African immigrants in contemporary South Africa can be perceived as a problem –
the threatening other. Based on a case study of the Johannesburg inner city, this
thesis aims to deconstruct this notion. It does so by investigating the nature and
types and contribution of African immigrant traders` businesses to the Johannesburg
inner city. In deconstructing the perception that African immigrants are the
threatening other, and being infinitely aware that perception issues and the
experiential realities hospitable to its centred on the human subject, this case study
adopted a humanist geographic and critical realist approach by deploying a
qualitative in-depth interview technique of both African immigrant and South African
traders. This thesis suggests three important outcomes. The first is that: to view all
African immigrants as the threatening other is too simplistic an assessment of an
otherwise complex and dynamic set of relationships and interrelationships amongst
and between African immigrant and South African traders. Second, some African
immigrant traders do make a meaningful contribution to the Johannesburg inner city,
whereas others do not. Third, the activities of African immigrant traders that may be
considered as a threat by a section of the population are treated as a benefit by
another. These nuanced insights and findings in this study not only render any
analysis that projects all African immigrants negatively as an incomplete appraisal,
but also suggest that it can never be correct to view them as such without capturing
the dynamics that this work suggests. Such a finding not only challenges distorted
and partial reporting by the media and also questions policies, which may be built on
the wrong assumption that all African immigrants are a problem, but also extends the
study of migration related issues in a South African context.GeographyD. Litt. et. Phil. (Geography
