South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa moved to diffuse growing anti-immigrant tensions on Sunday with a speech on national television. The country has seen weeks of protests and violent attacks, amid calls for a crackdown on immigration.
“We will not be fooled or influenced by social media campaigns that spread misinformation, fake news and lies about people who are in our country,” Ramaphosa says. “We must be concerned that anti-foreigner sentiment is at times accompanied by tribal and ethnic slurs, insults and attacks aimed at other South Africans. This is not acceptable.”
Anti-immigrant groups say foreign nationals in South Africa illegally are exacerbating the country’s high unemployment and putting pressure on public health and education services.
But Ramaphosa said iIllegal immigration is not the cause of all of the country’s economic challenges:
“There are other causes. The answer must be faster economic growth, greater investments, industrial expansion, infrastructure development and the creation of new jobs.”
South Africa’s coalition government placed a new focus on the issue of immigration after it was formed in 2024 and says it has deported over 100,000 people in the last two years who were in the country illegally.