Africa: Hate On Parade - Xenophobic Marches Gather Pace As UN Warns South Africa

By Ferial Haffajee

Across major cities, political entrepreneurs like Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and Zandile Dabula are staging increasingly bold anti-migrant marches, with little pushback from authorities. As António Guterres condemns the surge in threats and violence, South Africa faces mounting pressure to act before rhetoric turns fully combustible.

City by city, South Africa's two leading anti-foreigner figures - media-facing activists Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and Zandile Ndlovu - organise and lead marches against foreigners, encountering no obstacles.

This week, March and March, a shadowy anti-foreigner movement led by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, which emerged in 2025, marched in Tshwane and Johannesburg using the rhetoric of anti-migrant hate. It is in cahoots with Operation Dudula, the movement fronted by Zandile Ndlovu that was stopped in its tracks by a high court order halting a violent campaign in November 2025, as Daily Maverick's Lerato Mutsila reported.

FOR CONTEXT Court prohibits Operation Dudula from harassing foreign nationals November 4, 2025 The charismatic Ngobese-Zuma was a former anchor at Vuma FM in Durban, and her contract was not renewed in 2025. She then started a movement that sprouted in KwaZulu-Natal and has grown like wildfire. It has held marches across the country, notably against the meaningless and self-proclaimed coronation of an Igbo king in KuGompo (formerly East London).

ROYAL FURORE Government calls for calm after KuGompo erupts over crowning of Nigerian 'Igbo king' March 30, 2026 Wall-to-wall, largely unquestioning media coverage has legitimised Ngobese-Zuma and Ndlovu as civil society activists....

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