Abstract
The International Organisation for migration in South Africa (2016: 14) defines ‘xenophobia’
as the “attitudes, prejudices and behaviour that reject, exclude and often vilify persons based
on the perceptions that they are outsiders or foreigners to the community, society or national
identity”. In Fanon’s (1967) conceptualisation of the colonialist mentality, he argues that
xenophobic violence is testimony of internalised oppression and that through institutionalised
racism, Africans tend to emulate their oppressors. Moreover, the author is of the view that
irresponsible comments made by the Zulu Monarch, King Zwelitini in April 2015, when he
stated that foreign nationals are enjoying wealth and services that are meant for local citizens;
was perceived as a primary cause of a spate of xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals
across the country (Hans, 2015; Muthuki, 2013; Adam & Moodley, 2015). Researchers such
as Ndlovu-Gatsheni (2018), Neocosmos (2010), Piper and Charman (2016) argued that in the
Post-1994 era, such anti-migration sentiments stem from the politics of nationalism and dire
socio-economic challenges experienced in the country...