Thousands march to demand illegal migrants leave South Africa

Thousands of people marched across South Africa on Tuesday to demand the departure of undocumented foreign nationals after a weeks-long campaign that has sent thousands fleeing and claimed four lives.

Police were out in force for nationwide protests which capped demonstrations led by citizen-led groups who set an unofficial June 30 deadline for foreigners without papers to leave.

There were isolated incidents, including stone-throwing and confrontations near Johannesburg where security forces escorted some foreign nationals away from a mob.

Several people were arrested for looting and soldiers were deployed in Johannesburg and Durban for the night, authorities said.

Demonstrators brandishing sticks and flags moved through central Johannesburg during the day while most shops stayed shuttered, workers stayed home, and transport hubs were quiet.

In the southeastern city of Durban, the Zulu heartland, protesters turned out in traditional warrior attire, carrying spears, whips and shields, and some draped in leopard skins.

Demonstrator Brightness Gumbi, 48, said she was frustrated at not being able to afford to rent a place for her business while foreign nationals were able to run shops.

“The illegal foreigners manage to pay it because they sell drugs to our people,” she told AFP. “I hope through these demonstrations our president will hear our cries and enforce stricter laws.”

– ‘Mass deportation’-

One of the continent’s wealthiest countries, South Africa is a magnet for migrant labour while grappling with an unemployment rate above 30 per cent, high crime and a breakdown in services in many areas.

Groups mobilising against illegal immigrants accuse them of taking jobs and services, which analysts say is scapegoating foreign nationals for government failures.

At least two Mozambicans, an Ethiopian and a Malawian have been killed in the past weeks of protests, according to police.

A foreign national was found dead Tuesday after he allegedly jumped from the eighth floor of a building in Durban, apparently in fear that he was being chased, police said.

As the tensions mounted, several African governments — including Nigeria, Malawi, Ghana, Zimbabwe and Mozambique — organised voluntary repatriation flights and buses for their citizens.

More than 25,000 people had been processed for departure in recent weeks, authorities said Monday.

In the past few days alone, nearly 4,300 foreign nationals were repatriated and more than 400 deported, Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi told reporters late Tuesday.

The Liberian government said as the latest protests went ahead it was arranging for 29 Liberian nationals to be flown home.

“We want mass deportation,” the leader of the anti-illegal immigrant March and March group, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, told a crowd in Durban.

“For the next six months, we want the government to get rid of the people who have not left,” she said, vowing that her group would maintain weekly demonstrations until local elections in November.

– ‘I’m scared’ –

As the protests unfolded in several cities, hundreds of migrants — mostly Malawians and Zimbabweans — gathered in Cape Town, Johannesburg and other centres, still waiting for assistance to go home.

Some said their landlords had evicted them or their employers had fired them, fearing fines from labour inspectors or attacks by vigilante groups.

“The people in South Africa, they don’t want us here. I’m scared,” said a 23-year-old Zimbabwean woman, who asked to remain anonymous, in Cape Town where more than 1,500 people were awaiting repatriation.

Only a few dozen Malawians remained at a site in Durban from where several thousand had been bused out in recent days, either to their country or to a processing site near the border with Zimbabwe.

“I thought I could stay on but neighbours warned us last night,” 32-year-old Adam John told AFP. “I felt that it is better to try and get home while I still can.”

In the lead-up to the June 30 demonstrations, President Cyril Ramaphosa announced stepped-up government plans to combat illegal immigration, including better border controls and inspections.

Previous anti-foreigner riots in South Africa have proved deadly. In 2008, violence left 62 people dead.