In the weeks following the unprecedented and illegal June 30 deadline imposed by reportedly foreign-funded hate groups like March and March, the afrophobia that South Africa has become a global pariah for has simmered on.

It was the urgent topic of this yearâs Winter Seminar, organised by former president Kgalema Motlantheâs foundation, titled âDialogue Among Equalsâ. The event on Thursday, 23 July 2026 in Sandton, Johannesburg, was massively oversubscribed, indicating the level of interest in what SAâs leaders â Department of International Relations and Cooperation Minister Ronald Lamola, former deputy finance minister and presidentâs special envoy Mcebisi Jonas, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi and Motlanthe among them â had to say in response.

âThat the whole country, the whole state machinery, even the whole fiscal structure of government was redirected because a couple of populist non-state actors demanded that 30 June should be the deadline for foreigners [to leave the country], says something about the state of the state,â Jonas said.

On 22 June, Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia announced that his department would redirect R600-million in state resources to countering anti-immigrant unrest in and around the false flag operation carried out nationally by the hate group, March and March.

Violent incidents

By that time, several migrants had been killed and injured in afrophobic attacks, and many so-called foreign-owned businesses had been targeted. Over the following weeks, hundreds more violent incidents were reported, as mobs marched in townships and peri-urban areas across the country, in some cases moving door to door, harassing and displacing families.

âCitizens of a sovereign nation are entitled to expect that borders will be managed competently and fairly,â said Jonas. â[But] the deterioration of parts of our cities, the collapse of public services, persistent unemployment and an economy that has failed to generate enough opportunities are the result of policy failures accumulated over many years. They were not created by migrants. SAâs economic crisis is the product of weak growth, poor governance, inadequate education outcomes, infrastructure failures and structural inequality. If every foreign national left the country tomorrow, those problems would remain. In many respects they would become worse.â

He quoted the Hungarian academic Frank Furedi, who popularised the phrase the âpolitics of fearâ, and its purpose of weakening social trust.

âWhen people see others primarily as threats â whether criminals, extremists, foreigners, disease carriers or sources of offence â social solidarity declines. The result has been a profound turn toward identity politics, in which tribe, religion, race, language and birthplace have become the boundaries of belonging. It is a politics that sorts people into competing camps of insiders and outsiders, and in so doing redefines the nation and challenges democratic ideals of diversity, inclusiveness and egalitarian societies,â said Jonas.

We must reinvent not only an economics of inclusion, but a politics of inclusion and a democracy strong enough to defeat those who traffic in anger and fragmentation. That is the SA our children deserve. That is the Africa we all deserve, and that is the future we must have the courage to build.

âWithout courage, we will go down,â he said.

The Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation Winter Seminar has become a popular forum for dialogue about SA and Africaâs most pressing issues.

Speakers railed against the notion that belonging should be determined by tribe or birthplace.

âIn SA we need to be alert to the dangers of a politics of ethnic and group division, when political identity is bound up with economic aspirations,â said Jonas.

Malign outside networks of funders

âWe are witnessing the operation of malign outside networks of funders, organisers and social media operators of bot farms. They bus protesters across provinces. They amplify outrage online. They manufacture narratives designed to pit neighbours against neighbours, communities against communities, and countries against countries.â

It was an indication that foreign intelligence agencies were becoming the most important authors of national histories, Jonas said.

âWe do not know whether their agenda is to boost the prospects of local political groups, or just to destabilise SA and isolate us from our neighbours.

âWhat we can say is that these attempts to direct the blame for SAâs problems at foreign nationals are fundamentally mistaken.â DM