Apartheid Legacy in Post Apartheid Xenophobic Violence and Crisis of Development in South Africa

The study examined how apartheid legacy has contributed to post-apartheid xenophobic violence and crisis of development in South Africa. A qualitative research approach and explanatory research design was adopted for the study. One research question and one research hypothesis guided the study. Data was also collected through interviews, textbooks, archival materials, journals, internet, government gazettes, periodicals, newspapers, conferences and seminar papers, magazines, etcetera for the analysis of the variables under investigation. The research interview questions were content validated by an expert in the field of social research while discriminatory method was used to ascertain the reliability of the data collection instruments. Qualitative tool such as the narrative analytic technique was adopted for the data analysis. Findings revealed that apartheid legacy contributed to xenophobic violence in South Africa. The study concluded that legacy apartheid related issues have combined to prolong the violence being perpetrated, especially against lives and properties of innocent African nationals and immigrants in South Africa. It was recommended that the communities that are already identified to be very violent need to be steadily giving properly reorientation aimed at shunning discrimination and any act that is capable of harming and destroying lives and properties.