South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a direct warning to citizens engaging in xenophobic attacks against foreign nationals, telling them plainly that taking the law into their own hands will not be tolerated, even as he acknowledged the legitimate frustrations many South Africans feel about illegal migration.
Delivering his keynote address at the 2026 Freedom Day national commemoration in Bloemfontein on Monday, Ramaphosa said South Africans must not allow concerns about migration to breed prejudice toward fellow Africans. “We should never allow the legitimate concerns of our communities about illegal migration to breed prejudice towards our fellow Africans,” he said, adding firmly, “We must not allow these concerns to give rise to xenophobia directed towards people from other African countries or any other parts of the world.”
The President was careful to balance his condemnation of xenophobia with an acknowledgement of the pressures driving public anger. He confirmed that his government was actively clamping down on illegal migration and on businesses flouting the law by hiring undocumented workers, and said corruption within the immigration system was also being rooted out. But he drew a firm and unmistakable line between legitimate state enforcement and mob justice, making clear that no citizen had the authority to substitute themselves for the law. “We will not allow people to take the law into their own hands,” he declared.
Addressing those who had framed the attacks on foreign nationals as a response to genuine economic grievances, Ramaphosa said frustration could never justify violence or hatred. “We extend hospitality to those who are guests in our country, with the expectation that generosity is honoured with respect for our society and its laws,” he said.
Invoking the history of the liberation struggle, Ramaphosa reminded South Africans of the debt the country owed to the rest of the continent. He said South Africa did not walk alone into freedom, having been carried by a tide of solidarity from African nations that opened their borders to liberation fighters, shared their homes and spoke for South Africa when it could not speak for itself.
“As a nation that defeated colonialism and apartheid through international solidarity, we carry a responsibility to advance constitutional values beyond our borders,” he said, warning that it must never come to pass that South Africa tramples on the African fellowship that made its freedom possible.
This year’s Freedom Day marks the 32nd anniversary of South Africa’s first democratic elections and was held under the theme “Freedom and the Rule of Law: Thirty Years of Democratic Citizenship.” Bloemfontein was chosen as the host city because it is South Africa’s judicial capital and home to the Supreme Court of Appeal, a fitting backdrop for a speech that placed the rule of law at its centre.
The remarks on xenophobia came against a backdrop of weeks of escalating anti-foreigner violence across several South African provinces, including attacks on Nigerian and Ghanaian traders, the killing of two Nigerian nationals at the hands of South African security personnel, and intelligence warnings of fresh protests planned in Gauteng Province between Monday and Wednesday this week, with demonstrators intending to pile further pressure on the government over the presence of foreign nationals in the country.
Ghana had earlier summoned South Africa’s Acting High Commissioner over the harassment of its citizens, while Nigeria’s Consulate in Johannesburg issued a formal condemnation and demanded justice for the two Nigerians killed.