Over 900 People In South Africa Have Been Arrested After A Wave Of Anti-Immigration Protests
A deputy national police commissioner said 108 marches were peaceful, while 12 needed police intervention because of unrest, including looting.
More than 900 people were arrested across South Africa on Tuesday, June 30, after anti-immigrant groups held marches in more than 100 locations demanding that migrants leave the country by the end of the day.
More than three million immigrants live in South Africa, making up about 5% of the population, most of them from neighboring countries and looking for work.
For years, groups of South Africans have blamed migrants from other African countries for the country's high unemployment and crime rates as the country's unemployment rate stood at 32% in the first quarter of 2026, while also experiencing deep inequality and one of the world's highest murder rates.
However, researchers have found that immigrants do not commit crime at a higher rate than South Africans and that the job losses blamed on migrants make up only a small share of the country's unemployment problem.
But the belief that migrants are taking jobs and driving crime has taken hold, especially in townships, the segregated residential areas Black South Africans were forced into under apartheid and where poverty remains concentrated.
Mobs attacked migrants across South Africa in May 2008, killing more than 60 people and displacing tens of thousands, with waves of attacks continuing since.
In 2021, a group called Operation Dudula, which means “to force out" or "push out" in isiZulu, formed in Soweto, a township in Johannesburg, and organized raids on migrant-owned shops, blocking migrants from public hospitals and clinics and demanding people show proof of citizenship.
Operation Dudula has since registered as a political party.
In recent months, anti-immigrant rhetoric has intensified again, driven partly by Operation Dudula and a newer group called March and March, which set June 30 as a "deadline" for undocumented migrants to leave the country and warned of consequences if they stayed.
A Malawian gardener in Johannesburg said two men told him he would "leave in a coffin" if he did not go.
Migrant-owned homes and shops have been vandalized in cities including Cape Town, Mossel Bay and Pietermaritzburg.
A Malawian man was killed by a mob at an informal settlement near Pietermaritzburg, and authorities are investigating his death.
This has forced thousands of migrants to flee their homes in recent months to shelter in churches, mosques and municipal buildings, and three groups of Nigerian migrants have returned to Nigeria in June under a voluntary repatriation program, according to Nigerian officials.
On Tuesday, thousands of people joined anti-immigration marches across the country, with 120 marches taking place nationwide, according to police.
A deputy national police commissioner said 108 marches were peaceful, while 12 needed police intervention because of unrest, including looting.
In Durban, more than 15,000 marchers gathered in the city center, many carrying traditional Zulu weapons and shields, but the protest ended without major incident.
Police said more than 900 people were arrested; some were undocumented migrants detained for immigration violations, while others were arrested for public violence, robbery or sheltering people without legal status.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has said undocumented migration puts pressure on public services, but has pushed back on the claim that migrants are to blame for South Africa's economic problems.
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