Fight for documents
“I’m not saying it cares about South Africans, because I see they also have their issues about the Department of Home Affairs. But, as for us, I believe no one cares about us.” Big business, continued Garba, sometimes aligns with local government to drive sentiments against migrant-owned informal businesses. He gave the example of Hermanus, where he has worked.
The scale of inequality in South Africa lends itself to the mobilisation of one unstable group against another, according to Garba. However, the “right-wing populist mobilisations” that have sprung up against migrants are retrogressive.