Videos posted online – many of them disturbing and violent – document a new wave of violence against African migrants in South Africa that began in late March. In one disturbing video, vigilantes pummel a man accused of being undocumented with sticks, while other videos show armed groups patrolling the streets.
This footage, much of it filmed in Durban, shows a worrying escalation in tensions and violence. Increasing numbers of anti-migrant protests are being held in cities across the so-called rainbow nation.
One of the populist, xenophobic groups behind these protests is called Operation Dudula. It was founded in Soweto by anti-migrant activist Nhlanhla "Lux" Dlamini. In 2023, it became a political party, led by Zandile Dabula, one of the most prominent anti-immigrant figures in the country.
The other organisation behind many of the protests is called March and March. It was founded in 2025 by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, a former radio presenter considered the other major champion of the country’s growing xenophobia. March and March self-describes as a popular movement, not a political party.
The two organisations are united in the belief that undocumented immigration is leading to unemployment and insecurity in South Africa, and, ahead of the 2026 local elections, they have garnered the support of a number of conservative political parties. This has set the scene for the latest wave of deadly xenophobic violence, like similar waves in 2008 and 2015.
‘The hostility is based on both nationality and race’
Mpho Makhubela, who works with Lawyers for Human Rights and is a member of the association Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia, is in regular contact with the people targeted by this violence:
"There wasn’t just one trigger. The tensions we are seeing now have been growing for years, but become more visible and intense at certain moments, like ahead of the elections when anti-migrant rhetoric tends to intensify.
The victims don’t describe isolated instances of violence, but organised intimidation. People are threatened, ordered to leave their communities and their businesses are looted. There is a strong racial element: the vast majority of those targeted are black African migrants. South African courts use the term ‘xeno-racism’, a hostility based on both nationality and race. Fear is widespread, and many victims don’t report what is happening to them because they don’t think they’ll be protected."
Illegal checkpoints run by civilians
The anti-immigration movements have gone well beyond protests and now have militias made up of vigilantes. One video, picked up by South African media outlets, shows some of these vigilantes beating a man up in front of what looks like a shuttered store.
Warning: readers may find the following images shocking.
Militia groups have been checking the documents of migrants living in the townships, says Makhubela:
"The groups of vigilantes sometimes present themselves as civic movements while all the while carrying out illegal activities: checking documents and searching people, deporting people and carrying out acts of intimidation.
In some communities, they are acting like immigration enforcement agents. They will stop people in the streets and ask to see their documents. If the people aren’t able to provide the documents, then they will be threatened, assaulted or forced to leave the community. So migrants are faced with illegal document checks being carried out by civilians, harassment and violence. Their shops are being looted, and many are living in fear and no longer move around freely in towns like Durban, Pretoria or Johannesburg."
Videos of these illegal interactions have been widely circulated on social media. One video shows Victoria Africa, known as "Queen Vee", an activist with the political party Patriotic Alliance, which is known for its anti-immigrant stance, stopping a Ghanaian man and ranting at him in front of the camera.
"We don’t want this [sic] African people anymore,” she lectures. “We are tired of seeing African migrants moving all over the world, refusing to fix your own countries … We don’t want you here ... You know very well that what you’ve done is wrong.” Then, she asks to see his papers.
News agencies Reuters and African Press Agency have reported that at least seven people – five Ethiopians and two Nigerians – have been killed since the start of the violence in late March.
Human Rights Watch has reported that members of Operation Dudula, as well as March and March, have physically blocked migrants from entering public health facilities and schools: a practice that the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which is linked to the African Union, has explicitly condemned, calling on the South African government to dismantle vigilante groups and put a stop to their illegal activities.
Makhubela continues:
"We are still receiving reports from migrants who are prevented from accessing health centres even though they have valid immigration or asylum documents. Pregnant women and mothers struggle to access health services, even though they have the right. And children face obstacles when it comes to access to education.
The police have intervened in certain cases, but these interventions are sporadic. In many cases, we see either delayed responses, inaction or an inability to prevent escalation.”
‘Frustration is growing and migrants are an easy group to blame’
There are a number of factors that could, in part, explain this wave of xenophobia. South Africa is experiencing a high unemployment rate, above 30 percent, which is affecting young people in particular. It’s also a country with one of the highest inequality rates in the world.
"Many people are struggling. Businesses are closing and people feel like there aren’t any real opportunities. There isn’t equal access to basic services and, in some areas, people feel abandoned by the government. In this context, frustration is growing and migrants are an easy group to blame, especially because they are visible in informal commerce and small businesses.
In a society where the majority – Black Africans – remain extremely poor, a well-off minority that is mostly white continues to largely control land and means of production.
Communities, especially Black communities, aren’t going after the profound causes of these problems and, instead, are influenced by lying narratives that migrants are stealing jobs, committing crimes, are making the economy tank and are taking over land, which doesn’t correspond at all with reality. But the legacy of apartheid, like divisions within the Black community, continues to play a role: Black people find themselves pitted against one another in a context of poverty and, in some ways, fighting over access to limited resources.”
Very few people responsible for xenophobic violence have been arrested in the years since 2008, and there have been even fewer convictions. In the rare cases where perpetrators are arrested, they are often released without charges.
Xenowatch, a database based at the University of Witwatersrand that monitors xenophobic violence and discrimination, has documented nearly 700 deaths due to xenophobic discrimination since 1994, as well as more than 128,000 people who have been displaced and 5,600 businesses that have been looted.
