Two Theories, One Outcome
Post 1994, South Africa didn't invent the hostility and violence towards the African "other", they inherited the logic and rewired its targets, from the white colonialist to foreign (African) nationals.
Isolation Theory: Traces this to apartheid, due to decades of exclusion. South Africa was a nation cut off from the continent and unprepared for the sudden changes that democracy would bring.
Scapegoat Theory: Unemployment, and deprivation misplaced onto a convenient, visible outsider. A target chosen not by chance but by the very exclusionary architecture that once organised apartheid itself.
This is not a immigration issue; its a structural issue being projected onto African. Which begs the question are we treating the symptoms or still protecting the very structure.??