South African entrepreneur Vusi Thembekwayo is facing online backlash after making seemingly contradictory remarks on xenophobia, first defending his country in Nigeria before criticising migrant communities back home.
The founder and chief executive of MyGrowthFund Venture Partners made his first set of comments at The Platform Nigeria 2026, the annual Workers’ Day gathering held in Lagos on May 1. There, he pushed back against media portrayals of South Africa as broadly hostile to foreigners, urging Africans to resist what he called deliberate efforts to sow division.
He told the audience that isolated incidents of violence should not define an entire nation, pointing to South Africa’s diversity, its population of more than 60 million people, and its 11 official languages as evidence of coexistence. “I think there is an agenda to turn us against each other,” he said.
The tone shifted sharply days after his return home. In a video that circulated in late May, Thembekwayo claimed certain areas had been overrun by migrants and no longer resembled the neighbourhoods he knew growing up. He referenced parts of Kempton Park as examples of urban decline and argued that immigrants should recognise their status as guests, even while acknowledging his own past experience living abroad.
The two positions, delivered weeks apart, have divided opinion across social media. Critics accuse him of echoing the xenophobic rhetoric he earlier warned against, while supporters argue he is naming genuine social and economic pressures without singling out any one nationality unfairly. The debate comes amid a fresh wave of anti immigrant tension in South Africa, where Nigerian, Zimbabwean and other African owned businesses have repeatedly been targeted during periods of unrest.
