No clearly defined action exists for those defying the order, yet fear grips townships as marches of thousands threaten descent into chaos.
South African activist Phakelumthakathi (L) and TV and community crime fighter Xolani Khumalo march with Amabutho and community members in Soweto during the march on illegal immigrants living in the country in Johannesburg, 29 June 2026. Picture: Nigel Sibanda / The Citizen
A narrative has been successfully created that seeks to vilify those who view today’s anti-migrant deadline as unnecessary.
The deadline set by various organisations for all undocumented foreign nationals to leave the country or face an unknown threat has created a lot of tension in areas that have high concentrations of foreign nationals.
Although the build-up to the deadline has been accompanied by relatively peaceful marches, a high possibility exists that, today, opportunistic criminals might use the cover of anti-migrant marches to commit crimes and violence.
There is no clearly defined action that will be taken against those who defy the order to leave the country, but the threat that something will happen to them today exists.
It would be wonderful if the threat was merely mass arrests or detention of those found to be undocumented, but a march of thousands of people descending on a chosen location is hardly going to be a controlled affair where order and logic reigns.
And this is the biggest threat that today’s deadline carries with it – a descent to chaos.
It needs to be noted, too, that stereotypes have been built into this anti-migrant movement, which have also left documented and legal immigrants filled with fear.
And this fear and dread is even worse when it is experienced by South Africans who have never known any other country as their home.
However, they fit into whatever stereotypes that the self-appointed immigration laws enforcers hold.
As a result, a joke has been doing the rounds that black South Africans who do not know what an elbow is in Zulu, should avoid being on the streets today to keep clear from the anti-migrant marchers.
This might be funny on the surface to some people, but South Africans only have to go back three decades to a frightening time when you could very well be accosted by a marauding mob of cultural weapon-brandishing marchers wanting to know what an elbow in Zulu is.
At the height of the political violence in the ’80s and ’90s, a lot of people in the East Rand townships knew the kind of fear that is being invoked by this movement today.
Does South Africa have a chaotic border control system? Absolutely. Are there a lot of undocumented migrants putting a strain on the country’s resources? Absolutely.
Do undocumented migrants contribute to this country’s spiralling crime levels? Without a doubt, yes.
Does the solution lie in the disruption of mostly poor people and threatening legitimately documented South Africans? An emphatic no.
Border control and migrant documentation cannot begin with threats.
If anyone needs threatening it is the people who have presided over the chaotic border control system for decades.
If today’s ultimatum for undocumented immigrants to leave the country goes on in a peaceful manner without chaotic looting, property damage and physical violence, it will be a feather in the cap of the organisers.
Almost a miracle considering the underlying threats that have accompanied the AbaHambe campaign.
If it descends into chaos as it could easily, as with other mass demonstrations in this country, the organisers must then convince South Africans that the possible loss of life and violence was the only logical way to solve this problem.
