Businesses shuttered and police filled the streets of South African cities on Tuesday as anti-immigrant demonstrators gathered at protests around the country. The demonstrations grew out of small gatherings that began in April and have been escalating in recent weeks.
Anti-immigrant groups had given undocumented foreign nationals a deadline of Tuesday to leave the country, falsely claiming they would face arrest and deportation if they did not comply. The South African government rejected those threats as false, but Al Jazeera reported that thousands of people were pushed to flee.
President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed the situation Monday, saying the right to protest "does not allow people to threaten or intimidate others, or to engage in acts of vandalism or violence." He added: "Whatever the motivation, taking the law into one's own hands is vigilantism."
Al Jazeera correspondent Haru Mutasa, reporting from a protest in Johannesburg, said demonstrators were both working-class and middle-class South Africans and came from different tribes around the country. "They all have one goal, which is basically that they want the government to do something about undocumented foreigners in the country," she said. "They're saying that they're frustrated, that they've heard promises from the government but they're not seeing any difference on the ground."
Mutasa said some protesters were marching through Yeoville and Hillbrow, areas where many African nationals live alongside local residents. While protest leaders had initially called for peaceful marches, some participants broke away. "The leaders of the protests had said initially that they'll try to coordinate their marches and try to be peaceful, but it seems some people in these marches have other ideas, breaking away, causing commotion, trying to break windows, and the police have been trying to contain them, but it's been a struggle," she said.
One group was reported heading toward a major highway. Another set fire to an area around a dumpster where homeless people live in the Yeoville neighborhood. "Police descended en masse. Some soldiers came and dispersed the crowd," Mutasa said.
The country has seen weeks of xenophobic violence. According to the AFP news agency, at least two Mozambicans, an Ethiopian, and a Malawian have been killed in anti-immigrant attacks. Although protest groups say they are targeting undocumented migrants, foreign nationals who are in South Africa legally are also at risk.
