Herman Mashaba’s Dangerous Hypocrisy: Racist Tirades Against whs and PW Botha While Echoing Apartheid-Era Warnings on Foreigners

Quoting a post questioning whether PW Botha was “wrong” in his predictions about bl governance, Mashaba replied: “PW Botha, one of the most EVIL creature God created. He used violence and brutality to justify his racial stereotype. Murdered all African leaders who could not be bought and compromised to promote this narrative.”

PW Botha, one of the most EVIL creature God created.
He used violence and brutality to justify his racial stereotype. Murdered all African leaders who could not be bought and compromised to promote this narrative. https://t.co/ar0JcJOl7l

— Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) April 4, 2026

This is not the measured critique of a statesman seeking national healing. It is raw, racially charged hatred dressed up as political commentary. By branding an entire era’s leader as an “EVIL creature” created by God and reducing complex history to cartoonish villainy, Mashaba reveals a pattern of anti-wh animus that has no place in modern South African politics. Far from condemning apartheid’s undeniable injustices—which were real and indefensible—Mashaba indulges in the very racial stereotyping and collective guilt he claims to oppose. He does not debate policy; he demonises people by the colour of their skin and the era they represented.

This is not an isolated outburst. Mashaba has repeatedly trafficked in rhetoric that paints wh South Africans as perpetual villains. Videos and public statements show him telling wh residents complaining about service delivery in Tshwane to “leave for the USA,” while generalising that whs benefited uniformly from apartheid and continue to hoard opportunities. He has stereotyped wh South Africans as a monolithic group responsible for ongoing ills, even as he positions ActionSA as a “pro-South African” movement. Such language is textbook racism—reversing the prejudice he rightly decried under the old regime. It stokes division in a country still grappling with its fractured past, undermining the very reconciliation the Constitution demands.

Only MAD (Mentally Damaged) people with think wh will save South Africa. https://t.co/4OqeseCvqE

— Herman Mashaba (@HermanMashaba) March 31, 2026

Yet the true scandal lies in Mashaba’s breathtaking hypocrisy. While he spits venom at PW Botha and the apartheid order, Mashaba has built his entire political brand on a fierce rejection of “foreigners running South Africa.” He demands mass deportations of undocumented migrants, vows to shut down spaza shops operated by non-South Africans, and rails against illegal immigrants from Nigeria, Pakistan, and elsewhere “stealing” jobs, hijacking buildings, and flooding the country with drugs and crime. He has marched alongside anti-foreigner groups, declared that South Africa must stop playing “nanny of the world,” and insisted that economic opportunities belong first and foremost to citizens. “We have to get rid of illegal foreigners. I mean, this matter is not negotiable,” he has said repeatedly.

Here is the uncomfortable truth Mashaba refuses to confront: PW Botha and his predecessor John Vorster issued stark warnings about exactly this danger—foreign influence and demographic shifts eroding South Africa’s sovereignty, economy, and stability. Botha’s much-derided predictions about the consequences of losing wh administrative capacity and opening borders to uncontrolled external forces have, in the eyes of many South Africans today, been eerily validated by 31 years of ANC misrule: collapsing infrastructure, rampant corruption, youth unemployment near 60%, and entire sectors of the informal economy now dominated by undocumented migrants. Vorster, too, spoke bluntly about immigration policy and the need to protect the country’s character from being overwhelmed.

Mashaba does not want foreigners running spaza shops, taxis, or hijacked buildings in Johannesburg. Fair enough—many citizens share that concern, and illegal immigration does strain resources and fuel crime. But he cannot simultaneously demonise Botha and Vorster as the root of all evil while parroting the core of their nationalist warning: South Africa must remain in the hands of South Africans, not outsiders. The only difference is the colour of the messenger. When a wh apartheid leader said it, Mashaba calls it “evil racial stereotype.” When a bl politician says the same thing about African migrants, it is “patriotic realism.”

This selective outrage exposes Mashaba not as a principled fighter for the poor, but as a race-baiting opportunist who weaponises history when it suits him and ignores it when it does not. South Africa desperately needs leaders who can address illegal immigration, corruption, and failing service delivery without descending into tribal or racial hatred. Mashaba identifies real problems—undocumented foreigners overwhelming metros, collapsing infrastructure, and economic exclusion of locals—but poisons his message with the very prejudice he claims to fight.

True leadership demands consistency. If foreigners should not “run South Africa,” as Mashaba insists, then history’s warnings on the same theme cannot be dismissed as the ravings of “evil creatures.” If racial stereotyping is wrong, it is wrong in both directions—against whs yesterday and against bl leaders or migrants today.

Herman Mashaba’s latest tweet is not courageous truth-telling. It is divisive, hypocritical racism that drags South Africa backward. Citizens of all races deserve better than a politician who hates the past so fiercely that he cannot see he is repeating its worst impulses—only with the targets reversed. South Africa’s future cannot be built on selective memory and racial score-settling. It requires honesty, not hatred.