Around 10,000 terrified migrants from across Africa are living in makeshift tents in a field beside a mosque in the Sherwood suburb of Durban, having been chased from their homes by protesters demanding they leave South Africa. The camp, which began with some five-dozen Malawians, recently came under attack from rioters who had to be dispersed with rubber bullets after false rumours claimed the migrants were being given accommodation rather than deported.
Similar scenes have unfolded nationwide since early May, as a grassroots campaign to evict and intimidate illegal immigrants has gathered pace. Displaced foreigners — some of whom say they are in the country legally — have huddled outside police stations and churches, or hidden in bush and on remote mountainsides. Homes have been torched, businesses looted, and vigilantes have gone door to door demanding papers. The protests are fronted by groups such as March and March, led by former radio presenter Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, and Operation Dudula, which has previously tried to block illegal immigrants from accessing healthcare and schooling. Zulu activist Nkosikhona Ndabandaba, who has more than 1.5 million Facebook followers, has donned traditional tribal garb to lead large crowds through the streets.
“10,000 migrants camp in South Africa as anti-immigrant violence escalates; World Cup match tonight.”
At least two people have died — though the Malawian government claims the real number is five — while Nigeria and Ghana have evacuated hundreds of their citizens. The vigilantes have declared a 30 June deadline for illegal migrants to leave South Africa; what they will do after that date is unclear.
Tonight, however, the country’s football team will take to the pitch in Los Angeles for the first knockout game of the World Cup 2026, facing Canada in the round of 32. South Africa finished as runners-up in Group A after a crucial 1-0 victory over South Korea, with Thapelo Maseko scoring the winner. They are ranked 61st in the world — the joint third-lowest-ranked side to reach the knockout stages. Canada, co-hosts, reached the knockout rounds for the first time after beating Qatar 6-0, drawing with Bosnia and Herzegovina, and losing to Switzerland. The two sides have met only once before, a 2-0 South Africa win in a friendly in 2007.
For Britain, the unrest in South Africa carries a warning. The incipient unravelling of its own multicultural regime was highlighted by riots in Belfast earlier this month, where a Sudanese asylum seeker stands accused of a brutal knife attack, amid a furious response to the police’s handling of Henry Nowak’s murder by a young Sikh man, and violent intimidation of British Muslims.