The City of Johannesburg is a poster child of colonial exploitation of natives and their resources in the present it represents the battleground for migration politics in post-apartheid South Africa. However, migration in Southern Africa is not a novel trend—ever since the Bantu peoples arrived in this part of the continent, migration has been a part of how kingdoms such as Mapungubwe were formed and eventually lost power. Historically, the economics of migration have always been entangled with the politics of the era. The history of Johannesburg highlights the role migration played in its emergence as an economic heavyweight and the exploitation of labour from migrants which was playing in the background and continues to cause clashes between locals and foreigners. Violence and crime have always been synonymous with Johannesburg regardless of what South African exceptionalism claims.