South Africa is Africa’s largest cosmetics market and its most established re-export hub. It accounts for roughly 27.5% of total African cosmetics revenue and, as of 2023, sends over 60% of its cosmetic exports to fellow African countries, according to Mordor Intelligence and regulatory consultancy Biorius. That infrastructure makes the country the default entry point for multinationals building an African footprint, and for African brands scaling beyond their home markets. It is precisely that infrastructure that is now under strain.
Since April 2026, anti-immigration and anti-migrant movements and protests, most visibly “March and March” and the longer-running Operation Dudula, have organized protests and vigilante actions against foreign nationals (mostly Africans) across Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Durban, with Human Rights Watch and Al Jazeera reporting fatalities, unlawful evictions, and attacks on foreign-owned businesses. The unrest has drawn condemnation from the UN and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and has coincided with calls on social media to boycott South Africa’s games in international competition.
For an industry built on cross-border ingredient sourcing, manufacturing, and distribution, that combination of reputational damage and physical risk is a direct line item, not background noise. This damage could become even more pronounced, as on June 30, 2026, South Africa held its largest anti-migrant protest yet.
Babak Hafezi, CEO of Hafezi Capital LLC, framed the unrest in the language investors use daily: risk premium. “The attacks against migrants and immigration as a whole can have a very negative effect on South Africa, as they increase the risk premium associated with doing business in South Africa,” Hafezi said to BeautyMatter. He added that investors weigh more than infrastructure and market size, with political, legal, and reputational risks factoring directly into capital allocation. His verdict on whether investors want to operate where their potential employees are being deported, or face growing red tape, was “a solid ‘no.’”
Hafezi was explicit about the exposures beauty manufacturers face once unrest spreads. He listed the questions smart manufacturers and trade specialists are now asking: “How will this uncertified impact affect foreign-currency risk? How will it impact our raw-commodity risk? Will the domestic market favor foreign-branded or foreign-origin materials? Is nationalism a real threat to my brand?” For beauty specifically, he warned that the entire supply chain is at risk, from retail intimidation and confiscation to potential burning of inventory by vigilantes as a means of differentiating the “other,” to warehousing and last-mile delivery risks, and ultimately, brand backlash.
Hafezi also noted that South Africa’s fundamentals remain intact for now. “South Africa remains a major hub because of its financial system, logistical infrastructure, corporate base, and geography in the Southern African Development Community.” However, the impact of the anti-migrant and anti-immigrant protests is conditional on their duration, as well as on how much these protests may lead to further limits on human rights for certain populations.
For founders already operating in South Africa, the effect is less abstract. Linda Hausmann, CEO and founder of Suki Suki Naturals—Congolese by nationality and a South African resident for years—described the toll, even though her own operations haven’t been directly disrupted. “It saddens me to see what’s happening,” Hausmann said to BeautyMatter, adding that South Africa’s visa system was already among the continent’s most restrictive before the unrest began. “It’s actually one of the hardest countries to obtain a visa for, whether it’s a work visa or [anything else], because the requirements are really high.”
Hausmann pointed to a shift in terminology in how the crisis is now discussed. “There’s the xenophobia factor, and now [it’s been called] the afrophobia factor. It’s not just Africans being affected.” She also cited an unemployment figure shaping the domestic debate. “We have 8 million unemployed people in South Africa,” while cautioning that unemployment is not the only driver here.
On consumer sentiment, Hausmann linked the backlash directly to brand perception during South Africa’s World Cup game. “I’ve seen a lot of people saying they don’t want to support South Africa because of everything that's happening. It’s almost like an emotional boycott of the country.”
Subuola Oyeleye, founder of Nigeria-based beauty retailer BeautyHut Africa, rejected boycotts as a strategy, even while acknowledging the severity of the underlying issue. “There are 100% legitimate concerns around the treatment of African migrants, and I think that these need to be addressed very directly and firmly,” Oyeleye told BeautyMatter. “However, I will be very cautious about viewing economic disengagement as a long-term solution.”
Her reasoning is structural. Nigeria and South Africa are, in her words, “two of the largest economic and even cultural powerhouses” on the continent, and “no single African market can build a globally competitive beauty ecosystem alone.” On accountability, she called for South African companies to publicly condemn the xenophobic violence and for governments to pursue clear immigration policies, while warning against boycotts on commercial grounds. “When you do that, people start losing jobs, smaller companies suffer, and at the end of the day, it’s African businesses hurting other African businesses.”
Oyeleye confirmed that the unrest hasn’t derailed any expansion plans across the continent, but it has added due diligence steps. “We wouldn’t make any market entry decision based solely on this or on the current discourse,” she said, calling South Africa “one of the most important beauty markets on the continent.” Still, she flagged new non-negotiables, including the safety of employees, the stability of operations, and understanding how African consumers perceive foreign businesses, before committing capital to expansion on the continent.
All experts converge on one point: Trade built purely on product movement, without corresponding freedom of movement for people, is structurally unstable. As Hafezi put it, “When trade is focused solely on products rather than on people, integration becomes extractive and unstable. Trade eventually fails or shifts to cheaper countries.” With South Africa’s cosmetics market still projected to grow from $4.2 billion in 2026 toward $5.58 billion by 2031, per Mordor Intelligence, the commercial incentive to stay engaged remains strong. However, increasingly, there is pressure on brands, retailers, and investors to price in instability as a cost of doing business on the continent’s most important beauty corridor.
