30 June Deadline Sparks Fear Among Migrants as Government Rejects Shutdown Call.

By: Nomahlubi Charlie

The anti-illegal immigration group March and March Movement, founded in March 2024 by

Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, is supported by hundreds of South African citizens and is set to

enforce a shutdown on 30 June 2026, calling on undocumented foreigners to leave the

country. President Cyril Ramaphosa says South Africans must not be misled by the 30 th of

June deadline. “No South African must take any action against any person from any of our

African sister countries. That is the responsibility of the government and government

officials,”. “ So, the so-called 30 June, in my view, is not a necessary event because we are

addressing the challenges that our people are facing, and we must not allow South Africans

to be duped and to be misled by those who want to foster instability in our country, and we

will not allow that.” President Cyril Ramaphosa expresses his thoughts about the 30 June

deadline as he made these remarks on the sidelines of the official Youth Day Commemoration at Nasrec in Johannesburg.

South Africa has deported approximately 600 000 undocumented individuals. This total

includes 500 000 individuals stopped by the Border Management Authority (BMA) from

entering the country illegally. The kind of undocumented individuals in South Africa are

individuals who enter South Africa from neighbouring Southern African Development

Community (SADC) countries such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and Malawi are looking for work or to establish informal businesses. Asylum seekers and Refugees from countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Somalia, and Ethiopia. Transnational workers and

victims of human trafficking and syndicates.

With the 30 June deadline on the motion, South Africa has become a dangerous place for

migrants as the deadline approaches. A 36-year-old Malawian woman, Esnat Joseph, fled

from her home in an informal settlement in the port city of Durban, in KwaZulu-Natal, to an

open field where up to 7 000 Malawian foreigners sought refuge, after 10 South African

men broke into her home, cut her husband on the head and neck, and demanded that they

leave South Africa and go back to their country. “The people came to my house and told me:

‘You must leave. We don’t want you people to stay here any longer, so you have to go to

your country.’ There were 10, and they were carrying weapons,” she said. Esnat Joseph says

she lost her passport and other paperwork in a robbery, but aims to go back to Malawi.

The protest organisers deny their actions are xenophobic. They say they are tired of others

Africans abusing the system and, as March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma says,

“playing the victim card.” “If you come to South Africa with a passport that allows you to stay for 30 days. When it’s 50 days, when it’s 2 years, when it’s 5 years, you know you’re breaking the law.” About 3 500 foreigners from Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mozambique, and Ghana are volunteering to leave South Africa. One of the people who has already left, Benjamin from Nigeria, says, “South Africans don’t like foreigners, especially Nigerians. South Africa is not a place to be; it’s a place where you can lose your life at any time.” Benjamin expresses that the way South Africans are treating foreigners, especially Nigerians, is hostile. The previous protest linked with immigration has at times turned violent.

Groups including March and March, Operation Dudula, ActionSA, the Inkatha Freedom

Party and the MK Party support the call for tougher immigration controls. These groups

accuse the government of not acting decisively against undocumented migration. March

and March is taking matters into their own hands, as they say that the government is

lenient with undocumented individuals from other countries, and that they should enforce

stricter visa regulations, review asylum policies, and take action against employing

undocumented migrants.

South Africans are tired of competing with immigrants when looking for jobs. The

population rate in South Africa is estimated at roughly 61.1 million. Out of this, an estimated

3 to 4 million are foreign-born immigrants, which adds to the country’s population. This

triggered the 30 June deadline, but the South African government, including President Cyril

Ramaphosa and the Security Cluster have strongly rejected this ultimatum. They have

declared that the 30 June deadline has no legal authority.

Article Edited by: Munei Zoe Mbedzi