Hundreds of South Africans took to the streets of Johannesburg on Wednesday to protest what demonstrators described as high levels of illegal immigration, a development they said has heightened tensions between locals and foreign nationals. During the march, many shops closed, with organizers and participants pointing to fears of potential looting or other opportunistic crimes.
The protest formed part of a broader wave of demonstrations that also included marches in Pretoria on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press. Organizers and supporters called for tighter enforcement of immigration laws and mass deportations, framing the issue as a matter of who is legally allowed to live in the country.
In Johannesburg, organizers said the closure of shops involved both businesses owned by South Africans and shops run by migrants. The march was organized by March and March and also attracted similar groups, including Operation Dudula and political parties ActionSA and Patriotic Alliance.
ActionSA participant Themba Mabunda said the demonstrators were not xenophobic and argued that “We are not xenophobic, we just want the right thing to be done in South Africa, to put the South African first. We do want to live with foreigners in our country, but those foreigners must be legally in the country,” according to the report. Other demonstrators and the participating organizations linked their calls to concerns about overcrowding in cities, labor pressures, losses to tax revenue, and crime and border-security threats in a country that faces high unemployment.
The reported estimates of how many people are in South Africa illegally vary widely, with figures frequently cited in the millions, and the accuracy of up-to-date totals disputed because many people do not have legal status. The Associated Press report also described how anti-migration groups have, in some instances, chased foreign nationals away from public health facilities, describing their actions as tied to concerns over medication shortages and overcrowding.
The protests also come amid international warnings about how some migration-related tensions have played out. The United Nations secretary-general, António Guterres, has expressed concern over reports of xenophobic attacks and harassment and intimidation of migrants and foreign nationals in parts of South Africa, including KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape Province, the Associated Press said.
The report pointed to violent incidents linked to anti-migration mobilization in Eastern Cape Province last month, including the torching of minibus taxis and public infrastructure. It also described alleged attacks on Ghanaian nationals in KwaZulu-Natal that sparked a diplomatic dispute, with South Africa’s ambassador to Ghana summoned to explain the attacks.
South Africa has also been stepping up immigration enforcement, according to the Associated Press report, deporting 109,344 immigrants living in the country illegally over the past two financial years.