With less than four months to go until the 2026 South African municipal elections, Mzansi made all the wrong headlines across the continent this June and July with a series of xenophobic protest marches in our city centres, and deportations of a number of undocumented foreign nationals.

For this episode of Politically Aweh, KG Mokgadi took to the streets armed only with his trusty mic and his cunning to ask the hard questions: Are South Africans justified to be this angry over migrant workers? Are Malawians stealing our jobs? Are Mozambicans responsible for the rise in crime? Do our citizens not have access to healthcare because Zimbabweans are overburdening the system?

Statistics unearthed by co-host Zoë Human to address these questions are surprising, but why let facts get in the way of a juicy electioneering narrative?

And just who is orchestrating these controversial marches behind the scenes? Are these the issues that South Africans should concern themselves with in the run-up to the elections, or is all of this just “for the views”?

“The reality is that all of this is manufactured,” says Kyle Findlay, a data scientist with Murmur Intelligence whose analysis of close to four million tweets showed signs of a paid influence campaign.

“There’s money, there are interests, xenophobia is a highly profitable industry,” says Loren Landau from the African Centre for Migration \& Society. “Keep asking the questions that are going to get you beat up,” he urges.

Don’t worry, comrade. KG is on the case. DM

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