Tuesday, June 9, 2026. Stay informed with today’s front pages of Ghanaian newspapers, all in one place.

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.

Ghana’s government has launched a formal push for compensation on behalf of citizens evacuated from South Africa following deadly xenophobic attacks, with Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa urging returnees to meticulously document every lost property, business, and asset.

Addressing the second batch of evacuees on arrival in Accra on Saturday, June 6, 2026, Ablakwa made clear that the West African nation’s response would not end with evacuation.

“We are not only concerned about evacuating you, but we are concerned about your full integration,” he said. “The government of Ghana has decided that we are not going to sit back without any effort in attempting to secure compensation for those of you who have lost your properties, lost your assets, lost your businesses and your shops.”

The minister directed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to begin assembling documentation and evidence to support a legal compensation case. He urged returnees to provide ownership documents, addresses, and any supporting records that could strengthen Ghana’s claim.

“Please make sure that you provide all the information that we require,” he said, noting that forms were already being circulated.

Ablakwa disclosed that President John Dramani Mahama had instructed him to petition the African Union over the matter and raise it at the next AU ministerial meeting.

“President Mahama is going to make a very strong case for you so that you will be compensated and justice will be done,” he stated.

While acknowledging the heavy losses suffered by some evacuees who had spent decades building businesses in South Africa, Ablakwa struck a tone of resilience:

“Yes, you have lost property, you have lost assets, you have left your businesses behind… but nothing comes anywhere near life. Once you have life, there is hope.”

Ghana acted swiftly to evacuate its citizens before the situation worsened, the minister said, adding that several other African countries had reported fatalities among their nationals during the unrest. Ghana’s evacuation strategy has since drawn interest from multiple African governments, with foreign ministers contacting Accra to learn from its operation.

Beyond compensation, Ablakwa announced that nearly 200 jobs had already been secured for returning Ghanaians through a government initiative involving local businesses. Companies including Engineers and Planners, AirtelTigo, and Telecel have responded positively, he said, with additional employers continuing to offer vacancies.

Reassuring evacuees of continued government support for reintegration, Ablakwa emphasized their value to Ghana’s economy, pointing to remittances from Ghanaians abroad, which reached a record US$7.8 billion last year, according to Bank of Ghana data.

“We value you because you have always contributed to this economy,” he said.