Has South Africa failed his vision?

In South Africa, Nelson Mandela is honored every year on July 18, the birthday of the former president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. On Mandela Day, people around the world are encouraged to help build a more just society.

South Africa’s anti-apartheid hero fought against discrimination based on skin color and ethnicity. Yet three decades after the end of apartheid, many Africans in South Africa still face xenophobia, rejection and violence.

Competition for jobs

“We live in a world where many young people feel hopeless because opportunities are limited, and frustrations are easily directed at foreigners, who are often seen as competitors for jobs,” said Mpho Tsotetsi, a 32-year-old South African social worker who lives in a township near Johannesburg.

Nevertheless, she does not see Mandela’s dream as shattered forever, but admits it has been challenged. “Mandela envisioned a South Africa built on reconciliation, respect for human dignity, and African solidarity,” Tsotetsi told DW.

Mandela was aware that many African countries stood by South Africa in the struggle against apartheid, according to Tsotetsi. “He believed that Africa’s future depended on unity rather than division.”

But the escalation of anti-migrant protests reveals a different reality.

Many migrants have fled South Africa in recent weeks out of fear — vigilante groups such as “March and March” and “Operation Dudula” have threatened further violence and intimidated people.

According to Tsotetsi, the recent “Mabahambe” (“You must go!”) march and wider anti-migrant protests reflect the frustration of many South Africans who believe the government has failed to tackle unemployment, crime, irregular migration and poor service delivery. Critics, however, have described the protests as xenophobic.

Mandela’s legacy is not a ‘static thing’

According to Verne Harris, a staff member and former archivist for Nelson Mandela at the Mandela Foundation, these frustrations among the population are legitimate.

People are growing impatient, but the demonstrations are also politically driven. With local elections approaching in November, opposition parties have an incentive to stoke anti-government sentiment.

“Nelson Mandela’s legacy is not a static thing, but a dynamic public resource open to new interpretations,” Harris told DW. “It has been always been made and remade over time, it is a living thing. It can be mobilized for good, also for evil.”

Madiba, as Mandela was popularly known, spoke publicly for the first time about Afrophobia and xenophobia of all kinds shortly after taking office as the country’s president in 1994, according to Harris.

“In 1995, he made his views very clear: These forms of hatred are unacceptable in a democracy, and it is precisely this call — which he made early on in our democracy—that the Nelson Mandela Foundation continues to make,” Harris said.

One cannot understand Afrophobia in South Africa in 2026 without an understanding of the structural realities of a particular form of capital, Harris noted. South African capital, he added, relates to the rest of the continent in a profoundly exploitative manner.

“This is reminiscent of colonial forms of exploitation and it explains — in the same way that you see European and North American countries patrol borders to keep those from Africa out — why South Africa is now doing the same,” Harris added.

Elite party leadership

The economic compromises made by the Mandela administration upon taking office are consistent with the African National Congress’s (ANC) vision of capitalism, according to Mametlwe Seipei, who works at Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia, a coalition of civil society organizations, workers, and migrant groups.

“An economy dominated by foreign mineral monopolies and cheap labor from abroad—that’s what has brought us to where we are now,” Seipei told DW.

He argues that while the ANC united the masses’ hope for a better life during the struggle for liberation against white rule, the party’s leadership belonged to the political elite.

He criticizes that the rise of black capitalism — while maintaining the economic architecture of the former apartheid state — has not advanced society.

Tessa Dooms, a sociologist and founder of the NGO Rivonia Circle, views the current situation in South Africa this way: “A special form of apartheid still exists, as if nothing had changed in 1994. People continue to live as rich and poor, as Black and white, as if nothing had changed — that is part of the difficulty,” she told DW.

“The real reason this country has failed to overcome its divisions is that we have not tackled or dismantled inequality,” said Dooms. “We have allowed wealth to accumulate; the only difference today is that this wealth now accumulates in the hands of a political and economic elite.” 

It ignores the majority of the poor, who happen to be Black as well, she added.

Failure of wealth redistribution

Mandela’s vision of a rainbow nation had reconciled the country, the sociologist emphasized.

“It was not a misplaced idea, but one that will always fall short if it is not followed by a real commitment to structurally undoing apartheid,” Dooms said, adding that his dream required more — a systemic approach to reshaping government and the economy.

According to Obakang Arie, a young accountant, while xenophobia stands in stark contrast to Mandela’s vision, his legacy remains visible in that South Africa continues to uphold democracy:

“We have the opportunity to elect a government of our choice, enjoy strong protection of human rights, and are well-positioned as citizens and civil society organizations,” he told DW.

Yet South Africa is an emerging economy whose growth rate remains below inflation, limiting economic development.

“The March movement and the March protests merely highlight the vision, which continues to be measured against the realities of the post-apartheid era.” Arie added.

Social worker Mpho Tsotetsi is convinced: “Mandela’s dream is not dead — it is now up to my generation to decide whether we allow fear and division to shape South Africa, or whether we choose compassion, justice, and accountability. That will determine whether his vision becomes a reality.”

This article has been adapted from German.