Why South African xenophobic groups like ‘March and March’ threaten the fabric of society

The emergence of “March and March” as a self-described movement should alarm anyone who values human dignity and coexistence.

This organization operates not as a legitimate civic group, but as a xenophobic hate group that seeks to divide communities along lines of nationality, origin, and ethnicity.

Its very name, repeated like a drumbeat, masks an agenda built on fear rather than on solutions to real social and economic challenges.

Xenophobia thrives when people are made to believe that their problems are caused by outsiders, and “March and March” weaponizes that lie with deliberate precision.

By targeting migrants, refugees, and minority communities, the group redirects public frustration away from policy failures and toward vulnerable people who have little power to defend themselves.

This is a classic tactic of hate movements across history: create an enemy, dehumanize that enemy, and then claim to be the only ones who can protect “us” from “them.”

What makes “March and March” especially dangerous is how it cloaks hostility in the language of patriotism and public order.

Marching in the streets may look like free expression, but when those marches are organized to intimidate, harass, and exclude, they cease to be about democracy and become about domination.

International experience shows that once xenophobic groups are normalized, violence and discrimination quickly follow in schools, workplaces, and neighborhoods.

No country is immune, and the cost is always the same: eroded trust, fractured communities, and a retreat from the values that hold diverse societies together.

Governments, civil society, and ordinary citizens therefore have a responsibility to name this group for what it is and to refuse it legitimacy.

We must respond not with silence, but with facts, with solidarity, and with laws that protect everyone regardless of where they were born.

The antidote to “March and March” is not another march of hate, but a commitment to inclusion that recognizes our shared humanity.

Only then can we ensure that public space remains a place for debate, not for fear.

Burnett Munthali

Burnett Munthali is a Maravipost Political analyst (also known as political scientists) he covers Malawi political systems, how they originated, developed, and operate. he researches and analyzes the Malawi and Regional governments, political ideas, policies, political trends, and foreign relations.