The Popularity of State Discourses on Anti-Immigrant Violence in South Africa

ABSTRACT

Over the last 20 years South Africa has experienced a surge in anti-immigrant violence. For at least the last 10 years, the state-sanctioned interpretation of this violence was as follows: it is ‘just crime’ and not motivated by any type of xenophobic sentiment. This interpretive scheme has been challenged by commentators of all stripes. This article examines the popularity of the government’s interpretation of anti-immigrant violence by looking at nationally representative public opinion data from the 2017 and 2018 rounds of the South African Social Attitudes Survey (N = 5,983). The government’s ‘just crime’ discourse was found to be unpopular and other interpretative schemes were much more prevalent amongst the general population. The article will explore what these interpretations tell us about national myth-making in the country.

KEYWORDS:

• South Africa
• xenophobia
• violence
• public opinion
• crime
• racism
• migration
• pan-African solidarity

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Centre of Excellence in Human Development at the University of the Witswaterand, Johannesburg in the Republic of South Africa [Grant P20180003]. The opinions expressed and conclusions are those of the author and are not to be attributed to the Centre.