The author clearly has no idea of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma's history. She's a potentially powerful figure in South Africa's ruling ANC who is in a cushy job that

The author clearly has no idea of Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma's history. She's a potentially powerful figure in South Africa's ruling ANC who is in a cushy job that is really political exile. As such, she's free to talk up ideas that sound great in The Economist (conservative macro-economics, zealous climate change action, consumer protection, gay rights, health laws) but never have to convince a single member of the electorate about their merits. Issues are somewhere between "don't care" and "when hell freezes over" in the electorate's mind. This particular issue is on the extreme end of frozen hell. Poor South Africans perceive foreigners as criminals and/or a direct threat to their livelihoods, and the tension regularly boils over into violence. There's plenty of room for nuance: the violence is extreme but it is a fact that we have an appalling history of (and in some cases ongoing) exploitation, including hiring seasonal foreign workers (illegally) for lower wages than locals. Regardless, nothing like the EU freedom of movement is ever going to happen. Republicans in the US are more likely to support Obama immigration reforms for Mexicans than South Africans would vote for millions of Congolese, Zimbabweans, Nigerians, Malawians, Sudanese migrants/refugees to be allowed to hold jobs here.