S. Africa on edge ahead of anti-migrant deadline
The News South Africa is bracing for a potentially violent day of anti-migrant demonstrations on Tuesday, prompting shopping mall owners to privately “prepare for the worst” and risking further tainting Pretorias reputation as a safe emerging market. The protest, organized by a civic movement called March and March, follows months of escalating xenophobic violence and organized anti-migrant activism in the worlds most unequal society , where one in three people is without a job and municipal services are failing. The group set their own deadline of June 30 for undocumented migrants to leave the country. Pretorias memory of large-scale unrest in July 2021 - when looting and arson left hundreds dead and billions in damage - hangs over the preparations, shaping how officials and businesses are responding. The violence, described as a failed insurrection by President Cyril Ramaphosa, vandalized more than 160 shopping malls, led to tens of thousands of job losses, and cost the economy roughly $3 billion. The South African Property Owners Association said joint operations with both public and private security will protect assets, “unlike in 2021, which resulted in reactive measures to contain the damage that transpired.” Executives echo that anxiety. One CEO whose company owns a network of shopping malls said they are “preparing for the worst.” Another said President Cyril Ramaphosas national address last month “added fuel to the fire” by unintentionally magnifying the reach of the mobilization. Authorities have announced a 600 million rand ($35 million) security deployment and set up joint command centers, with acting police minister Firoz Cachalia flagging KwaZulu-Natal - home to sub-Saharan Africas busiest port - the economic hub of Gauteng, and the Western Cape as potential hotspots. “Thats what it costs when there is an effort to destabilize the country.” Tensions have already erupted into clashes and mass displacement , with police routinely using rubber bullets, tear gas, and stun grenades to disperse migrants and protesters. In Cape Town at the weekend, hundreds of Zimbabweans sleeping outside their countrys consulate were being moved to a repatriation center; more than 500 immigrants in the city say they will stay away from work after receiving threats of beatings if they cannot produce documentation. Sixty-one anti-migrant demonstrations were recorded across the country between April and June this year, surpassing half of the annual demonstrations from 2022 and 2025, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, a non-profit conflict monitoring group. Know More South Africas history of violent anti-immigration riots stretches back to 2009, peaking again in 2015, 2019, and 2021, with the socioeconomic backdrop as the key driver. Unemployment remains above 30%, making migrants easy political targets for frustrated communities and opportunistic actors. Public distrust of African immigrants in South Africa climbed to more than 73% in 2025, up from 62% four years earlier, according to the Inclusive Society Institute, a Cape Town-based policy think tank. Outfits like anti-migrant vigilante group March and March have capitalized on this shift, expanding their footprint from the coastal KwaZulu-Natal province directly into economic hubs such as Gauteng. Armed with traditional weapons, whips, and pepper spray, these groups have conducted aggressive so-called “citizens audits” of small businesses, blockaded public health facilities, and set up unauthorized checkpoints outside schools to vet individuals based on language, accent, and documentation. But since 2025, the March on March movement has moved away from sporadic skirmishes to a highly organized city-by-city campaign, drawing speculation from some South African newspapers that it is managed by influential political backers than shapeless crowds fed up with job losses and poverty. Investigative reporting this week by amaBhungane - an influential South African investigative journalism platform - shows that March on March leadership includes figures who move within former president Jacob Zumas family orbit. Zumas MK Party has publicly signaled support for the demonstrations even as ANC leaders accuse Zuma of “stoking the fires” and reviving the specter of the 2021 unrest. Jacinta Ngobese, leader of March on March, denied any links to a political party and insisted the campaign is focused strictly on border control compliance rather than “nationality hatred.” Ngobese said the fallout from poor border enforcement rests with Pretoria: “If anyone wants to point a finger at someone who must take responsibility, start with those who allowed illegal immigration in the first place.” Tiisetsos view South Africas mass anti-migrant protest on Tuesday is a test of a state already stretched and carrying the scars of the 2021 looting and arson frenzy that tore through the countrys economic powerhouses and left hundreds dead. That trauma changed how the country thinks about risk. Since then, malls have reinforced their security battalions, landlords have hardened buildings and logistics operators have learned to treat highways as vulnerable infrastructure. Public order became a permanent security burden carried by businesses, landlords and ordinary citizens. South Africas social pressures make these mobilisations more volatile than its organisers may admit. Unemployment remains entrenched, inequality is widening , and municipal services are unreliable. These conditions make any protest harder to manage. Add a presidency distracted by leadership battles and impeachment proceedings , and you get a government struggling to protect authority at the exact moment it needs it most. The unrest is also a global embarrassment. Ramaphosa has dispatched envoys across the continent to calm governments in countries such as Zimbabwe, Ghana, Nigeria and Mozambique, several of which have already begun evacuating their citizens . For a country that once cast itself as a continental stabilizer, the optics are damaging. Tuesday will show whether the government security plan is real. Alternatively, South Africa will have confirmed a new reality in which public order has become a community funded expense, paid by people least able to carry it. Room for Disagreement South Africas ministerial-level ad-hoc committee, created to coordinate Pretorias response to illegal migration and tightened enforcement, sees the moment differently. At a press conference on Friday, Khumbudzo Ntshavheni, a minister in Ramaphosas office, rejected suggestions that vigilantism reflects a weakening center, saying Tuesday will be a “normal day” because the state remains in full control. “No unauthorized person is permitted to demand documentation,” she said. Notable Tunisia has been gripped by racially motivated violence , arbitrary detentions, and the forceful expulsion of migrants to remote border areas after President Kais Saied accused sub-Saharan migrants of a conspiracy to change the countrys demographics.