27/04/2026
Powerful and profound!
Pemphero Mphande has been trending on Twitter in his defense of Malawians and black foreigners in South Africa in the face of resurgent xenophobia. He wrote this on Twitter some days ago:
There are roughly 230,000 Malawians living in South Africa, making them one of the largest migrant communities there, yet they are repeatedly exposed to violence whenever xenophobic attacks erupt. Why are there so many Malawians in SA?Malawian migration to South Africa is rooted in formal labour agreements from the 1960s, including recruitment through WENELA and later TEBA for the mining industry, and it has continued for decades, even after the 1974 Francistown air disaster, when a plane carrying Malawian migrant workers returning from South Africa crashed shortly after takeoff in Francistown, killing 74 people and prompting a temporary suspension of recruitment. Also, Malawi and SA are tied through regional trade under SADC, with Malawi importing about 493.71 million US dollars’ worth of goods from South Africa in 2024 while exporting about 62.13 million US dollars. This means our economies, our workers, and our traders are structurally intertwined. So when violence breaks out, Malawians are not outsiders caught by chance, they are part of a long standing economic system that benefits both countries. Therefore, a Malawian President who stays silent in the face of such attacks is being negligent. Protecting Malawian lives and defending regional solidarity is a fundamental duty of leadership!