Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya has pushed back against characterisations of SA being a xenophobic country.
During a media briefing in Cape Town on Wednesday, Magwenya also addressed the fallout from President Cyril Ramaphosa’s working visit to Zimbabwe, and the pending Constitutional Court judgment on the Phala Phala matter.
Magwenya added that Ramaphosa and Mozambican President Daniel Chapo, on a working visit to SA, had agreed this week that SA was not a xenophobic country, and that ongoing protests should not be reduced to that label.
“There’s a trap that we must avoid: that is this blanket description of South Africans being xenophobic,” Magwenya said, adding that such characterisations amounted to a “lazy analysis” of more complex underlying issues, including crime and community pressures.
He drew a parallel with the debunked “white genocide” narrative, warning that the lazy framing of the protests risked unfairly damaging South Africa’s reputation internationally.
Magwenya said both presidents acknowledged that immigration could not be addressed in isolation from the factors driving it — conflict, instability and, in some cases, poor governance on the continent. He said condemnations from African leaders should translate into frank, constructive engagement on root causes.
The spokesperson confirmed that law enforcement agencies were monitoring the anti-illegal immigrant protests, and that Ramaphosa expected the police to prevent violence against any individual while also holding foreigners accountable to South African law.
On the controversy surrounding Ramaphosa’s visit to Zimbabwe at the invitation of President Emmerson Mnangagwa, Magwenya said the Presidency had noted “with concern” reports identifying a person of interest to South African law enforcement among those present at Mnangagwa’s farm, where the two leaders held an informal retreat.
“President Ramaphosa had no prior knowledge of who would be present during the visit, nor is he familiar with the individual,” Magwenya said.
He said Ramaphosa had been in Zimbabwe solely for a bilateral meeting with his counterpart, and only became aware of the individual’s presence when reports surfaced afterwards. Magwenya said the president had since been briefed on the matter.
Magwenya said Ramaphosa was encouraging law enforcement to continue pursuing investigations into the individual without hesitation. “They should not take their foot off the pedal just because they’ve seen these pictures doing the rounds on social media,” he said.
While acknowledging the criticism the images had generated, Magwenya maintained that the circumstances of the visit explained the president’s lack of awareness.
Referring to the Constitutional Court judgment expected in the Phala Phala matter, Magwenya declined to pre-empt the ruling, saying the Presidency was awaiting it like everyone else.
“The president has been consistent in his respect for due process, for the judiciary, and in his support for the role of the courts in resolving matters of dispute,” he said.
The Constitutional Court is expected to rule on whether parliament acted lawfully when it rejected a Section 89 panel report recommending an impeachment inquiry against Ramaphosa over the controversial Phala Phala matter.
The EFF approached the Constitutional Court to challenge the decision by the National Assembly not to pursue impeachment against Ramaphosa despite an independent inquiry finding there was prima facie evidence of wrongdoing in the scandal that involved more than $500,000 (R8.3m) being stored, and some of it stolen from inside a couch at Ramaphosa’s game farm, Phala Phala, in Limpopo.
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