DURBAN - More than 176,000 people have left South Africa in recent weeks, displaced by anti-foreign protests that set a June 30 deadline for undocumented foreign nationals to depart. The human cost of that pressure, measured in departures, deportations, and at least four deaths confirmed by South African police, now sits at the center of a regional diplomatic reckoning.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa brought the crisis before the 16-nation Southern African Development Community (SADC) summit in the coastal city of Durban on Monday, arguing that migration is a shared regional challenge rather than a domestic security problem for any one country to absorb alone. The departure figures, compiled by AFP from data provided by African governments involved, reflect the scale of movement triggered by populist protests that drew roughly 300 demonstrators to the summit’s perimeter on Monday morning alone.
The people most directly affected are citizens primarily from Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. Some left voluntarily; others were deported or assisted through government repatriation schemes. Their departure has not resolved the underlying tensions. March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, a prominent figure in the recent protest wave, stood near the summit venue Monday and called on regional leaders to “fetch their people who are here in South Africa illegally,” as security forces deployed helicopters, drones, and officers on horseback and motorbike to manage the crowd.
Meanwhile, the violence that accompanied the protests has drawn criticism well beyond the region. Ghana and Nigeria, neither of them SADC members, have objected publicly to South Africa’s handling of both the demonstrations and the casualties that followed. Some foreign governments report death tolls higher than the four confirmed by South African police, a discrepancy that has sharpened continental concern about how the country managed its security and humanitarian obligations.
Ramaphosa did not deflect that concern. At a public lecture on the SADC sidelines Friday, he said South Africa was “deeply concerned and ashamed that nationals from other countries have in recent months been subjected to discrimination and ill-treatment.” In his closing remarks Monday, he added: “We thanked countries in our region for their understanding of the challenges that we faced and, in some respects, continue to face. We also expressed regret at what has befallen us as a country. We expressed a wish that we should all work together to address the challenge of migration.”
The admission carries weight. Public concessions of governmental responsibility at this level are uncommon, and the statement signals that Pretoria recognizes the damage done, not only to foreign nationals inside its borders but to South Africa’s standing as a regional anchor.
The structural pressures driving both migration and local resentment are not new. South Africa remains the continent’s wealthiest nation and a longstanding destination for regional migrants seeking economic opportunity. It also carries an unemployment rate exceeding 30 percent and severe inequality, conditions that have made foreign nationals a recurring target for populist mobilization. Ordinary South Africans and migrants alike are caught in that tension, with public frustration channeled into organized pressure campaigns that carry real consequences for people’s safety and livelihoods.
Having assumed the rotating SADC chairship at this summit, South Africa has called for an Africa-wide conference to address migration at a continental level, a signal that Pretoria views the issue as too large for bilateral or regional arrangements alone. Whether that diplomatic ambition translates into protections that ordinary people, both citizens and migrants, can actually feel is the question that will define what comes next.