Apartheid Struggle Promises, Post-Apartheid Realities And Xenophobic Attacks In South Africa

Were black South Africans expectant of better living conditions during the struggle against apartheid? Are these expectations being met? What have these unrealized expectations got to do with xenophobic attacks on fellow black Africans? The objective of this study was to examine the link between failure of apartheid struggle promises and xenophobic attacks in the Republic of South Africa in recent times. Scholarly attentions on the issue have been largely restricted to security threat, constant demonization of outsiders, ethnicity, bourgeoning violent crimes and to an extent economic recession. Be that as it may, the vital missing link in these scholarly analyses is the inability of the country's post-apartheid African National Congress, [ANC] led governments to meet or efficiently manage the people's expectations after the struggle against apartheid. On this note, the study made the point that the roots of these xenophobic attacks are high rate of unemployment, poverty, inaccessible healthcare, housing crisis and poor service delivery, among others, as occasioned by governance failure. The study concluded that South African government should pay-close attention to the material well-being of its black citizens that will address horizontal inequality(ies) in the country.