South Africa Sees Nationwide Marches Calling for Undocumented Migrants to Leave
On June 30, thousands of people marched across South Africa’s major cities, from Johannesburg to Durban, in a coordinated demonstration demanding that undocumented migrants leave the country. The protests were described as nationwide, with participants filling the streets of the country’s largest urban centres.
The marches followed a call from roughly twenty organisations, which were identified in reports as citizen‑led and anti‑immigration groups. These groups had been organising weeks of demonstrations and had set an unofficial June 30 deadline for foreigners without legal papers to depart South Africa. Their core demand was for the government to tighten immigration policy and for undocumented residents to depart voluntarily.
Although the day was largely peaceful, authorities recorded a few arrests linked to attempted looting. In addition, protesters stopped outside buildings they believed housed undocumented migrants and urged the occupants to leave, as reported by one outlet. No major clashes were detailed in the sources, and the overall tone of the demonstrations was described as non‑violent despite the isolated incidents.
The protests represented the culmination of a period of sustained activism. Citizen‑led groups had been holding regular demonstrations for weeks leading up to the June 30 deadline, framing the date as a cutoff for undocumented migrants to regularise their status or exit the country. The deadline itself was characterised as unofficial, originating from the activist groups rather than any government mandate.
None of the three reports included statements from government officials, police commanders, or immigration authorities regarding the marches. Consequently, the articles do not record any official response, policy announcement, or legal action taken in direct reaction to the demonstrations on that day.
