Africa Day is a profound reminder of Africa’s shared destiny, its unfinished struggles and its enduring aspirations for unity, dignity, sovereignty and development.
Africa Day should not be reduced to romantic slogans detached from present realities or to empty rhetorical speeches and nostalgic tributes to our liberation past. It must instead serve as a powerful call to confront today’s challenges with determination, resolve and concrete action.
For South Africa, Africa Day carries an even deeper meaning. Our freedom was nurtured, defended and advanced by African and international solidarity.
A number of countries across the continent sheltered exiles, trained freedom fighters and mobilised international support against apartheid. South Africans must never forget the historic sacrifices made by fellow African nations during the liberation struggle.
In a rapidly shifting geopolitical era marked by economic uncertainty, intensifying competition between global powers, climate instability, unemployment and rising social pressures, Africa faces urgent questions of governance, development, accountability and sovereignty. South Africa stands at the centre of many of these debates because of its strategic position on the continent.
Africa Day should also be a moment of pride and celebration. Africa is asserting its leadership in global affairs, with South Africa and President Cyril Ramaphosa playing a pivotal role in elevating the continent’s stature on the international stage. Far from being peripheral, Africa is emerging as a credible force for principled diplomacy, multilateralism and negotiated solutions to global challenges.
Under Ramaphosa’s stewardship, South Africa has positioned itself and by extension the continent, as a bridge-builder and advocate for justice. The voice of Africa is steadily becoming stronger and more influential in global diplomacy. In an increasingly fragmented world order characterised by geopolitical rivalry and the weakening of multilateral institutions, this growing African agency is significant.
At the broader continental level, South Africa has been instrumental in advancing African solutions to African problems through African Union-led peace missions, institutional reform and economic integration. These efforts signal a fundamental shift.
Africa is no longer a passive recipient of global decisions but an architect of its own destiny and an active player in driving international outcomes. This was powerfully demonstrated in South Africa’s response to the Russia-Ukraine war. Rather than choosing sides in a distant conflict, South Africa championed dialogue, de-escalation and a negotiated settlement.
In 2023, President Ramaphosa led an African peace mission to Moscow and Kyiv, demonstrating that African nations will no longer accept exclusion from decisions that shape the global order. The mission amplified Africa’s collective voice, demanding inclusion at the table on issues of peace and security.
A landmark demonstration of this elevated role came when South Africa hosted the G20 Leaders’ Summit in Johannesburg in November 2025, the first time the forum convened on African soil. The summit placed African priorities at the centre of the global agenda, delivering concrete wins on debt sustainability, infrastructure investment, climate finance, food security and critical minerals.
By steering the world’s premier economic forum towards the needs of the Global South, South Africa dramatically enhanced both its own prestige and the continent’s standing, proving that Africa is a vital and indispensable partner in shaping a more equitable world order.
South Africa’s rise as a respected diplomatic actor demonstrates that African leadership can shape global conversations meaningfully and credibly. Through Ramaphosa’s leadership, South Africa is not only reclaiming its own voice but also helping to amplify Africa’s voice in world affairs.
These developments should be celebrated on Africa Day because they reflect a continent gradually asserting its voice and agency in world affairs. For far too long, Africa was treated merely as a site of intervention, extraction and dependency.
Increasingly, Africa, with South Africa often at the forefront, is positioning itself as an active participant in shaping the global agenda, advocating for peace and defending the interests of the developing world.
While South Africa’s growing diplomatic stature deserves recognition, the country also faces immense domestic and regional pressures that cannot be ignored. Over the past decade, South Africa has become a destination for millions of foreign nationals from across the continent. Migration itself is not a new phenomenon but the problem arises when it becomes unmanaged and undocumented.
Weak governance, corruption, unemployment, instability and economic collapse elsewhere have fueled migration pressures.
South Africans are increasingly frustrated by the perception that some African governments have outsourced their socioeconomic problems to South Africa. Curiously, when South Africans legitimately demand stronger border controls, the enforcement of immigration laws and the protection of already strained public resources, they are frequently dismissed as xenophobic. Such characterisations are both unfair and dishonest.
Every sovereign nation has the right and obligation to regulate immigration according to its own laws, economic capacity and national interests.
African states across the continent enforce immigration laws, deport undocumented migrants and prioritise their own citizens for employment and business opportunities without being labelled xenophobic, revealing a troubling double standard. It is within this context that PLO Lumumba’s recent intervention must be understood.
Lumumba rightly raises concerns about violence, vigilantism and the protection of human dignity. Criminal attacks against foreign nationals must be condemned unequivocally and South Africa’s constitutional order demands the protection of all people within its borders.
However, Lumumba’s intervention reflects a selective and incomplete understanding of the immigration crisis confronting South Africa. He appears to suggest that South Africa alone bears a unique moral obligation to absorb the continent’s socioeconomic pressures because some African countries supported our liberation struggle. This argument is neither sustainable nor consistent with how sovereign states operate. Solidarity during liberation cannot mean a permanent surrender of South Africa’s right to regulate immigration and protect limited public resources for its citizens.
As Africans, we need to have an honest conversation. Why, for example, must people migrate from distant countries and travel thousands of kilometres to South Africa instead of seeking refuge or opportunities in the nearest neighbouring country?
When other nations deport migrants or restrict certain business sectors to their own citizens, it is defended as sovereignty, yet similar actions by South Africa are framed as xenophobia. There is also a troubling tendency among some self-proclaimed
Pan-Africanists to advocate for open borders — but only in South Africa. South Africa is expected to be the only venue for this farcical experiment by some pseudo-Pan-Africanists. True Pan-Africanism was never intended to erase national sovereignty. It envisioned cooperation among strong, self-sufficient states, not one country absorbing the consequences of socioeconomic difficulties or governance failures confronting parts of the continent.
South Africans are not xenophobic for demanding lawful migration, secure borders and fair access to limited opportunities. Respect for sovereignty, lawful migration and accountable governance are neither xenophobic nor betrayals of Pan-Africanism.
Africa Day demands maturity, honesty and consistency. It demands that the root causes of migration be confronted head-on. At the same time, South Africa must strengthen border security and restore confidence in the rule of law.
Most importantly, Africa Day should renew Africa’s collective vision. The continent cannot afford to remain dependent, fragmented and reactive in an increasingly competitive global order. It needs leadership that is committed to delivering jobs, dignity and opportunities for its people.
For Africa to achieve its full potential, leaders will need to foster genuine continental solidarity instead of viewing South Africa as a permanent pressure valve. The long-term solution lies not in exporting people but in building functioning economies, stable democracies and capable states across the continent. Only then can Africa Day truly represent both the memory of liberation and the promise of shared prosperity, mutual respect and genuine African renewal.
When history judges our generation, it must never be said that we saw the crisis confronting our continent, understood the solutions and still failed to act. Let it be said, instead, that we chose action over rhetoric, courage over complacency and responsibility over indifference.
Cornelius Monama is a public servant. He writes in his personal capacity (X: @cmonama).
SA citizens are not xenophobic for demanding lawful migration, secure borders and fair access to limited opportunities
