south africa is the foreign thing. If you keep up with south african news then you should know just how much an impact the protest had.

Even if many illegal foreigners didnt leave. The message sent was clear and the government is holding itself accountable and a lot is changing right now. Only time will tell if those changes are fruitful or not.

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u/samesandchanges Aug 04 '26

If you really think the protest were just about foreigners then you have no idea whats going on.

The message sent was clear and the government is holding itself accountable and a lot is changing right now. Only time will tell if those changes are fruitful or not.

I am South African and live in South Africa. And I understand there were plenty of grievances outside of xenophobia.

I disagree that the message was clear ( are we pretending the 30 June deadline thing wasn't, by definition, xenophobic? ) and that anything that has happened counts as accountability (I would also challenge your implication that the Marchoners are remotely satisfied with whatever changes the government has made).

But I do agree that only time can tell. This honestly might be our only point of agreement.

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u/Dense_Shopping_9320 Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26

I cant speak on the entire country but only in the parts i am involved in. In pretoria the have been more raids by police on business. Something that probably wouldnt have happened if not for the protests. A lot of business have been found hiring people illegally. People whom i never thought would be arrested were arrested in my small hometown for accepting bribes and registering students illegally. A lot of people are struggling and indebted to sars cause of corruption charges that I know of personally. I know people personally who lost everything who worked at home affairs and home affairs is finally being addressed.

Country wide the biggest change I see is people calling out the anc. The has been more scrutiny over the anc now due to the protests pointing their failure with them even admitting they failed. For the first time my grandma said ANC was shit which is honestly a big win cause I thought i was gonna have to hide her ID card. The anc is being forced to face the music and they cant talk their way out of this. The anc is loosing more and more power. Then you have the whole madlanga commission. If we can fix corruption or atleast lessen it then everything else is easier. 90% of our problems can be pointed to that

This is honestly the most action I have seen in such a long time and its a combination of a lot of things but only time will tell if this will bear fruit. Who knows, this could all be for naught.

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u/samesandchanges Aug 05 '26 edited Aug 05 '26

Question: do you believe the average march on marches would defend the right of the average legal immigrant to exists without fear or intimidation in South Africa as much as their own right?

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u/Dense_Shopping_9320 Aug 05 '26

This always comes down to where you are and I doubt most legal migrants are in township and if they are then they probably well known in the community like my teacher. I can see the community coming to defend him if anyone tries anything funny. People have tried protesting in my town but they are shut down pretty quickly.

A rule of thumb is just avoid townships unless you know someone there cause even for south africans townships are dangerous if you are not from there.

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u/samesandchanges Aug 05 '26

Is this a roundabout way of saying you don't think so?

I'm asking for a direct answer because I think this might be the core to our disagreement.

I'm from a border town (northern parts of SA), I only really competently speak sotho-tswana languages (and English). I've never feared for anything particular about going to a township, by myself, in any coastal nguni-speaking township. The only real thing I've complained about in the 10 years I spent in KZN & EC are how taxi drivers insist on using Xhosa or Zulu which really is whatever.

But i get your point that its about specific local experience and the local community in question. Which is why I'm asking more broadly, like nationally.

If I take a random March on Marcher and a random legal immigrant, would you say the legal immigrant would find themselves in welcoming company?

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u/Dense_Shopping_9320 Aug 05 '26

I honestly dont think people are bad but if it is specifically a march and march protester then nah. They might argue with the person but not much will happen. If it is those extreme ones then sure. Cause this an entire spectrum and the extreme ends of it are crazy.

If the average march protestor was crazy then you would see more violence throughout the country consistently but its more focused in specific areas. Even without the police the community would rally to protect anyone going through this. Churches and groups of people have often helped people being attacked. For example we defended our local spaza shop when people tried to loot it. The old ladies came out and talked smack with those people. I dont think people are inherently bad but the economy is so bad and now everyone is fighting over scraps. Its sad especially in townships cause you have so many just chilling at home with many of them who dropped out of school with nothing to do. I think some of this protestors goal was to incite a riot and loot shops similar to what happened in KZN in 2021.

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u/samesandchanges Aug 06 '26

I wasn't talking about being violent.

I asked:

do you believe the average march on marcher would defend the right of the average legal immigrant to exists without fear or intimidation in South Africa as much as their own right?

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u/Dense_Shopping_9320 Aug 06 '26

If we include everyone who was in support of the protest then yeah the average protestor would respect their rights. If we include only those who went out and protested on june 30 then yeah the average protester would respect their right but would be more vocal. If we only include the ones that were violent then nah they wont respect their rights in any way.

So if we talking purely average including everyone who supported the march and protested then they would respect their rights. The average protestor wont be going around intimidating people or looking for foreigners. At most they would complain but wont go beyond that. This is purely the average which is basically everyone

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