The ‘Cabbage and the Goat’: Xenophobic Violence in South Africa

The paper offers a way to think through the advent of xenophobia as a feature of post 1994 South African democracy. It does so by locating it within a broader politics of a mobilized citizenry in which a ruling class has been unable to assert its hegemony. In this context of opposing wills, the very terms of reference of citizenship are contested, the elite in the society operate within an idiom of rights, and the mass of poor, radical resource distribution and recognition. The ambivalent position of the ANC as liberation movement, key actor in the founding of the new constitutionalism, and political party engaged in competitive electoral politics adds to the social unease. The resultant fragile ruling ideology has allowed local discourses to thrive based on degrees of authentic belonging.