The Role South African Black Males in the Anti-Foreign Africans Riots in South Africa

Abstract

In the post-apartheid era of South Africa there have been intermittent attacks in the townships and slums by young Black South African males on foreign Africans. The official report states that the causes are frustration by the Black South African poor over the slow pace of economic transformation, anger over the huge influx of foreigners into the country that has overwhelmed the social services meant for citizens, and resentment of foreign Africans for taking over the jobs of locals. Using statistical data for analysis, the paper demonstrates that the influx of foreigners into South Africa has remained constant during the apartheid and the post-apartheid eras.  Using another set of statistical data, the paper explains that the majority of young Black males in townships and slums are unemployed and unemployable school drop outs while in contrast statistics reveal that the majority of foreign Africans engage in self-employed informal ventures that many South Africans avoid.  The paper therefore argues that in actual fact there is marginal competition between locals and foreign Africans on the job market because the majority of Ale concludes that the real reason for the resentment by young Black South Africans of foreign Africans engage in informal activities resented by most locals.  The paper concludes that the real reason for the resentment of foreign Africans appears to be that through the informal activities by the foreign Africans the young Black males have been exposed in their communities as lacking entrepreneurship to take advantage of the resources surrounding them.