South African musicians and performers are seeing their gigs cancelled across the African continent amid rising tensions linked to migration challenges in the country, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has revealed, warning that xenophobia is now damaging the nation’s own creative economy.

Speaking at a press event, Kubayi expressed deep concern after being contacted by a local artist who reported that all her scheduled performances on the continent had been cancelled. The minister described the development as a direct and painful consequence of anti-foreigner sentiment within South Africa’s borders.

“One of the areas that we would have to look at as well, that has come to my attention, is our artist,” Kubayi said. “Majority of South African artists perform on the continent, and many of them are seeing their gigs being cancelled. So that’s another impact.”

A Ripple Effect Beyond Borders

The minister stated that live performances across Africa represent a significant source of income for South African creatives, who have long been ambassadors of the nation’s vibrant cultural scene.

“They benefit quite a lot. They perform on live performance events and everything,” Kubayi explained. “One artist did reach out to me to say all her gigs were cancelled on the continent. This is an income lost by South Africans.”

The cancellations suggest that anti-South African sentiment may be spreading in response to periodic waves of xenophobic violence targeting African migrants living in South Africa. Informal shopkeepers, truck drivers, and other foreign nationals have been attacked in past years, with tensions often flaring over competition for jobs and economic opportunities.

‘South Africans Are Not Xenophobic’

Kubayi sought to reassure neighboring countries and the broader continent that the actions of a violent minority do not reflect the views of most South Africans.

“We are explaining that South Africans are not xenophobic,” she said. “We are also saying to South Africans, let’s be responsible.”

The minister drew a distinction between concerns over illegal immigration and the protection of legal residents. She noted that other African nations have expressed understanding when the issue is framed as the enforcement of immigration law.

“Those that you have within the borders legally, please protect them like you protect South Africans,” Kubayi said, summarizing the message she hopes will resonate both at home and abroad.

A Call to Reject Vigilantism

The minister issued a direct appeal for communities to reject vigilantism and refrain from attacks on foreign nationals. She warned that such violence harms not only migrants but also South Africans who may be wrongly targeted based on language or appearance.

“Attacks on foreign nationals do, to a certain extent, extend to others who are not even foreign nationals in terms of language and how they look,” Kubayi cautioned.

She argued that the consequences reach far beyond immediate physical harm:

It can not only threaten the brand, but can hurt our social cohesion. It can divide us further in terms of our cultural diversity.”

Internal and External Costs

Kubayi noted that South Africa has long prided itself on cultural diversity and inclusion, welcoming people from different tribes, communities, and nations. Allowing xenophobic violence to continue, she said, risks unraveling that social fabric both internally and in the country’s relations with the rest of the continent.

“We’ve welcomed our cultural diversity and inclusion and welcomed each other from different tribes and different communities,” she said. “If we don’t deal with this both internally, it can also hurt us internally and externally.”

The minister confirmed that her office would now work with the Department of Arts and Culture to assess the full extent of the economic damage to South Africa’s creative sector.

“We’ve not been able to work together, so we’ll definitely work together with arts and culture to understand the impact for them,” she said.

A Broader Warning

For South African artists, the cancellations represent more than lost paychecks. They signal a potential erosion of cultural exchange and goodwill across a continent where South African music, film, and fashion have long enjoyed enthusiastic audiences.

As Kubayi put it, the brand of South Africa itself is at stake. And unless communities reject vigilantism and violence, the ripple effects may continue to spread—cancelling not just gigs, but the promise of a truly united, diverse, and inclusive society.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has announced a series of long-delayed immigration reforms, including dedicated courts and biometric digital ID cards, as South Africa moves to contain a fresh wave of xenophobic violence that has forced multiple African nations to repatriate their citizens and left at least five Mozambicans dead.

The measures, unveiled during a televised address on Sunday, June 7, 2026, come after years of recurring attacks on foreign nationals, with critics questioning why such reforms were not implemented earlier. Ramaphosa acknowledged that the government was now acting against “forces who are exploiting the concerns of our people about illegal immigration to further their own political, personal and criminal agendas.”

“We will and must not allow groups to use the legitimate concerns of South Africans to destabilize our country through inciting lawlessness and violence,” he said, without specifying which groups would be targeted or what immediate enforcement actions would follow.

Special Courts and Secure IDs

The President outlined several policy initiatives aimed at overhauling South Africa’s overwhelmed immigration enforcement system. Among them is the establishment of dedicated courts to handle immigration cases speedily, a recognition that the regular court system has been unable to process the backlog of matters involving undocumented migrants and asylum seekers.

Additionally, Ramaphosa announced the upgrading of the paper-based “green book” identity documents currently carried by South African citizens and legal migrants. These are being replaced with more secure, biometric digital ID cards, which officials hope will reduce document fraud and make it easier to distinguish between legal residents and undocumented individuals.

Both measures, while presented as forward-looking solutions, have been discussed by policymakers for years without concrete action. The latest wave of anti-immigrant protests – some of which turned violent – has finally pushed the government to announce a timeline for implementation.

A Belated Response

The timing of the announcement has drawn scrutiny. Ghana, Nigeria, Malawi, and Mozambique have all begun repatriating citizens caught up in the violence. Mozambique confirmed that five of its nationals were killed.

Ghana’s Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa has already begun assembling documentation to pursue compensation for Ghanaian evacuees who lost properties and businesses.

