Thousands march in South African cities demanding undocumented migrants leave

Thousands of people marched in South Africa's main cities on 29 June 2026 to demand that all undocumented migrants leave the country. Police officers backed by private security guards were deployed in most cities because of fears that protests could turn violent.

Anti-migrant groups had set 30 June as the deadline for undocumented migrants to leave. Many foreigners have already left to escape violence and intimidation. South African police say 25,000 have been repatriated so far, most from other African countries.

Police said the protests have largely been peaceful, with isolated incidents of looting. In Johannesburg, shops in the city centre were closed and police visibility was high on major streets. The military was deployed in the Hillbrow suburb following reports of a teenager being shot and a car being torched.

Some protesters threw bricks, breaking windows of homes in the Yeoville suburb. In a neighbourhood in Germiston, demonstrators went to homes, evicting residents they suspected were foreign nationals and handing them over to police for documentation checks.

Police arrested five people for alleged looting of a foreign-owned shop in Soweto and about 10 people for looting in KwaZulu-Natal province.

Statements from officials and groups Protesters handed over a memorandum listing their demands to government officials in Durban and Johannesburg. Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, leader of the anti-migrant group March and March, said the group would protest every Thursday for the next six months to force the government to remove undocumented migrants still in South Africa.

A demonstrator from the group Operation Dudula told the BBC the group would push police to arrest foreigners who are not legally in the country. President Cyril Ramaphosa met some protest leaders on 28 June to defuse tensions and has repeatedly warned demonstrators to act peacefully while accepting the need for immigration reforms.

"Some foreign nationals who live in South Africa are here lawfully," he wrote in his weekly newsletter. "They work, study, raise families, invest in our economy and contribute positively to our society. " "The right to protest and freedom of expression does not allow people to threaten or intimidate others, or to engage in acts of vandalism or violence," he added.