In a park in Durban, tens of thousands of migrants are sleeping on the ground among piles of luggage, too scared to stay in their homes. Armed young men have been going door-to-door, telling foreigners to leave by the end of the month. “On June 30, we don’t know what will happen, but we are not safe here,” said Hojane Mhone, a 35-year-old Malawian who has been working undocumented in South Africa for five years. “They came to my door and said ‘When are you going?’ They took my fridge and my speaker.”
The panic recalls the anti-foreigner riots that killed 62 people in 2008 and flared again in 2015 and 2019. The World Health Organization has alleged that up to 10 Ethiopians and Mozambicans have already been killed in recent weeks, though South Africa disputes that total, saying several deaths were due to organised crime or are still under investigation.
“Thousands of migrants flee xenophobic violence in South Africa as the US cuts $400m HIV funding.”
Now comes another blow: the US government says it will stop funding HIV programmes in South Africa, which is home to more than eight million people living with HIV – the highest number of any country in the world. Until 2025, the US was providing an estimated $400m (£300m) a year through Pepfar, covering about a fifth of South Africa’s total spending on HIV programmes. A State Department official confirmed a “phased drawdown” would start because of “South Africa’s failure to make demonstrable progress on policy requests by the administration”. The official added that South Africa is a middle-income country “more than capable of supporting its own health programs”.
The decision appeared linked to allegations that South Africa has failed to protect the white-minority Afrikaner community – an allegation the government has repeatedly rejected. President Donald Trump’s executive order cited “unjust and immoral practices”, including South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice and its links to Iran. Trump has also alleged a “white genocide”, widely discredited, and set up a refugee programme for Afrikaners.
South Africa’s health ministry said it had not been informed of the funding cut but had “long been working on a self-reliance plan”. For now, the provision of life-saving antiretroviral drugs remains separately funded. But in the park, that is cold comfort. “People here have been attacked, so why are we still waiting for our buses?” asked Mhone.