Former South African President Thabo Mbeki has strongly criticised growing anti-immigrant sentiment in South Africa, warning that foreign Africans are being unfairly blamed for problems they did not create.

Speaking at the Thabo Mbeki Foundation and AUDA-NEPAD Business Breakfast, Mbeki said South Africa’s unemployment and crime challenges are real, but insisted that undocumented African migrants are not responsible for them.

His comments come at a time of heightened concern among foreign nationals in South Africa. Nearly 300 Ghanaians returned home this week following anti-immigrant protests that raised fears about their safety.

The repatriation exercise saw Ghanaian citizens voluntarily leave South Africa amid growing tensions.

Addressing the issue, Mbeki said many South Africans were directing their anger at the wrong targets.

“We've got many problems here. The problem legitimately led to high levels of unemployment; that's correct. High levels of crime, that's correct. But the finger is being pointed at the wrong people,” he said.

“The levels of high unemployment in this country are not due. They are not due to undocumented Africans. They are not.”

Mbeki argued that South Africa’s economic decline predates current migration debates and cannot be attributed to foreign nationals.

“We know the history in detail of how South Africa, from 1994 to 2008, achieved growth rates reach 6%. From 2009, it goes the opposite direction. It wasn't caused by undocumented immigrants.”

According to him, those truly responsible for the country’s economic difficulties have escaped scrutiny while public frustration is being directed elsewhere.

“The people who caused that decline, they are laughing in a corner there, because we're pointing not at them, but we're pointing somewhere else. It's wrong,” he said.

Mbeki predicted that Africans from across the continent would continue to migrate to South Africa regardless of efforts to stop them.

“One prediction I will make, the Africans will continue to come to South Africa. It doesn't matter what you do.”

He linked that reality to the role many African countries played in supporting South Africa’s liberation struggle during apartheid.

“It’s a particular frame of mind with regard to South Africa, which they helped to liberate,” he said.

Mbeki stressed that the country would not solve its unemployment crisis by targeting migrants while ignoring deeper structural problems.

“You are not going to solve the problem of unemployment here by shouting against undocumented Africans, and leaving the culprit.”

He urged South Africans to confront the real causes of economic hardship and reject narratives that blame fellow Africans.

“Here is the truth: you are busy chasing after ghosts, and you are leaving this devil.”

Mbeki concluded with a reminder of the historical bonds that unite Africans across the continent.

“People are beating drums about the wrong people and failing to understand an organic connection between these Africans on the continent and these Africans here, because we're together in the same struggle. You can't certainly turn against them.”