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On June 30th 2026, thousands of people marched in South Africa’s main cities to demand that all undocumented migrants leave the country. Over 120 demonstrations occurred simultaneously across major cities such as Johannesburg, Tshwane, and Durban in what is considered one of the biggest nationwide anti-immigration protests of the last decade.
These protests were organized by hardline citizen and vigilante groups, primarily an organization known as “March and March” led by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, who acted as the public face of the demonstrations. The protesters, mainly from Indigenous black communities of South Africa, carried weapons like whips and clubs and openly spewed xenophobic views towards undocumented immigrants and refugees.
Protesters gave the government an ultimatum for undocumented immigrants to leave the country by June 30, claiming that immigrants who stay past the “deadline” will be arrested and deported. These claims have been rejected by President Cyril Ramaphosa and the South African government, who officially condemned the protesters’ arbitrary June 30 deadline and the ongoing anti-migrant demonstrations.
Officials have cautioned against these groups’ activities, warning citizens of illegal vigilantism, such as conducting unauthorized door-to-door raids, ID checks, and forced workplace inspections
Despite the government’s expressed opposition to vigilante actions, tens of thousands of migrants fled South Africa during May and June, mainly in fear of the violence expressed by protesters. The majority of the migrants who left South Africa have travelled overland to neighbouring countries like Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique. In total, South African authorities and regional governments processed over 53,000 foreign nationals for deportation or voluntary repatriation between late May and early July.
Retracing the Violence
These protests are part of a growing wave of violence across South Africa. Since June 30th, at least four people have been killed, and over 900 individuals have been arrested for acts of violence, looting, and charged with public violence, robbery, and harbouring illegal immigrants. In response, neighbouring countries and other African states, such as Ghana and Nigeria, have been actively working to repatriate their nationals.
South Africa, one of Africa’s largest economies, has long been a destination for migrant workers from across the continent. According to Statistics South Africa, more than 3 million foreign nationals live in the country, accounting for just over 5% of the population.
Since the beginning of 2026, South Africa has seen a resurgence of violence and xenophobia that has killed at least 10 people and displaced thousands of foreign nationals from their homes. One of the marking events was the fatal stoning of a 29-year-old Malawian man, Mishack Banda, in the city of Pietermaritzburg during an anti-immigration protest on June 19.
The resurgence of violence is rooted in the rise of vigilante groups in the 2020s. Emerging from sporadic violence against immigrants, vigilante groups like Operation Dudula were created in Soweto in 2021. Fuelled by anti-immigrant rhetoric, they argue that immigrants were abusing public state services and “stealing jobs”. The group later registered as a political party ahead of the 2024 elections and has been growing alongside other anti-migrant movements like March and March, which emerged in Durban in 2024.
A Government Failure: How Vigilante Groups Frame Their Anti-Immigration Claims
This is not the first time South Africa has faced a high level of violence due to protests framing immigration as a crisis. This major wave of xenophobia can be traced back to similar protests in May of 2008. 62 people were killed, and more than 670 were injured during violent protests that took place in Alexandra township near Johannesburg, one of several racially segregated urban settlements in South Africa remaining from the colonial and apartheid eras.
Many of the victims were migrants from neighbouring countries like Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, as well as Somalia. The violence culminated with the infamous burning alive of Mozambican immigrant Ernesto Nhamuave in the Ramaphosa informal settlement near Boksburg.
Since then, South Africa has experienced recurring, cyclical explosions of anti-immigrant violence. Anti-migrant violence between 1994 and early 2024 resulted in over 660 deaths, 5,300 looted shops, and 127,000 displacements.
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This anti-immigrant and xenophobic rhetoric relies heavily on the instrumentalization of apartheid history. Apartheid was a system of racialized segregation and oppression of Indian, mixed-race, and black people by white settlers that existed in South Africa from 1948 until 1991. Indeed, socioeconomic inequalities that remain as a legacy from this system are being used by vigilante groups to scapegoat immigration. Local populations accuse undocumented immigrants of undercutting the workforce by providing cheap and unregulated labour. Protesters argue that undocumented migrants are taking jobs, straining public services, and contributing to crime.
Unemployment: the Socio-Economic Root Causes of Xenophobia
Severe unemployment, which concerns about a third of the South African population (mainly black communities), has been a recurring argument for anti-immigration protesters. At the beginning of 2026, the unemployment rate soared to 32.7%, leaving approximately 8.14 million individuals jobless. These individuals have been overwhelmingly young people, with youth unemployment levels reaching 45% among ages 15–34 and spiking at 60.9% for the 15–24 demographic. This constitutes a 1% rise since 2025, when rates sat at 31.4% at the beginning of 2025.
In addition to severe unemployment, historical underinvestment in public services, such as healthcare, education, and electricity infrastructure are major factors influencing the rise of xenophobia. This pattern of scapegoating illegal immigration by local populations facing poor public services has become commonplace in global politics— locals feel they must compete with immigrants for a limited pool of resources, creating fertile ground for targeted resentment. Rather than blame government corruption and underinvestment, these vigilante groups falsely blame visible, vulnerable migrant populations for systemic issues like collapsing healthcare, housing shortages, and unemployment, redirecting frustration away from government failures.
Impacts on Refugee and At-Risk Populations
Among the harms caused by these anti-immigrant groups, their targeting of undocumented immigrants blurs the lines between them and legal asylum seekers. This conflation puts the legal refugee population in South Africa, often fleeing conflicts, at risk of becoming targeted by violence. With over 250,000 forcibly displaced individuals, South Africa remains an important refuge for populations fleeing conflict.
Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) such as Doctors Without Borders (MSF) now warn against the humanitarian threats caused by these protests. While the protesters claim to target only “undocumented” migrants, refugees, asylum seekers and documented migrants have also been targeted by anti-migrant groups. This poses tremendous risks to guaranteeing basic rights to refugees and asylum-seeking populations. In particular, asylum seekers have been refused access to medical help after door-to-door violent campaigns by vigilantes.
Such violence towards documented immigrant populations presents strict violations of South Africa’s constitution and international human rights law. While the law protects the right to protest, it does not include permission to enact vigilantism or commit violence. Additionally, South Africa is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, both of which impose obligations on states to protect everyone within their jurisdiction against attacks motivated by discrimination, including on grounds of ethnicity, social origin, or birth.
The high level of targeted violence that has been affecting South Africa lately contradicts South Africa’s Constitution, which guarantees human rights, dignity, and equality not just to South African citizens, but to all people within its borders, not only citizens. These protests affect undocumented immigrants, documented and protected populations, such as asylum seekers and refugees, alike. This has led to a dangerous rise in humanitarian crises and forced displacement of already at-risk populations.
Edited by Henry Stevens
