I can understand when some Africans argue that March and March (M&M) leaders like Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and Andile Somgxada, Sandile Dube, should never be forgiven, and must be punished, for the pains, loss and violence they inflict on other Black people.
But the African National Congress (ANC) and the government it controls, tolerated the M&M self-haters.
If M&M had directed its hate, violence, and destruction against South African White capitalist monopoly companies like Gold Fields, Sibanye-Stillwater and Valterra Plantinum would the ANC have tolerated it? Definitely “no”!
Under Jacob Zuma’s presidency, thirty-four striking miners were massacred on 16 August, 2012 in Marikana for demanding improved pay and conditions of working.
Also, in January 2025, with Ramaphosa as president, 246 illegal miners were rescued, while at least seventy-eight others were killed for mining in an abandoned gold mine in Stilfontein. This massacre occurred because police deliberately delayed rescue operations, sealed off exists, and cut off food, water and other essential supplies to the miners for more than a month.
So why did the ANC not take concrete actions against M&M? The answer largely lies in the instantaneous deradicalisation and bourgeoisification of the ANC.
Ultra rightwing White racists assisted the ANC in this project by killing or rather wasting Chris Hani – ANC’s most grass-rooted, most radical, and most influential revolutionary anti-apartheid leader.
He was also, the charismatic leader of the South African Communist Party, and the Chief of Staff of UMkhonto we Sizwe.
The wasting of Hani by a far-right Polish immigrant, Janusz Walus, with a gun supplied by Clive Derby-Lewis of the ultra-right wing Conservative Party, was followed by the measured blackmail, trials, humiliation and ‘disgrace’ of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela.
First, for her restless and relentless opposition and uncompromising struggle against ANC’s capitulation to the interests of White monopoly capitalism.
Secondly, for her insistence that ANC must adopt concrete measures to uplift the conditions of the Black South African majority.
Madikizela-Mandela’s ‘disgrace’ was followed by the expulsion in 2012 of the radical Julius Malema – the former ANC Youth Leader – from the ANC, supposedly for sowing seeds of division. In reality, however, Malema was expelled for openly criticising and resisting the highly compromising positions of the ANC on national and foreign issues.
The deradicalisation of ANC went concurrently with its bourgeoisification. Ritualistic attention was, and is still being, paid to Paragraphs 2, 3, 6, 7, 9 and 11 of the ‘The Freedom Charter.’ These paragraphs centre on issues like democracy, good governance, human rights and foreign policy.
However, the material and cultural base for Black South Africans to enjoy democracy and economic freedom as contained in Paragraphs 4, 5, 8 9 and 10 of the Charter, are gravely silenced.
The results are mass poverty, unemployment, family disintegration, and crimes amongst Black South Africans.
Poverty amongst Black South Africans is approximately 64.2 per cent. That is, about 29.6 million Black South Africans live below the upper-bound of poverty line in 2025/2026, while 48.8 per cent or 10.8 million Black South Africans live below the lower-bound and food poverty-line. Of these, females comprise 48.8 to 64.2 per cent of the poor, whether on the upper-bound or lower-bounds poverty lines.
On the other hand, the poverty rate of White South Africans, is 1.4 per cent. Black South Africans, which constitute 82 per cent, or 51.6 million persons in 2025, accounts for 93.6 per cent of all poor people in the “Rainbow” country!
Whereas, White South Africans, who constitute 4.5 per cent or approximately 4.5 million people, control over 70 per cent of South African land and wealth. As in the Apartheid era, 9 per cent of White South Africans dominate and control the entire economy!
Unemployment rate is 32.4 per cent for 2025, of which 38-40.2 per cent are Black South Africans.
White South Africans constitute roughly 5.9 per cent of the unemployed; the “Coloured” is 21 per cent and Indian/Asian South Africans 6-7 per cent.
Black South African women unemployment rate is 40.2 per cent. Yet, they head about 42.3 – 43.4 per cent of the households of the estimated 63.1 million South African population.
So most Black South Africans are largely brought-up by their mothers and/or grandmothers, without the presence and responsibilities of fathers.
Doubtlessly, poverty and unemployment rates are equally high in Nigeria. But the Nigerian economy is labour-intensive, whereas that of South Africa is capital-intensive.
So while Nigeria has a massive informal economy, which supplies over 90 per cent of the labour force, that of South Africa is about 21.4 per cent. Even so, South Africa’s informal economy is highly restricted, massively regulated, and offers little options for poor Black South Africans to survive.
The progressive underdevelopment of Black South Africans simultaneously went with the increasing decline of the ANC. The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Malema, emerged in 2013, and uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party, led by the disgraced Jacob Zuma, was registered on 7th September 2023.
ANC also lost control of its seats in the National Assembly. From 279 out of 400 seats in 2004, to 264 in 2009, 249 in 2014, and 159 in 2024.
ANC’s decline went concurrently with the increase in Afrophobic and xenophobic violence in 1995, 1998, 2000, late 2005 and early 2006, 2008, 2015, 2016, 2019, 2021 to 2024 and 2026. All indicating ANC’s desperate measures to remain politically relevant amongst Black South Africans. Hence, its tolerance and, by extension, its incapacity to deal with Acrophobia and Negrophobia.
African countries and peoples must, therefore, rise up against Afrophobia and Negrophobia the way they rose up against Apartheid South Africa.
We can definitely count on the support of Africans in the Americas and all forces committed to emancipatory politics. But the task is primarily and largely ours, Africans.
We should not count on European Union countries, or even celebrate their visa restrictions and actions against South Africans. For, as Frantz Fanon warned us, we should: “Leave this Europe where they are never done talking of Man, yet murder men everywhere they find them, at the corner of every one of their own streets, in all corners of the globe.”
Also, Western Europe and its North American cousins are fully aware that the Afrophobia and Negrophobia in South Africa, if not checked, confronted, combatted, and totally neutralised, will graduate to Europhobia, and the loss of their monopolies in South Africa.
The ANC leaders, therefore, and not the popular masses, must be held responsible for the Afrophobia and Negrophobia. We should, accordingly, forgive the masses involved these violent acts.
Besides, Black South Africans are, in Owei Lakemfa’s words, “our brothers and sisters, so when we correct them, it should be with love. It should be like a mother chiding her child… The continent must focus on a bigger picture of Pan-African unity, integration and a New World Order built on peace, sovereignty, human rights and social justice.”
The sustainable solutions to Afrophobia and Negrophobia in South Africa lie in the implementation of Paragraphs 4,5,8,9 and 10 of ‘The Freedom Charter.’ These lay in the decolonisation and de-apartheidisation of Black South Africans.
The rebuilding of the Black family. The entrenchment of Ubuntu doctrines and practices. And, the education of Black South Africans to see themselves as an organic component of the African family.
Until these reforms are implemented, not only will Afrophobia and Negrophobia continue to blossom, but also, the Republic of South Africa will continue to remain a “Whiteman’s country” governed by Black men and women.
Ahmed Aminu-Ramatu Yusuf worked as deputy director, Cabinet Affairs Office, The Presidency, and retired as General Manager (Administration), Nigerian Meteorological Agency, (NiMet). Email: [email protected]
