Gayton McKenzie’s ‘Abahambe’ Doctrine: The Rise of a 21st Century Hitler in Africa”

“Gayton McKenzie’s ‘Abahambe’ Doctrine: The Rise of a 21st Century Hitler in Africa”
By George Omagbemi Sylvester

 

In an era when the world is striving toward global integration, mutual respect, and cross-cultural harmony, South Africa has produced a political figure whose rhetoric reeks of an ideology that should have died with Nazi Germany. Gayton McKenzie, a South African politician and current Mayor of the Central Karoo District Municipality, has positioned himself as a mouthpiece for division, hatred, and toxic nationalism. His populist “Abahambe” campaign, loosely translating to “Let them leave” in Zulu; has targeted African migrants, particularly Nigerians and Zimbabweans, as scapegoats for South Africa’s socioeconomic woes. This dangerous doctrine echoes the genocidal propaganda of Adolf Hitler, whose hatred of Jews led to the Holocaust, a crime against humanity that the world vowed would never happen again.

And yet, here we are.

McKenzie’s rhetoric, laced with venom and political ambition, is more than just populist noise. It is a direct threat to the very foundation of Pan-African unity and black solidarity that was built on the blood and sacrifices of anti-apartheid revolutionaries, including Nigeria’s pivotal role in freeing South Africa from white minority rule. To tolerate his ideology is to insult the memory of the African National Congress’s struggle and betray the hopes of a united and prosperous continent.

The Nazi Blueprint: Political Gain Through Hatred
History teaches us that when politicians cannot deliver prosperity, they manufacture enemies. Adolf Hitler did it in 1930s Germany, blaming Jews for economic depression and the Treaty of Versailles. Gayton McKenzie is deploying the same playbook in 21st-century Africa. He redirects anger away from South Africa’s endemic corruption, failing infrastructure, and mass unemployment, and channels it toward vulnerable African migrants.

This is not merely xenophobia; it is fascism with a South African accent.

The “Abahambe” campaign bears disturbing similarities to Nazi Germany’s anti-Semitic policies. Hitler’s propaganda machine dehumanized Jews, portraying them as parasites and threats to German purity. McKenzie refers to African migrants as invaders, criminals, and job-stealers. His party, the Patriotic Alliance, thrives on fear and exclusion, whipping up mob sentiments that have already led to deadly violence. What started as political rhetoric has turned into burning homes, looted shops, and murdered Africans.

How long before the camps come?

Nigeria’s Role in Ending Apartheid: A Debt South Africa Must Not Forget
It is both ironic and shameful that Nigerians are the prime targets of McKenzie’s campaign. Nigeria, perhaps more than any other African country, was instrumental in dismantling apartheid. Between 1960 and 1994, Nigeria spent over $61 billion (in today’s value) supporting the anti-apartheid struggle — funding the ANC, hosting exiles, training freedom fighters, and sacrificing trade relations with Western countries to uphold sanctions against the apartheid regime.

Nigerian students paid the “Mandela Tax” a levy deducted from their wages and tuition to fund South Africa’s liberation. Nigerian diplomats fought tirelessly at the United Nations to isolate the apartheid regime. The country led the campaign to suspend South Africa from the Commonwealth and boycotted international sporting events in solidarity. This legacy is etched in the moral consciousness of Africa and cannot be erased by the vulgarity of one politician.

As Nelson Mandela once stated, “The struggle is my life. I will continue fighting for freedom until the end of my days.” That struggle was not fought alone. Nigeria stood *SHOULDER-TO-SHOULDER* with the ANC in those dark days. That must not be forgotten.

Economic Interdependence: Nigeria and South Africa Need Each Other
Beyond history, the present-day economic ties between Nigeria and South Africa are too significant to be endangered by political buffoonery. South African corporations operate freely in Nigeria, generating billions in revenue. MTN Nigeria alone accounts for over a third of MTN Group’s global profits. Shoprite, Multichoice (DSTV), Stanbic IBTC, and countless other South African enterprises have flourished in Nigeria’s open market, a market that welcomed them without prejudice or nationalist paranoia.

Can McKenzie explain how South Africans benefit from torching the shops and homes of Nigerians whose country has hosted their businesses with dignity?

Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, is not without options. Diplomatic retaliation, trade restrictions, and corporate boycotts would hurt South Africa more than Nigeria, especially given the fragile state of its post-pandemic economy. But Nigeria, under normal leadership, seeks diplomacy, not destruction. Unfortunately, if leaders like McKenzie continue fanning the flames of hatred, consequences, economic, political, and even security-based; will be inevitable.

As former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo once warned, “When we refuse to build bridges, we build graves instead.”

The Aftermath of Hatred: A Future Africa Cannot Afford
If McKenzie’s brand of politics is allowed to flourish, South Africa risks sliding into a pariah status within Africa; isolated, distrusted, and economically weakened. His hatred is not just directed at migrants, but at the very idea of African unity. The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), Pan-African Parliament, and African Union integration initiatives all depend on mutual trust. McKenzie’s divisive narrative undermines this vision and sets back the clock on decades of progress.

Moreover, the violence spurred by his rhetoric threatens domestic stability in South Africa. Xenophobic attacks invite retaliatory violence, as seen during past flare-ups. In 2019, reprisal attacks occurred in Lagos and Abuja, forcing South African businesses to temporarily shut down. A cycle of vengeance benefits no one.

More devastating, however, is the psychological damage. When black Africans turn on one another, the ghosts of colonialism win. They divided us then—by tribe, by language, by artificial borders; and now we do their bidding by fracturing ourselves.

Pan-Africanist Thomas Sankara once said, “You cannot carry out fundamental change without a certain amount of madness. It takes the madman of yesterday for us to be able to act with extreme clarity today.” That clarity today demands a rejection of hatred, and a defense of African brotherhood.

Crimes Against Humanity: Holding McKenzie Accountable
The world cannot afford to ignore McKenzie’s rhetoric. Just as the United Nations and the International Criminal Court recognize apartheid, slavery, and racism as crimes against humanity, so too must systematic xenophobic incitement be treated with equal gravity. “Abahambe” is not a slogan. It is a call to ethnic cleansing. It is a crime in motion.

The African Union must rise beyond its impotence and condemn McKenzie in the strongest terms. Legal avenues should be pursued to classify his doctrine as hate speech and incitement to violence. South African civil society, religious leaders, intellectuals, and ordinary citizens must refuse to be accomplices through silence. Silence is complicity. And complicity is guilt.

The Way Forward: A Continental Reckoning
Africa’s youth from Lagos to Lusaka, from Johannesburg to Juba must reject the politics of hate and demand visionary leadership. Our future lies not in fences and firebombs but in knowledge, innovation, and trade. The continent’s prosperity depends on mobility, unity, and collaboration, not ghettos of fear and suspicion.

We need more Kwame Nkrumahs and fewer Gayton McKenzies.

As Nkrumah declared decades ago, “The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart.”

We need leaders who build bridges, not walls; who echo unity, not ethnic cleansing; who see every African not as a foreigner, but as a brother.

Furthermore: Africa Must Choose
Gayton McKenzie is a test, a test of South Africa’s moral integrity and Africa’s collective will. If we allow this *HITLER-IN-THE-MAKING* to thrive, we will have learned nothing from Rwanda, from Sharpeville, from Auschwitz.

But if we confront him with truth, law, and unity, then perhaps Africa still has a chance at becoming what its founders dreamed, a bastion of freedom, dignity, and shared prosperity.

Let Gayton McKenzie be remembered, not as the man who divided Africa, but as the warning we heeded.