‘Extreme fear’ among immigrants as backlash sweeps South Africa

African migrants in South Africa say they are living in fear after a series of marches calling for illegal immigrants to leave reignited long-held xenophobic sentiment in the country.

March & March, a campaign group at the forefront of recent protests, has given people living illegally in the country until 30 June to leave, without specifying what will happen to those who do not.

Mozambique said five of its citizens were killed in “xenophobic attacks” at the end of May. South African police said two Mozambicans and one South African had died during an outbreak of violence in Mossel Bay on the south coast.

Roughly 60 miles south-east of Cape Town, about 100 people from Mozambique and Malawi sought shelter in Kleinmond town hall last week after an angry crowd told foreigners in an informal settlement they had to leave.

Many told Reuters news agency they wanted help from their governments to return home. Ghana has arranged flights for several hundreds of its citizens to leave South Africa.

“Every day and almost everyone I meet, they are in fear, extreme fear,” said an Ethiopian entrepreneur who moved to South Africa in 2000 and is married to a local woman. The couple have a 19-year-old daughter.

“The sad part is it’s not because they are undocumented … But none of the legal documents will protect you from the violence.”

South Africa has long imported migrant labour, particularly to work in its mines. After his election in 1994 ended white-minority rule, Nelson Mandela welcomed African migrants. Meanwhile, poverty and economic strife in many neighbouring countries, including hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, pushed people south.

Endemic unemployment and inequality led many South Africans to blame African immigrants for their problems, with resentment periodically erupting into violence. Sixty-two people were killed during riots in 2008, among them 21 South Africans, and more than 150,000 were displaced. In 2015, at least five people were killed.

The proportion of South Africans who said they would welcome all immigrants fell from a quarter in 2020 to 15% last year, according to surveys by the Human Sciences Research Council, a state body. The unemployment rate has risen by 3.4 percentage points to 43.1% since 2020.

Sharon Ekambaram, who leads the refugee and migrants’ programme at Lawyers for Human Rights, said: “People are struggling to hold the government to account and it’s easier to blame the migrants.”

South Africa’s foreign-born population almost trebled to 2.4 million between 1996 and 2022, according to census data, which aims to include undocumented people. That represented 3.9% of the 62 million population, up from 2% in 1996.

The March & March leader, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, who has campaigned for mass deportation, claims that illegal immigration “ranges from 15 million to about 30 million”.

“South Africa is currently being invaded. South Africans have become refugees in their own country,” she said last month.

Founded in March 2025, March & March has crisscrossed South Africa organising protests. On 30 March, the group led a demonstration in KuGompo City (formerly East London), after local people were angered by later-disproven reports that a Nigerian had been crowned king. Since then, marches have taken place in cities including Durban, Johannesburg and Pretoria.

Asked how the group is funded, Ngobese-Zuma told local outlet Daily Maverick: “We get our funding from concerned South Africans, but we also have a social media page where our supporters can contribute. They contribute financially, but some contribute in kind.”

Another prominent figure in the marches has been Ngizwe Mchunu. The radio DJ was acquitted of charges of instigating riots in July 2021, during which more than 350 people were killed after the former president Jacob Zuma was sent to prison.

In the run-up to local elections in November, some smaller parties, including ActionSA and Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), are trying to gain support by associating themselves with the protests.

African National Congress politicians have tried to tread a finer line. “South Africans from every walk of life have raised concerns about migration and illegal immigration … These concerns are real. They deserve to be heard. They deserve to be addressed,” South Africa’s president, Cyril Ramaphosa, said in a televised address on Sunday night.

He promised a tougher crackdown on illegal immigration and on corruption within the country’s border authorities, and emphasised that only state officials were permitted to demand proof of nationality.

“We will and must not allow groups to use the legitimate concerns of South Africans to destabilise our country through inciting lawlessness and violence,” Ramaphosa said.

Otlotleng Mokgatle, a political analyst at Control Risks, said: “The issue is highly volatile and even for those parties that might see it as an opportunity it does carry for them pretty big reputational and even internal stability risks.” He noted that parties that supported anti-migrant marches could be blamed for outbreaks of looting.

Meanwhile, African immigrants continue to face huge uncertainty. “Of course I’m worried, because I don’t know what’s going on, what’s happening,” said Sandy Khumalo, who has a residency permit and runs Makhumalo, a restaurant in downtown Johannesburg catering to fellow Zimbabweans. “Since 2009, I’ve been here, so this is my home. I’m so stressed.”