Abstract

This article addresses the question surrounding the political economy of the dialectics of xenophobia in South Africa. Hinging on qualitative methodology, data was drawn from both primary and secondary sources using key informant interviews, focus group discussion and archival materials respectively. Field evidence and data that was interrogated and analyzed thematically using content analysis, revealed that internal discontentment and contradictions in South Africa including social and economic inequalities, corruption, leadership deficit, poverty, unemployment, illiteracy and political rhetoric that opportunistically pit indigenous, economically less privileged South Africans against foreign Africans that are in South Africa to eke out a living and carry out their legitimate economic businesses, underpin the political economy of the xenophobic violence in South Africa. It is therefore recommended that the prevailing socio-economic conditions in post-apartheid South Africa, must be conscientiously addressed in order to address the problem of xenophobia.