South Africa has a long and painful history of xenophobic attacks, with major outbreaks recorded in 2008, 2015, 2019, and now 2025. In each instance, foreign nationals – many of whom have lived and worked in the country for decades – have seen their shops looted, homes burned, and livelihoods destroyed. Immigrants are frequently blamed for high unemployment and crime, though economists and migration experts say such scapegoating ignores structural economic problems.

Ramaphosa himself acknowledged this dynamic in his address.

“Migrants are being blamed for problems that have arisen because of poverty and high unemployment,” he said.

He also cautioned citizens against taking the law into their own hands, warning them against stopping people on the streets to demand their identities.

“Enforcement of immigration laws is a responsibility solely for the state,” he said.

Root Causes and Regional Cooperation

Beyond the domestic legal reforms, Ramaphosa said the government would work with other countries to address the root causes of illegal immigration – a nod to the push factors in neighboring nations that drive migration to South Africa, Africa’s most industrialized economy.

But for the families of those killed, and for the thousands of foreign nationals now contemplating whether to remain in South Africa, the President’s words may arrive too late.

Analysts note that previous government pledges following outbreaks of xenophobic violence have often failed to produce lasting change. Whether the promised special courts and biometric IDs materialize, and whether they actually deter future attacks, remains to be seen.

For now, South Africa’s reputation as a regional leader has been tarnished once again, with neighboring governments forced to evacuate their citizens from a country that many once viewed as a land of opportunity.

For 40 years, Steven Mabugana called South Africa home. He arrived from the rural village of Faebom in Limpopo province as a two-year-old, raised by parents who worked as domestic workers in Verulam.

He built a business, employed hundreds, and poured his profits into caring for vulnerable children. But after decades of being treated as a perpetual outsider, he has closed his factory and joined a growing exodus of foreign-born investors fleeing xenophobic hostility.

“A warning to KZN,” Mabugana wrote in a social media post that has since gone viral. “Investors are leaving, jobs are going, Textile is dead, crime is thriving. I employed over 350 staff and closed.”

In an accompanying video, the clothing manufacturer detailed a lifelong pattern of alienation in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), a province that has seen recurrent waves of xenophobic violence targeting foreign nationals and even South Africans from other provinces. Despite being born in the country and having lived there for four decades, Mabugana said he was repeatedly labelled a “foreigner.”

“I’ve always been treated and referred to as a foreigner, been looked at as a foreigner,” he said in the video. “I’ve been called all the names. I’ve been called ‘Kwere Kwere’. I’ve been called Shangan. I’ve been called Nigerian.”

He added that the discrimination often came from law enforcement officers.

“Be it a roadblock, be it a stop and search… those comments and questions would come up.”

A Business Built, Then Abandoned

Mabugana started a clothing manufacturing plant, specifically a CMT (cut, make, and trim) operation, in Hammersdale, a town west of Durban, approximately eight to nine years ago. Within a short period, the business grew to employ around 350 staff, he said.

The monthly wage bill was approximately 1.2 million rand (about $65,000), money that flowed into hundreds of families in a community marked by deep poverty and intergenerational trauma.

Beyond employment, Mabugana launched an early childhood development (ECD) centre that cared for 150 babies, allowing mothers to bring their children to work.

He said he did not request government assistance:

“It was my vision. It was something that we felt that we needed to do.”

The context of Hammersdale, he explained, is shaped by violent political clashes between the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the African National Congress (ANC) in the late 1980s and early 1990s, which left many children orphaned.

“A child would escape under the bed and then you see an article: seven family members butchered, one survives. That baby has now become the young youth that I am having to deal with.”

Despite the surrounding social breakdown, including child-on-child rape and sexual violence that affected his own employees’ families, Mabugana said he embraced KZN as home:

“I saw all of the different races and cultures that we have. I totally embraced it.”

The Breaking Point

Mabugana did not specify a single triggering incident for his closure, but his warning comes amid renewed tensions in South Africa over the presence of foreign nationals in the small-scale retail and manufacturing sectors.

KZN, in particular, has experienced sporadic outbreaks of xenophobic violence, often targeting Somali, Ethiopian, Pakistani, and Zimbabwean shop owners, as well as other African migrants.

His case is distinct, however, because he is a South African citizen by birth—having been born in Limpopo—yet was consistently treated as an outsider due to ethnic and linguistic prejudice. He noted being told:

“You are in KwaZulu-Natal. Why can’t you speak isiZulu?” and “This is our province.”

The closure of his textile plant represents a tangible economic loss for Hammersdale. The textile and clothing sector in South Africa has long been a critical source of semi-skilled employment, particularly for women. Each factory closure accelerates job losses in a country with an official unemployment rate exceeding 32 percent.

A Wider Pattern

Mabugana’s experience reflects broader trends documented by civil society groups. The African Centre for Migration & Society at the University of the Witwatersrand has repeatedly found that xenophobic attitudes in South Africa are not limited to foreign nationals but extend to South Africans from other provinces perceived as “outsiders.” The term “Kwere Kwere” is a pejorative slang originally used against undocumented migrants but has been applied broadly to anyone deemed not belonging to the dominant ethnic group in a given area.

The South African government has repeatedly condemned xenophobic violence and launched public awareness campaigns. However, critics argue that enforcement remains weak and that statements from some political leaders have scapegoated foreign nationals for crime and unemployment.

Mabugana’s parting words in his video underscore the personal toll:

“With all of that, I saw it as home… but I was always reminded that [I did not belong].”

He has not indicated whether he plans to permanently relocate his business outside South Africa.