Is South Africa Punishing the Wrong People for Its Own Failures?

Thousands of African migrants are sleeping in open fields in the middle of a South African winter. Others are barricaded inside their homes. Some are already dead. A self-appointed vigilante movement has told every undocumented foreigner to leave South Africa by June 30. It has no legal power to enforce that demand. But the violence it has inspired is very real.

South Africa is in the grip of its worst xenophobia crisis in years. Foreign-owned businesses have been attacked across Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town. At least seven people died by mid-May 2026. Five Mozambicans were killed in Mossel Bay alone. Malawi, Nigeria, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique have all mounted emergency evacuations of their nationals. The African Union has demanded that Pretoria guarantee the safety of every foreign national inside its borders.

The movement behind it, March and March, founded in 2025 by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, calls itself peaceful. The streets tell a different story.

What Protesters Are Claiming

The grievances are familiar. Anti-immigrant groups say South Africa is flooded with illegal foreigners who steal jobs, overwhelm hospitals, crowd out public schools and drive crime rates up. Musa Hlongwa, president of United South Africa, spelt it out at a press briefing on June 24.

“South Africans are tired of standing in long queues in hospitals,” he said. “Competing for spaces in public schools with immigrants. Competing for jobs with foreign nationals. Tired of Nigerians who are selling drugs to the youth of this country.”

These views are not on the fringes. Three separate surveys conducted in 2025 showed rising hostility toward immigrants across South African society. A Human Sciences Research Council poll found only one in six adults would welcome all foreigners. Forty-two per cent said they would welcome none, up from a third in 2021. An Afrobarometer survey showed seven in ten South Africans view migrants’ economic impact as negative. An Ipsos poll found nearly three-quarters of respondents did not trust African immigrants at all.

Those numbers reflect a society under pressure. But they do not reflect the facts on immigration.

The Data Contradicts Almost Every Major Claim

South Africa is not being overrun. A 2023 national statistics office survey counted 3.1 million migrants in the country. Anti-immigrant groups argue undocumented arrivals push the real number higher. But StatsSA uses census methodology designed to capture undocumented residents too.

“The impression is that there are hordes of people coming into the country,” says Anthony Kaziboni, senior researcher at the University of Johannesburg’s Centre for Social Development in Africa. “But the data points to the contrary.”

On crime, the police release no nationality data for convicts. The most recent available figures, from the Justice Department in 2017, show foreign nationals made up about 6 percent of the prison population. Of those, over 1,300 were there specifically for immigration violations.

“All evidence suggests immigrants are disproportionately law-abiding,” says Loren B. Landau, Professor of Migration and Development at the University of Oxford. “Most of their crimes are immigration violations.”

On jobs, a 2018 World Bank report found that for every migrant employed, approximately two jobs are created for South Africans through local spending and business activity. Migrants earn income. They spend it. That spending generates demand for South African goods and services.

On public services, Kaziboni points out that undocumented migrants actively avoid hospitals and schools, which require registration. They fear detection. The collapse of South Africa’s health and education systems reflects chronic underinvestment and corruption, not immigration pressure. He notes that 1.5 trillion rand ($91.27 billion) was lost to corruption during former president Jacob Zuma’s administration alone.

“To squarely blame immigrants for a failed healthcare crisis is unjust and unfounded,” Kaziboni says. “We should blame poor governance, maladministration and corruption.”

The Real Roots Run Much Deeper

South Africa carries a specific historical wound on this issue. Under apartheid, the government deliberately imported migrant labour from across the continent to suppress wages in gold mines and break union power. That policy shaped how South Africans understood the relationship between foreign workers and their own economic precarity. The memory persists.

Today, one in three South Africans is unemployed. Youth unemployment exceeds 60 percent. Service delivery has collapsed badly enough that it cost the ruling African National Congress its parliamentary majority in the 2024 elections. Inequality, by several international measures, is the worst in the world.

That is the real fuel. The anger is legitimate. The target is wrong.

Mpho Makhubela of the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa puts it plainly. “Vigilante groups feed off the country’s frustrations and socioeconomic decline,” he says. “The reality is that the country has been faced with the enormous task of addressing the legacies of apartheid.”

Politics makes it worse. Local elections are due by November 2026. Multiple parties, including the Patriotic Alliance, ActionSA and uMkhonto we Sizwe, have campaigned on anti-immigrant platforms. The June 30 deadline carries no legal weight. But it carries enormous political utility for groups who benefit from keeping the anger focused outward.

Ramaphosa Has Spoken. The Violence Has Not Stopped.

President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the nation on June 7. He announced stricter immigration enforcement measures and condemned vigilante violence in clear terms. Police placed the country on high alert. Military units moved to standby positions. The government warned that any violence after June 30 passes will face a forceful response.

None of that has prevented the displacement of thousands. Migrants camp outside their own consulates in Cape Town and Durban. A pregnant Congolese woman told NPR she was turned away from a clinic with protesters stationed outside. “I feel so sad,” she said. “It’s like I’m in Congo.”

Human Rights Watch documented a pattern of escalating vigilante activity since 2024 and placed this wave within a recurring cycle of attacks in 2008, 2015, 2019 and 2021. Each cycle follows roughly the same script: economic pressure builds, politicians amplify migrant-blaming rhetoric, violence spills into the streets, and the government eventually moves to contain it.

The June 30 deadline will pass. The underlying conditions will not.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is behind South Africa’s 2026 anti-immigrant protests?

A combination of 30 percent unemployment, collapsing public services and political opportunism is fuelling the protests. Anti-immigrant groups blame migrants for job losses and crime. Researchers and data consistently contradict those claims. Migrants make up roughly 4 percent of South Africa’s population, a figure that has fallen over the past decade.

Who is behind the March and March movement?

March and March is a civil movement founded in 2025 by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma. It organised anti-immigrant demonstrations across Johannesburg, Pretoria, Durban and Cape Town in 2026 and issued the June 30 deadline for undocumented foreigners to leave. The deadline has no legal standing.

How many people have died in South Africa’s xenophobic attacks in 2026?

At least seven people were confirmed dead by mid-May 2026. Violence in Mossel Bay in late May killed five Mozambicans. Foreign-owned businesses have been looted across multiple provinces and thousands of migrants are displaced.

Are immigrants responsible for South Africa’s high crime rate?

No. The most recent available justice department figures show foreign nationals made up about 6 percent of the prison population, with most of those held for immigration violations. Oxford University’s Professor Loren Landau states that all evidence shows immigrants are disproportionately law-abiding.

What has President Ramaphosa done in response?

Ramaphosa addressed the nation on June 7, 2026, announcing immigration enforcement measures and condemning vigilante attacks. Police are on high alert ahead of the June 30 deadline. Military units remain on standby, with warnings that post-deadline violence will face a firm response.