#PutSouthAfricansFirst

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The controversial nationalist group Operation Dudula marched through Hillbrow, Johannesburg on Saturday, 19 February 2022, demanding one-hundred-percent employment of South Africans, and that illegal immigrants should be removed from abandoned buildings that they squatted in the city center. Demonstrating under the hashtag of #PutSouthAfricansFirst, protests garnered international attention, with many international commentators on social media citing the risks of increased xenophobic violence against foreigners and their property, as calls for illegal immigrants to leave the South Africa were amplified.¹
        High unemployment, increasing migration, and a weakened economy exacerbated the situation. Contemporary estimates placed three to eight million foreigners living in South Africa,² a telling statistic in that its inaccuracy illustrated how many newcomers avoided legal registration or the national census once settling in the country.
        Immigration was a top issue of social media debate at the time.³ Politicians made statistically variant claims on the size of the foreign population in the country. Many parties began promoting increasingly exclusionary policies toward foreigners in order to increase their popularity.

Image source:  Operation Dudula flag, “Our Economy, Our Heritage”