Durban clashes injure residents, foreign nationals as tensions escalate

Stones flew on Che Guevara Road in Durban on Thursday, September 3, 2026, as a confrontation between the March and March movement and foreign nationals left multiple people injured and forced police to intervene. For residents of the Umbilo neighborhood and the foreign nationals camped near the Home Affairs office, the violence was immediate and physical. Sticks, stones, and teargas marked what had been billed as a community cleanup.

The clash began when approximately 100 marchers arrived in the area to conduct their cleanup campaign. Police accounts state that movement members allegedly took essential belongings from foreign nationals during the operation. The situation escalated quickly. Stones were thrown, sticks were used as weapons, and people fled as disorder spread. At least one stone struck a police officer on the head, thrown by a foreign national, according to police. One foreign national was arrested for assaulting an officer, and authorities confirmed that investigations remain ongoing.

Additional reference context is available at https://www.bbc.com/pidgin/articles/c7903y8rj88o.

For the foreign nationals camped near the Home Affairs office, the confrontation raised direct questions about their safety and access to basic protections. Several nations have already withdrawn their citizens from South Africa in response to attacks on foreign residents. Nigeria and Ghana are among the countries that have evacuated nationals, a sign of how far the situation has deteriorated for migrant communities across the country.

Meanwhile, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, leader of the March and March movement, offered a sharply different account. She said the group had notified both community members and police ahead of the cleanup, but that marchers came under attack from migrants wielding sticks. Ten of her members sustained injuries, she said, with some exposed to teargas. She also claimed police failed to adequately protect the marchers and instead asked them to leave. The movement has said it will lodge a formal complaint with authorities.

Police stated they deployed sufficient personnel and used minimum crowd management force to restore calm. Anyone found to have incited or participated in the violence will face legal consequences, they added.

The March and March movement has been central to escalating anti-migration pressure in South Africa. The organization led the campaign behind a June 30 deadline for countries to evacuate their citizens and has organized major protests against what it describes as illegal migration. It has now set a September 30 deadline for undocumented foreign nationals to leave, with renewed street protests planned by that date.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has stated that the government has begun prosecuting offenders and will hold accountable anyone who violates the law. The commitment covers illegal attacks on foreigners, he said, framing the state’s duty as protecting all residents regardless of immigration status.

That duty faces a severe test. With a new deadline weeks away and further protests already planned, the question facing authorities is whether the measures in place can prevent the next confrontation from causing greater harm to the public, both citizens and foreign nationals, who live and work in the same streets.