A lot of Black South Africans (especially those at the bottom of the pyramid), have always had issues with the rapidly expanding and often highly resourceful African community in their country.
These set of South African citizens, unfortunately, see fellow Africans as low hanging fruits that they can throw sticks at, kill, rape, steal from and bully, without serious repercussions from their government or security apparatus.
Personally, I have had black South Africans ask me if I am Ibo or Yoruba while I was in South Africa. I asked why and they said if I was Ibo they would have been wary of me! I personally thought that was a load of crap, profiling a whole tribe based on the sins of a few.
I have had a South African lady tell me to my face that Nigeria is a Banana Republic! I remember the venom in her voice and the disdain in her eyes.
I have had a black South African hotel manager yell at me to allow him finish what he was saying and not interrupt him because he profiled me as an arrogant and aggressive Nigerian.
Fact is, there is a lot of anger in that land, maybe due to the years of suppression they suffered during the long period of apartheid, or maybe be other underlying issues. This has made a lot of them disillusioned and unsure of self.
The swag and never-say-die spirit of the Nigerian is also a major point of irritation for a lot of South Africans, because we just seem to swoop in, take over the whole place and start living their dreams right in front of them!
However, let's not forget that we also tend to piss people off with our loud, showy, noisy and in-your-face lifestyles and quite a number of our people are involved in a lot of unsavory things.
Let's also remember that we treat ourselves like crap in our own country, we kill, kidnap and decimate ourselves and sadly, our government seems to have abandoned us to our fate and we constantly and viciously demarket ourselves and our country in cyberspace, forgetting that others are watching and learning.
I believe we need to reassess our individual relationships as Nigerians, before we reassess our relationship with South Africa and its people. There's a lot for us to do to get from where we are to where we are supposed to be.
This time however, our government should stop speaking grammar and make a strong statement in this regard, because really, enough is enough.
God bless.