South Africa deploys police, foreigners brace for violence as anti-immigrant protests begin

South African police deployed to head off unrest and protests on Tuesday, the unofficial deadline set by anti-immigrant groups for undocumented foreign nationals to leave that has already pushed thousands to flee.

Officers were out in force to prevent violence and looting by the xenophobic groups, while hundreds of foreign nationals took refuge in several cities, urgently seeking help to leave.

Read moreThousands of foreign nationals leave South Africa ahead of June 30 ‘deadline’

Most shops stayed shuttered and the streets of downtown Johannesburg were unusually quiet, with police fanning out across the city as commuters made their way to work.

The protests have been mobilised by a loose coalition of minor political parties and small citizen-led vigilante groups, which seem well organised and well resourced, analysts say, and have a strong presence on social media that includes disinformation debunked by AFP.

In the southeastern city of Durban, small groups of protesters in Zulu attire, carrying sticks and shields, gathered at a park, singing and chanting “abahambe”, which means “Let them go” as security forces kept watch.

“I travelled a bit in Africa. All these countries are messed up and South Africa is the America of Africa,” protester Selwyn Anderson told AFP.

The 64-year-old pensioner claimed undocumented foreign nationals had taken over many of the country’s small businesses.

At least two Mozambicans, an Ethiopian and a Malawian have been killed in anti-immigrant violence over recent weeks and several African governments have organised planes or buses to repatriate their citizens.

Read more‘Chased like dogs’: Anti-migrant mobs in South Africa force foreigners to flee

Landlords in the main city ​Johannesburg and port city of Durban were evicting foreign tenants for fear ‌of their buildings being vandalised, witnesses said.

“All these people, they were chased out by their landlords,” Mabako Majole, a leader of the Congolese community, said next to a crowd of 100 people ‌sleeping on the street in downtown Durban.

“All these people are legal. They have documents.”

Migration ‘weaponised’

One of the continent’s wealthiest countries, South Africa is a magnet for migrant labour while grappling with an unemployment rate above 30 percent, high crime and a breakdown in services in many areas.

Coming ahead of local government elections in November, labour analyst Dale McKinley said the anti-migrant push has been “politically weaponised”.

“The xenophobic groups have got it wrong,” he told AFP. “This is a problem of governance, corruption and mismanagement.”

Uganda announced at the weekend an “evacuation plan” to start in the coming days for nearly 750 of its citizens. 

As Tuesday’s unauthorised deadline arrived, thousands of people, mostly Malawians and Zimbabweans, also gathered in Cape Town and Johannesburg, waiting for assistance to go home. 

Some said their landlords had evicted them or their employers had fired them, fearing fines from officials or attacks by vigilante groups.

Read more‘It’s organised intimidation’: New wave of anti-migrant violence sweeps South Africa

“I decided to go to avoid being attacked,” said Malawian Peter Madsoan, 45, who was among several thousand gathered in the port city of Durban on Monday waiting for a bus to take him home.

“I am a breadwinner back at home in Malawi,” said the builder. “It is better for me to go than to die in South Africa.”

Zimbabwean Evelyn Chinooneka, 29, said she and her 10-month-old baby had camped outside the Zimbabwean consulate in Cape Town for days. 

“It was raining. All the clothes are wet now. We need our buses to come,” said Chinooneka, who had worked for four years on a farm outside Cape Town before being told to leave.

‘Rolling mass action’

The leader of the anti-immigrant March and March group, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, told reporters last week that June 30 would launch “a national march to freedom, a rolling mass action” until all undocumented foreign nationals were deported.

“We are not calling for violence… No one will be killed on the 30th of June and no looting will take place in our name,” she said.

Concerned about a repeat of the unrest that occurred five years ago, when around 350 people were killed in days of looting and riots, the government has ordered a massive security deployment and warned against opportunistic crime.

The July 2021 unrest was sparked by the brief jailing of ex-president Jacob Zuma for refusing to testify to a commission probing corruption.

In the countdown to June 30, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced stepped-up government plans to combat illegal immigration and called on traditional leaders to use their “standing to calm tensions”.

Watch moreEye on Africa: South Africa’s anti-migrant deadline looms

The premier of KwaZulu-Natal province, Thami Ntuli, said: “Whatever our concerns about undocumented migration, however legitimate the frustrations beneath them, we will not allow this province to be set alight a second time, whether by criminality or by xenophobia.”

Previous flare-ups of violence targeting undocumented foreign nationals in South Africa have been deadly, with 62 people killed in riots in 2008.

But this is the first time that governments have simultaneously organised the repatriation of thousands of their nationals.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)