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“If they [illegal immigrants] abandon their Spaza Shops on the 30th June, will you be able to run their businesses?” These were the words of Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, the leader of South Africa’s most prominent xenophobic organization March& March, speaking to a gathering on 26 June 2026 in Kwazulu-Natal, on South Africa’s eastern coast. March & March had issued an arbitrary 30 June deadline to those they considered illegal or undocumented foreigners to leave the country, threatening violence in case they remained.
In 2026, the rainbow nation has been facing the most prolonged wave of organized xenophobic violence since the end of apartheid in 1994. According to the Mozambican government, seven of its citizens have died in pogroms in Mossel Bay, about 380 kilometers east of Cape Town. Fearing for the lives of their citizens, at least six African countries have begun evacuating their citizens, including Mozambique, Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). A quasi-humanitarian crisis has emerged in some repatriation centers in the city of Durban. Thousands have been sheltering in the consulates and embassies of Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Malawi, demanding immediate repatriation. Social media platforms have been flooded with videos of foreign nationals desperately asking for support to be evacuated to their countries of origin before the June the 30 deadline. Public condemnations of the violence in South Africa were particularly strong in Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, countries that had played a pivotal role in the struggle against apartheid.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, diplomatic tensions between South Africa, Nigeria and Ghana have emerged. Nigeria is now planning to seek reparations from South Africa on behalf of its citizens. Ghana has called for the African Union to discuss the convulsion of violence at an upcoming summit in Egypt. Tensions were even felt during the FIFA World Cup, with social media posts from different African countries refusing to side with the South African national team. According to the South African Minister of Justice, some South African artists have lost contracts because of retaliation measures taken by organizers of cultural events in other African countries.
The Roots of Xenophobia in Post-Apartheid South Africa
Xenophobia has been a recuring challenge in South Africa since the end of apartheid when the number of immigrants from other African countries began to increase as democracy emancipated both citizens and foreign nationals. The years 2008, 2015, 2019, and 2021 saw particularly intense waves of anti-immigrant violence. The 2008 attacks claimed at least 62 lives.
In a country built on many years of racist ideology, natives have perceived Black foreigners as corrupting the social fabric. Xenophobic narratives blame Black foreign nationals for high levels of unemployment, crime and drug trafficking, accusing immigrants of ‘stealing’ South African women from local men, selling expired or contaminated food, putting pressure on the country’s education and health systems, and practicing witchcraft. There is no credible evidence for any of these claims.
Two organizations driving xenophobia are particularly noteworthy. The most well-known is called Operation Dudula. Dudula emerged in the Johannesburg township of Soweto, initially as a vigilante group to protect properties from looting during the 2021 riots, which followed the arrest of former president Jacob Zuma. Dudula gradually expanded its agenda, blaming immigrants for South Africa’s social and economic challenges. Its activities include vigilante justice and harassment of migrants in public spaces and at their workplaces, mainly in the eastern province of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, the capital province. Dudula has also begun blocking so-called illegal immigrants from accessing hospitals and schools. This shift points to a radicalization of its anti-immigration campaign in the run-up to the upcoming local elections, scheduled between 2 November 2026 and 30 January 2027.
With the ANC experiencing the lowest level of popularity in its history and exhibiting only a wavering pan-African stance there is fertile ground for anti-immigrant political parties and movements.
The other prominent movement is the aforementioned March & March, led by its founder Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, a former radio presenter, who issued the 30 June deadline. According to their website, March & March aims at “addressing growing concerns about undocumented immigration in South Africa” and ensuring access to resources for South Africans including prioritizing jobs for locals. Only founded in 2025, the group has been growing rapidly and has become more prominent and better organized than Dudula, due to internal fragmentation and a lack of charismatic leadership within Dudula itself. There are also other smaller organizations and local vigilant groups operating almost every day practicing harassment against foreign nationals.
Politically, right-wing and centrist parties like ActionSA and Patriotic Alliance have mobilized consistently around a strong anti-migrant rhetoric. They have now been joined by the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MK) who have been linked to xenophobic mobilization particularly in KwaZulu Natal. The MK was founded in 2023 by former President Jacob Zuma, who spent almost 10 years in exile in Mozambique. Parties like the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have exhibited an ambiguous rhetoric combining a strong pan-African discourse with critiques of hiring undocumented immigrants to work for South African companies.
This shows the deep politicization of migration in the South African political space which may be further exploited by anti-immigration political forces during elections in order to attract votes. With the ANC experiencing the lowest level of popularity in its history and exhibiting only a wavering pan-African stance there is fertile ground for anti-immigrant political parties and movements. The absence of firm pan-African solidarity coupled with the continued socioeconomic challenges may lead to further social divisions and potential massive violence against immigrants.
A Historic Debt: South Africa’s Role in Underdeveloping Africa
South African’s struggle against apartheid benefited from direct and indirect support from a considerable number of African countries. The fight against apartheid in South Africa was perceived as the struggle of the African people and therefore deserving the sacrifices of the entire continent. South African liberation activists were sheltered in other countries, funds were provided to them to finance their struggle, camps for military and political training were made available, and solidarity were expressed in all forms, including economic sanctions against the Apartheid regime. An estimated 40,000 South African refugees were hosted in other African countries. As a result, the rest of Africa expected mutual solidarity in times of their own political and economic difficulties.
