MTN Group Chairman and former South African deputy minister Mcebisi Jonas has condemned the wave of anti-foreigner sentiment in South Africa, blaming it on the failure of the state.

Speaking at the funeral of Zimbabwean-born activist Thokozani Damasane, Jonas delivered an unsparing critique of xenophobia, casting it as a symptom of state failure cynically exploited by politicians with no interest in genuine solutions. His remarks have circulated widely and drawn attention across South African civil society.

He told mourners that removing foreign nationals would not address the country’s deeper crises, arguing that inequality, unemployment, police corruption and self-serving politics would remain whether or not foreigners left.

Jonas laid the blame squarely on the state, saying it failed to manage immigration, borders, law enforcement and education, and that such failure left people vulnerable to politicians who blamed foreigners rather than confront their own record.

He also traced ethnic division to colonial rule, describing tribalism as a colonial inheritance rather than an authentic African value, and closed with a call for a renewed national consciousness rooted in continental solidarity, arguing that South Africa and the rest of Africa were bound to each other.