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On a cold morning in Soweto Township, near Johannesburg, Mohammed Hussein sat inside his small grocery store waiting for customers. Instead, he found himself confronted by a group of vigilantes demanding that he shut his business immediately.
The vigilantes, believed to be linked to anti-immigrant movements March and March and Operation Dudula, have been going door-to-door demanding that undocumented foreign nationals leave the country.
“They asked for my identification, which I handed over. But I was instead harassed and told to immediately pack my goods and leave or my shop would be looted,’’ Hussein, a 33-year-old migrant from Ethiopia, told Anadolu.
Hussein, a father of two, said they told him he was not welcome in South Africa and should go back to his country, despite possessing legal documents allowing him to live and work in the country.
Hussein’s story is hardly unique.
Refugees and migrants across South Africa say they have faced harassment, intimidation, extortion and forced business closures amid a growing wave of anti-immigrant activism.
Human Rights Watch warned last week of a new wave of xenophobic violence targeting African and Asian migrants “with little or insufficient apparent response from the police and other authorities.”
In April and May, protests organized by March and March in major cities including Johannesburg, Pretoria and Durban were linked to violent incidents, prompting many businesses to close over fears of looting and violence.
Last Wednesday, hundreds of foreign nationals, the vast majority of whom were legally in the country, fled their homes in Durban and sought refuge at a community center and police station after anti-immigrant groups allegedly chased them from their neighborhoods.
“South Africa’s constitution and international human rights law protects the right to protest, but that does not include permission to commit violence,” Nomathamsanga Masiko-Mpaka, a researcher at Human Rights Watch South Africa desk, said in the report.
The rights group also said vigilante organizations have been blocking migrants from accessing healthcare and education services.
Last year, a Johannesburg court granted an injunction against Operation Dudula, barring supporters from preventing migrants from accessing healthcare facilities.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres recently expressed “deep concern” over reports of xenophobic harassment, intimidation and attacks against foreign nationals in South Africa.
“We must make it clear that there is no place in South Africa for xenophobia, ethnic mobilization, intolerance or violence,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said this month.
He said criminal acts targeting foreign nationals did not reflect government policy or the views of most South Africans.
Much of the recent anti-immigrant mobilization has been driven by groups such as March and March and Operation Dudula.
“Vigilante groups feed off the country’s frustrations and socioeconomic rights regression, unemployment and lack of efforts to address the equity gaps that we have as a country,” Mpho Makhubela, an activist with the Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia coalition, said in the Human Rights Watch report.
Many migrants work in South Africa’s informal economy, while the country continues to struggle with deep inequality, poverty and high unemployment.
South Africa’s official unemployment rate stands at around 32%.
March and March, which describes itself as a grassroots civic movement focused on illegal immigration, first gained prominence in Durban before expanding demonstrations to Johannesburg and Pretoria.
It has framed undocumented migration as a national crisis, describing South Africa as “being invaded” and calling its campaign a “war against illegal migration.”
In social media statements, the group has accused undocumented migrants of contributing to crime, unemployment and pressure on public services, while arguing that certain jobs “must be reserved for South Africans in order to win against inequality and poverty.”
Operation Dudula was founded in Soweto following the COVID-19 pandemic and the July 2021 riots. The township has long struggled with high unemployment and poverty.
It draws its name from the isiZulu word meaning “force out,” reflecting the movement’s stated goal of removing undocumented foreign nationals from communities.
Political analyst Andre Duvenhage of North-West University said migration has become a powerful political issue ahead of South Africa’s local government elections later this year.
“Since the last decade we have seen a huge increase in xenophobic tendencies, and at the moment, it seems as if it has become an issue that people are mobilizing around ahead of the November local government elections,” he told Anadolu.
The protests have drawn support from political parties such as ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance, and Zandile Dabula, the former head of Operation Dudula, recently quit the movement and joined ActionSA’s campaign.
South Africa remains one of Africa’s leading destinations for migrants and asylum seekers, attracting people from across the continent and Asia since the end of apartheid in 1994.
The exact number of undocumented migrants living in South Africa remains disputed, though anti-immigration groups estimate there could be more than 3 million people in the country illegally.
According to the UN refugee agency, South Africa hosts more than 167,000 refugees and asylum seekers, mainly from Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Somalia, South Sudan, Rwanda and Zimbabwe.
Human Rights Watch said South Africa’s deteriorating socioeconomic conditions, including unemployment and inequality, have contributed to growing anti-immigrant activism.
Dale McKinley, spokesperson for Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia, said migrants were being unfairly scapegoated for structural failures that long predate recent migration waves.
“They find it easy during elections to scapegoat foreigners,” he said.
“This is a tried and tested way of doing things in South Africa,” he added. “You basically create fear and division and turn people’s attention away from where the real problem is and put it on vulnerable people who often cannot speak for themselves.”
McKinley also pointed to US President Donald Trump’s immigration-focused political messaging as an example of how migrants can become targets during election campaigns.
Analysts and rights groups warn that such rhetoric risks deepening tensions in a country with a history of anti-migrant violence.
South Africa has experienced repeated outbreaks of xenophobic violence over the past two decades.
The deadliest attacks erupted in 2008, when violence that began in Alexandra Township spread across the country, killing 62 people.
Further anti-migrant violence followed in 2015 and 2019, leaving at least 19 dead and hundreds of businesses looted.
For migrants like Hussein, the renewed hostility has created a climate of fear and uncertainty.
“Refugees, asylum seekers and migrants live in constant fear as they face a lot of intimidation and harassment by people in the communities where they reside,” Malipo Lukandamiza Mbalanga, executive director of African Refugee and Migrant Aid, told Anadolu.
“They no longer feel safe in South Africa.”
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