33-year-old Princess Adjei eats a meal on the street while sitting with other foreign nationals who fled their homes amid anti-immigrant protests in Durban, South Africa, June 8, 2026. Image@ REUTERS/Rogan Ward
South Africa’s strained relations with the rest of the continent spilled onto the football pitch last week, when Bafana Bafana captain Ronwen Williams said he was taken aback by how many African fans cheered for Mexico instead of his team during the country’s opening 2026 FIFA World Cup match, a 2-0 defeat. “Africans have always supported other African countries in every World Cup tournament, but I can’t figure out why our own case is different,” Williams said. “Many Africans supported Mexico, not us, the South Africans. We almost shed tears, but it’s truly sad.”
That moment of public embarrassment is just one symptom of a much bigger problem, according to Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, who used a briefing on Sunday to warn that South Africa’s reputation across Africa is taking a real hit, one with financial consequences for ordinary South Africans.
“A majority of South African artists perform on the continent, and many of them are seeing their gigs being cancelled,” Kubayi said, without naming specific performers. She added that one artist had personally told her that all her bookings on the continent had been cancelled, calling it lost income for a South African . The minister said the government, through the Department of International Relations and Cooperation, was also stepping in to support South African businesses operating abroad that have been caught up in the backlash.
Kubayi’s comments come against the backdrop of weeks of protests and attacks targeting other African nationals living in South Africa, some of them entirely legally, as anti-immigrant groups blame foreigners for unemployment and crime. The minister was careful to draw a line between tackling illegal immigration and targeting people simply because of where they’re from. “We do believe that it can not only hurt the brand, but can hurt our social cohesion,” she said, pointing out that even South African citizens have been harassed by anti-immigrant groups based purely on their appearance or accent.
Kubayi went further in appealing for calm, framing the violence as a threat to the country’s own social fabric. “Hence, we are calling for vigilantism to be rejected by communities, for attacks on foreign nationals because they do, to a certain extent, extend to others who are not even foreign nationals in terms of language and how they look,” she said, warning that the trend “can divide us further in terms of our cultural diversity.” She also urged communities to “reject the act of vigilantism, dismiss the noise of misinformation, and partner with government,” stressing that “not everybody who comes from outside South Africa is illegal in our country.”
Xenophobic sentiment has long simmered in South Africa, and analysts say it’s being stoked further by politicians jostling for votes ahead of local elections in November. The fallout has already prompted several governments, including Ghana, Malawi and Mozambique, to repatriate their citizens over safety concerns. Malawi said on Monday it was bringing hundreds more of its nationals home by bus from Durban. Nigeria has also moved to evacuate some of its citizens amid the unrest .
The crisis has drawn international condemnation too. World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X that it was “profoundly heartbreaking to witness another surge of xenophobic violence in #SouthAfrica,” describing it as a “tragic betrayal” of the African nations that stood by South Africa during the fight against apartheid. He said five Ethiopians and five Mozambicans had been killed in the violence.
South Africa’s foreign ministry pushed back on that account, saying the deaths of the Ethiopian nationals were linked to organised crime rather than xenophobia, while the deaths of the Mozambicans remain under investigation. “We deeply regret the tragic loss of life in these recent incidents, as one life lost is simply one too many,” foreign ministry spokesperson Chrispin Phiri said.
Whether it’s cancelled concerts, evacuated citizens, or boos on a World Cup pitch, the message from across the continent appears consistent: South Africa’s standing in Africa is under real strain, and the government is now openly acknowledging it.
By: Andrews Kwesi Yeboah