RismadarVoice Reporters, June 30, 2026
South African police were deployed in force on Tuesday to head off unrest, as an unofficial deadline set by citizen-led groups for undocumented foreign nationals to leave the country took effect.
Officers moved to prevent violence and looting, while hundreds of foreign nationals sought refuge in several cities, urgently seeking help to leave.
At least four people two Mozambicans, an Ethiopian, and a Malawian have been killed in anti-immigrant violence in recent weeks. Several African governments have organised planes and buses to bring their citizens home.
Malawian builder Peter Madsoan, age 45, was among thousands who gathered in Durban waiting for a bus home. He said he decided to leave to avoid being attacked, adding that as a breadwinner for his family back home, it was better to go than to risk dying in South Africa.
South Africa’s Border Management Authority says about 25,000 people have been repatriated in recent weeks among them roughly 15,000 Malawians, along with thousands more from Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. Uganda has also announced an evacuation plan for nearly 750 of its citizens.
As the deadline arrived, thousands more mostly Malawians and Zimbabweans gathered in Cape Town and Johannesburg awaiting help to leave. Some said landlords had evicted them or employers had dismissed them, fearing fines or attacks by vigilante groups.
In Cape Town, Zimbabwean farm worker Evelyn Chinooneka said she and her ten-month-old baby had camped outside the Zimbabwean consulate for days, waiting for transport home.
In Johannesburg’s Soweto township, men in Zulu attire paraded through the streets chanting a phrase meaning “let them go.”
The group behind the campaign, led by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, has described it as the start of a, quote, “rolling mass action” to continue until all undocumented migrants are deported. Ngobese-Zuma maintains the group is not calling for violence or looting.
The government, wary of a repeat of the 2021 unrest that killed around 350 people, has ordered a heavy security deployment. KwaZulu-Natal premier Thami Ntuli says the province will not be allowed to be set alight a second time by criminality or by xenophobia.
