XENOBAROMETER: Ugandan man nearly killed by March and March mob speaks from hospital

‘Simon’, recovering in hospital after a Durban mob attack, recounts fleeing masked protesters and losing consciousness as concerns grow over anti-immigrant violence in 2026.

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Content Warning: The video link below contains graphic scenes of violence.

A Ugandan man who was attacked by a mob of March and March supporters in Durban on Wednesday, 21 October 2026, has described his brush with death from an Addington Hospital ward where he is recovering from his injuries.

In a video of the attack, shared widely on social media last week, the man is seen running before he is surrounded by protesters wielding an assortment of weapons. As he is attacked, he runs towards two officials in yellow bibs, understood to be eThekwini Municipality peace officers. The officers are seen trying to intervene, but soon step back. 

In a matter of 20 seconds, attackers are seen to land more than a dozen blows on the man, who stumbles to the tarmac and covers his head. As a police vehicle enters the frame, the attackers are seen to slowly disperse. 

Content Warning: The video link above contains graphic scenes of violence.

Initially, a voice note circulating on WhatsApp alleged that the man had died. But Viewfinder confirmed that he was alive after talking to various immigrant community leaders in Durban. A leader in the Ugandan community, who asked that he be identified only as “Andrew”, agreed to facilitate an interview with the victim, who was recovering in hospital. 

Andrew accompanied this journalist to Addington Hospital on Friday evening. There, the 45-year-old victim was in bed, surrounded by friends and family. He asked, as well, to be identified only by his first name – “Simon” – for fear of further reprisal from anti-immigrant protesters.

He said that he was at work on Yusuf Dadoo Street in the Durban city centre on Wednesday afternoon when he heard the sounds of a nearby protest organised by March and March. Fearing a confrontation with the marchers, he decided to go home.

He was walking down Yusuf Dadoo Street when he noticed another group of marchers heading straight towards him. Some were carrying weapons and wearing masks and balaclavas, he said. He decided to make a run for it. When the group noticed him running, he said, they gave chase.

Simon’s eyes began to well up with tears when he came to this part of the story.

“He struggled to run away, [but] he thought he found a safe direction when he saw the police,” said Andrew, referring to the eThekwini peace officers who can be seen in the video.

Lost consciousness

Simon suffered a bloody puncture wound on his back, which he believes was caused by a club with a nail driven through it. He said that he momentarily lost consciousness. 

“I lost my phone, my wallet, my documents,” he said. He does not know how.

Andrew, who was present during the attack, but escaped injury, drove Simon to King Dinizulu Hospital for emergency first aid and X-rays.

The attack on Simon happened last Wednesday afternoon. Early the following morning, another foreign national was beaten to death by a mob of 50 people in the Durban city centre, according to a police statement.

Police subsequently said that five men, aged between 19 and 46, had been taken in for questioning over the murder on Thursday, and over an attempted murder on Wednesday. The latter incident is understood to be the assault on Simon caught on video. 

Viewfinder has previously reported that armed groups of March and March supporters have been accused in a string of targeted attacks on foreign nationals in Durban throughout 2026. More than 400 people, almost all documented refugees and asylum seekers, were displaced from their homes and camped for months on the pavement outside the Department of Home Affairs offices on Che Guevara Road in Durban.

The group has since dispersed: some have self-repatriated to their countries of origin; others have taken refuge in safe houses around Durban.

In response to queries earlier this month, KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said that police in the province “are not aware of any xenophobic attacks at any part of the province”.

Asked this week over WhatsApp for clarification of this statement and whether the recent murder and attempted murder have changed the outlook of the police, Netshiunda did not respond.

Violence ‘throughout 2026’

The Siyafana Sonke Action Campaign, a civil society coalition that supports refugees in Durban, has logged incidents of violence against foreign nationals throughout 2026. 

“Since May 2026, Durban has seen a steady escalation in the violence directed against foreign nationals by anti-migrant groups,” said Yeshelen Govender of Siyafana Sonke.

“A pattern is clearly identifiable: as anti-immigrant marches progress, small groups of masked and armed men bleed off and the supervising police detachments become stretched. These small groups stop people to conduct ‘document checks’ or interrogations in isiZulu. Failure to immediately prove a commanding grasp of the local language invariably results in a beating.”

March and March has consistently characterised itself as a non-violent movement and distanced itself from supporters who perpetrate acts of violence.

March and March spokesperson Sandile Dube was sent a query asking whether he had any comment on the acts of violence that had accompanied March and March events last week. He did not immediately respond. DM

XenoBarometer tracks the anti-immigrant movement and its impact. We aim to surface underreported stories, paying close attention to potential rights abuses, emerging patterns in anti-immigrant mobilisation and failures in the government’s response. It is produced by the Southern Africa Accountability Journalism Project (SA | AJP), an initiative of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation working with Viewfinder and with the financial assistance of the European Union. It can under no circumstances be regarded as reflecting the position of the EU.

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