Media Reporting, Xenophobic Violence, and the “Forgotten Dimensions”: A Case of Selected Areas in the KwaZulu-Natal Province

Abstract The year 1994 saw South Africa having a black president, in the person of Nelson Mandela, for the first time in its history. It was also the first time that black South Africans voted, since prior racist laws denied them this right. These developments created hope for betterment in the political, economic, and social lives of black South Africans. However, other Africans in the rest of the continent also found hope for better prospects in this new situation, and this saw Africans from outside South Africa flocking to the country. Soon, tensions, caused by resentment on the part of South Africans, who saw their fellow Africans as invaders taking their jobs and livelihoods, spilled over into conflicts that became known as “xenophobic”. In this article we argue that the media did not inform the world about these conflicts in a dispassionate and objective way, as they are expected to do. Instead of helping audiences to better appreciate the issues at hand, the media exacerbated the conflicts through sensational reporting. Through an examination of certain sections of the media in KwaZulu-Natal, this article demonstrates how the media failed to live up to their commitment to the public. The study provides an insight into government agencies at the local level and the importance of involving the local print media in their social cohesion programmes. It aspires to fill the void of research at the local level through a case study on xenophobic influences in townships in the KwaZulu-Natal province.