SOUTH AFRICA AND ‘THE ROAD TO GANDOLFO’
By Edward Gabkwet
South Africa’s recurring xenophobic tendencies and Robert Ludlum’s satirical novel, The Road to Gandolfo, where an eccentric retired General plots to kidnap the Pope for an impractical $1 ransom from each Catholic in the world, share a central premise of weaponized redirection.
For more than two decades, South Africa has had to reckon with repeated outbreaks of anti-immigrant violence targeting mainly migrants and refugees from neighbouring nations and other parts of Africa, including Nigeria.
It is a fact that at the end of apartheid in 1994, South Africa became a major destination for migrants seeking greener pastures, just as it also struggled with soaring unemployment and inequality with much of its wealth, land and flourishing businesses concentrated in the hands of a white minority.
This situation remains unchanged as at today with a recent World Bank Report revealing that the richest 10% of South Africans, who are predominantly white, still own over 87% of the country’s wealth. Similarly, a study of black ownership on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange revealed that black South Africans remain insignificant shareholders with only 23% of the shares traded on the Exchange.
For the avoidance of doubt, migrants worldwide are frequently portrayed as scapegoats for deeper structural problems, ranging from inequality and corruption to weak economic growth and state failures. In South Africa, however, this scapegoating or weaponized redirection has overwhelmingly targeted Black and African migrants, who make up about 65% of South Africa’s estimated 3 million foreign residents.
Tensions around immigration have remained high, particularly against the backdrop of South Africa’s escalating economic crisis and high unemployment rate which stands at nearly 36%, while youth unemployment hovers around 55%, making it one of the highest worldwide and second to Djibouti.
Many observers warn that the country’s problem with xenophobic violence has become cyclical, resurfacing whenever economic or political pressures intensify and revealing how quickly hardship can be turned into hatred and hostility. The most recent xenophobic tendencies by South Africans, which reared its head in early 2026, is still in effect and has seen several countries, including Nigeria, evacuate their citizens due to the widespread nature of hatred and violence against black African migrants.
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More worrisome is that grassroots’ movements led by local semi-illiterate and ethnic jingoists have illegally taken immigration law enforcement into their hands, targeting not only undocumented migrants but also legal residents and refugees, with little or no convincing rebuffs or arrests by the police or the South African Government.
In Road to Gandolfo, Robert Ludlum deviated from his signature gritty espionage thrillers to an absurdist satire. Here, the story centres around a legendry war hero, General MacKenzie Hawkins, whose biopic was sold to Hollywood but later accused of defacing a historic monument in China’s Forbidden City.
Under house arrest in Beijing and with a pending case in Washington, this looks like the end of the road for MacKenzie. Out of nowhere, Mackenzie came up with a sort of weaponized redirection to instead kidnap Pope Francesco and hold him captive for an impracticable ransom of $400 million to be paid by Catholics worldwide. Certainly, this absurdity epitomizes a potent metaphor for the xenophobic tendencies of South Africa.
The ransom scheme by the troubled General Mackenzie, for instance, is an entirely impractical gimmick, just as the assumption that the eradication of foreign nationals will solve post-apartheid South Africa’s systemic poverty and high unemployment.
Also, the plot to kidnap the ultimate symbol of global Catholicism represents misguided aggression directed at the wrong entity. Xenophobic groups in South Africa frequently direct their anger at vulnerable, localized foreign merchants or undocumented workers from other African Countries, rather than focusing on the root issues of government policy or corporate inequality. Additionally, in both the Road to Gandolfo and the real-world South African crisis, the overarching theme is the profound chaos and collateral damage created by misdirected actions.
Anti-migrant violence fundamentally damages South Africa’s post-apartheid promise of a non-racial, inclusive democracy. Furthermore, it creates massive continental diplomatic friction, prompting nations like Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique and Zimbabwe to repatriate many of their citizens.
It is commendable that these countries have also strongly criticized the passiveness of South African security agencies amidst the obvious breakdown of law and order and the impunity with which the demonstrators are behaving. But beyond the rhetorics, South Africa must be called out to account for these atrocities and be compelled to pay compensations to the victims of this unwarranted weaponized redirection.
Gabkwet, a former NAF Spokesperson, wrote from Abuja.