The Palestine Solidarity Alliance warns that political parties are exploiting xenophobia for electoral gain ahead of local government elections, urging a focus on real socio-economic issues instead.
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The Palestine Solidarity Alliance (PSA) has accused political parties and anti-immigrant groups of "weaponising xenophobia" for electoral gain ahead of the upcoming local government elections.
In a recent statement, the alliance condemned recent protests by Operation Dudula and the March and March movement, warning that politicians are playing with fire by using vulnerable foreign nationals as election tools. The local government elections will be held in November.
Amid the anti-immigrant protests, scores of foreign nationals have claimed they are being threatened in their homes in informal settlements and other areas and have been forced to flee. Thousands of Malawian nationals have gathered at the Sherwood hall in Durban demanding to be sent home.
The civil society organisation argued that the political focus on securing borders is a deliberate tactic to distract voters from the country's severe socio-economic crisis.
"Whether through funding, political messaging, online amplification or opportunistic party-political support, any attempt to weaponise xenophobia for electoral gain must be exposed and rejected," the PSA stated.
The alliance warned that targeting migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers serves as a convenient shield for public figures who have failed to deliver on basic mandates. According to the PSA, the real issues facing the electorate are structural, including rampant unemployment, corruption, inequality, and collapsing public services.
"To blame migrants and foreign nationals for South Africa’s pain is not only dishonest. It is dangerous," the group said. "It directs anger downward, at the most vulnerable, instead of upward, at those who hold power and wealth."
The PSA added that this strategy turns neighbours and workers against each other, allowing systemic issues to persist while the poor fight over scarce resources in townships, schools, and clinics.
With political campaigning intensifying, the group cautioned public figures that flirting with anti-migrant sentiment carries severe, real-world consequences that cannot easily be contained once they are unleashed.
"Those political parties and public figures who flirt with xenophobia must understand the fire they are playing with," the statement read. "Once hatred is normalised, it does not remain under control. It spills into homes, schools, workplaces, hospitals and communities. It becomes violence. It becomes displacement. It becomes death."
Instead of using immigration to stoke divisions at the polls, the PSA called on the state and political leaders to focus on systemic solutions.
The alliance urged an immediate shift in focus toward:
The organisation concluded by calling on trade unions, faith communities, and voters to reject the "politics of hatred" and to ensure that the run-up to the elections is defined by accountability rather than the scapegoating of the poor.
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