However, some countries suffered great cost due to their support for the struggle for democracy in South Africa. In Mozambique, for example, the apartheid regime expended significant efforts to destabilize the country politically, socially and economically due to its support of the ANC, and supported a guerrilla war against post-independent Mozambique with tremendous socioeconomic consequences still visible today.
South Africa's economy has always benefited tremendously from its exploitation of other African countries both during and after apartheid.
In his 2023 trilogy, “The Three Wise Monkeys” the historian Charles Van Onselen argued that South Africa’s industrial development, particularly in the mining sector, would not have reached its current level of development without access to Mozambique’s cheap labour. In studying South African’s role in Mozambique’s underdevelopment, Van Onselen goes as far as arguing that Mozambique suffered two simultaneous colonizations, one from Portugal and the other one from South Africa. The country’s economy has always benefited tremendously from its exploitation of other African countries both during and after apartheid. South African extractivist companies, super markets and other businesses are present in almost every other African country.
The position of movements like March & March is that the support provided by the rest of Africa in the fight against apartheid has been paid for since South Africa has hosted immigrants from those countries for the last thirty years. They argue that South Africa has paid an even higher price by hosting “illegal immigrants” and criminals. They say the foreign nationals must go back and “fix their countries” politically and economically instead of staying in South Africa.
Despite officially recognizing the role played by other African countries in the struggle against apartheid, the ANC government’s actions do not seem to align with any form of a pan-African response to bigotry. Although no statistics exist about the number of illegalized migrants, the government narrative aligns with claims of a serious problem of illegal immigration.
Since 2002, an immigration act has been in place which makes it extremely hard for even the most qualified candidate to acquire a work permit. A new border management authority has been established, the number of deportations of foreign national has been increasing, and a white paper proposing significant tightening of the 2002 immigration act has been put forward by the government. At the same time as xenophobic vigilantism is on the rise, the number of workplace inspections is increasing as well. All of this is perfectly in line with the narrative presented by movements such as March & March and Dudula that advocate for stricter immigration laws. However, xenophobic violence remains an issue confined to the Black community, with the white minority, which controls most of the land and the economy of South Africa, suffering no impact whatsoever.
Resistance, Aftermath, and an Uncertain Future
Contrary to those xenophobic organizations and anti-immigrant political parties, civil society organizations, progressive academia, and trade unions are raising their voices against hatred. One of the most vocal organizations is the Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia (KAAX). KAAX is a coalition of NGOs, community activists, workers, and migrant-led organizations established to combat anti-migrant sentiment.
KAAX advocates for African unity, working-class solidarity and inclusive justice. It has achieved a major legal victory on 04 November 2025 against Dudula and others for their vigilantism. The court prohibited Dudula and others from harassing, intimidating, or demanding documentation from immigrants. This victory sent a clear message: xenophobic vigilantism is illegal and the state must act against it. However, judged by the continuing harassment of foreign nationals and acts of vigilantism committed by groups such as March & March, the South African authorities seem to be doing little to enforce the court order.
On the workers front, members of the trade union umbrella organization National Economic Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) have condemned xenophobic vigilantism. NEDLAC represents the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU), the Confederation of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU), the Federation of Unions of South Africa (FEDUSA), and the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), in total representing about 3.2 million workers. The unions made clear that they reject blaming foreign nationals for socioeconomic challenges experienced by South Africans.
The lack of government response does not augur well for South Africa’s future. This hard won democracy born out of global solidarity could transform itself into a place of hatred and violence.
However, organized labour doesn’t make any reference to the legacy of colonialism and apartheid, focusing on government failure to create jobs, combat corruption, ensure effective border management, and effectively enforce labour and immigration laws. Unfortunately, they too seem to fall into the trap of supposedly “legitimate public anger”. Without understanding the central role of colonialism and apartheid, Organized labour fails to adequately analyze the systemic nature of chauvinism, including the role South Africa itself has been playing in under-developing other African nations, and its responsibilities to compensate for that role through an open-borders approach to the rest of Africa.
The 30 June deadline has now passed, mostly without the feared escalation of violence. The government assessed its own work quite positively. 30 June did not end up as previous events had, with much higher numbers of deaths and property destruction, such as the riots in 2021 that killed 354 people.
But its legacy will certainly remain intact in the minds of the African people. Thousands of protesters marched in all nine South African provinces. In Hillbrow, in the Central Business District of Johannesburg, two people were wounded and a car was set alight. In some areas of the country protesters were seen harassing foreign nationals including small children. Protesters reiterated the same message: “They must go.” March & March has promised that marches against foreign nationals will be held every Thursday.
This time, however, the majority of companies opted to shut down operations preemptively, anticipating a spasm of violence similar to previous episodes. As a result, millions of rand were lost in foregone revenue, while thousands of vulnerable workers—many of them migrants—were forced to abandon their jobs and flee the country. Such disruptions have not alleviated structural problems: unemployment remains persistently high, crime rates show no meaningful decline, and inequality continues to reproduce itself across social strata.
The lack of government response does not augur well for South Africa’s future. This hard won democracy born out of global solidarity could transform itself into a place of hatred and violence. The rainbow nation is heading for disaster if anti-immigrant sentiment is not firmly combated.
- ^ A spaza shop is a small, informal neighborhood store found in South African townships and rural settlements. Originally established during apartheid, these “secret” (isiZulu: spaza) kiosks provide local residents with essential daily necessities such as food, hygiene products, and prepaid phone credit.
