Debra Manyasi- Contributor 

The Uncomfortable Question

The March and March movement and Operation Dudula. These waves of Afrophobic attacks sweeping across South Africa are not isolated outbursts.

They are part of a coordinated campaign to try to reshape the nation's identity and to clear the path for a political project that seeks to quietly erode the gains of black rule.

After the talk of a self-proclaimed whites only Orania state, strategy has now shifted to the Cape Independence. And who is really behind this? And what do they stand to gain?

A Manufactured Frenzy

March and March presents itself as a grassroots response to illegal immigration. Led by Ngizwe Mchunu and Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, it has set a June 30 deadline for undocumented foreigners to leave.

Attacks on fellow Africans, however, tell a different story. A Zimbabwean man was on a two day visit to  South Africa and he had his stamped passport as evidence. He was walking through town when he was attacked and humiliated. His only crime was that he was simply a black African body. This is not about illegality but Afrophobia. 

The Viral Video That Exposed Everything

In a now-viral video, Ngizwe Mchunu speaks warmly to a white German woman who has lived in Cape Town since 2007. "You're part of us now," he tells her. Her response: "No, I'm not one of you. I'm from Cape Town."

The lady does not identify herself as South African but as a Capetonian.  This reveals the psychological fracture that separatist movements feed on. She has lived in South Africa for nearly two decades, yet she rejects the national identity.

The irony is staggering. A white European is welcomed. A black African, with a stamped passport showing that they entered the country two days before, is attacked and humiliated.

The Media Puppeteers

Mchunu, a former Ukhozi FM presenter, was fired after 11 years for leaking private station information. Ngobese-Zuma is an award-winning radio producer.

These are media professionals who know how to shape public sentiment, who know what triggers rage and who know how to manufacture and push a narrative. If Mchunu could betray his employer by leaking confidential information, what stops him from being a puppet for a political agenda?

The financial devastation that followed, losses estimated at around R5 million, created the perfect conditions for a paid messenger. In an interview on Showmax's Unfollowed (12 December 2024), he admitted: "It affected me a lot. I was highly depressed."

The Strategy: Distract, Divide, Depart

Step 1: Distract. The white architects of an independent Cape province cannot openly campaign for expulsion. They would be exposed as hypocrites.

Step 2: Divide. They pour resources into movements like March and March. They turn the black South African worker against the black African immigrant which is a classic colonial tactic: set the oppressed against the oppressed.

Step 3: Depart. Once the "foreigners" are terrorized into leaving the Western Cape, the referendum for independence becomes palatable.

Orania in a Better Suit

In the Northern Cape sits Orania, a whites-only enclave. It is the naked face of separatism. Cape Independence advocates insist they are "liberal" and "non-racial" but strip away the language and what remains? A wealthy, predominantly white elite seeking to hoard the economic jewels of the Western Cape. Cape Independence is Orania in a better suit.

The Letter That Confirms Everything

In May 2026, Cape Independence Advocacy Group leader Phil Craig wrote an open letter to US President Donald Trump, asking for support for a Western Cape secession referendum. He dismissed the Rainbow Nation as a "romantic notion" that has faded. So his solution is to seek validation from a foreign power to break up an African state.

The Fatal Paradox

The fatal paradox is that the angry South Africans attacking foreigners are fighting for a future that excludes them. If Cape independence succeeds, the poor will still be poor. The black South African who raised his fist against a Nigerian vendor will still be locked out of the wealth now in a smaller, whiter, richer nation that owes him nothing.

The Black South Africans are being used. Their rage is real but the target is a lie. March and March is a manufactured fracture, a slow-motion coup against the idea of a united Africa. The new thinking of the colonialists is that Orania is a fossil while Cape Independence is an ambition.

March and March is the dirty engine driving the train driven by media insiders who know exactly how to push your buttons.