A Qualitative Review of the Recurrence of Xenophobic Violence and their Effects on South Africa's Role in International Diplomacy

Abstract

The recurring xenophobic violence in South Africa has become a horrific problem that continues to affect the country's international diplomacy in the region and its international relations with other states. Migrants continue to encounter xenophobic violence almost every year, and a number of them live in fear of their lives. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the debate by examining the causal factors of xenophobic violence and their broader effects on South Africa's role in international diplomacy. The attitude of denialism from the side of political leaders, failure to offer quality and good services to the people, and the people experiencing a general sense of deprivation were found to be main causal factors of xenophobic violence. It was found that xenophobic violence defeats the country's diplomacy in exporting human rights protection as the prerequisite for good governance that leads to peace and security to African states. The violence ruins South Africa's African renaissance and Panafricanism diplomacy, and the peacebuilding and democracy diplomacy when dealing with African states. The violence was also found to thwart the country's economic diplomacy in the region and affects the country's involvement in the South-South diplomacy. To reach the findings, the paper adopted a qualitative research method design and used the relative deprivation theory.