Protesters demand neighbors reclaim undocumented migrants at regional summit

DURBAN, South Africa. Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma stood at the front of a march of roughly 300 protesters outside a regional summit venue in this coastal city, her message aimed directly at the heads of government gathered inside. “We are here to tell you to come and fetch your people who are here in South Africa illegally,” she said, singling out Malawi, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe by name.

Her words landed at a charged moment. More than 176,000 people have fled South Africa in recent weeks, according to an AFP tally based on figures from African governments involved. Some left voluntarily. Others were deported or assisted through government repatriation schemes, the result of a sustained campaign by populist groups demanding that undocumented foreign nationals leave by June 30.

The human scale of that departure is staggering. Families have packed up and crossed borders under pressure, some fleeing violence that has accompanied the anti-migrant campaign. South African police report at least four migrants were killed, though some foreign governments put the death toll higher. The disruption to lives, livelihoods, and communities on both sides of those borders has reverberated across the region.

Inside the summit venue, President Cyril Ramaphosa addressed leaders from all 16 Southern African Development Community countries in a markedly different register. “We thanked countries in our region for their understanding of the challenges that we faced and, in some respects, continue to face,” he said. “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.”

Days earlier, during a public lecture held alongside the summit, Ramaphosa had spoken more plainly. “South Africa was deeply concerned and ashamed that nationals from other countries have in recent months been subjected to discrimination and ill-treatment,” he said. The acknowledgment was notable, coming from a head of state whose government has faced criticism from across the continent over its handling of the unrest.

Ghana and Nigeria, neither of them SADC members, have been among the most vocal critics. Their concerns point to a wider anxiety: that the treatment of migrants in South Africa sets a troubling precedent for how the continent handles the movement of its own people.

The context behind these tensions is not abstract. South Africa, the continent’s economic powerhouse, has long drawn workers and families seeking opportunity. Yet unemployment sits above 30 percent, and inequality remains severe, conditions that have made migrants visible targets for frustration over scarce jobs and limited prospects. For the people caught in that crossfire, whether long-settled foreign nationals or South Africans struggling to find work, the crisis is not a policy debate. It is daily life.

Meanwhile, the security response in Durban reflected just how sensitive the summit moment was. Helicopters and drones circled overhead while mounted police and officers on motorcycles kept the protesters at the venue’s perimeter, a visible reminder of the competing pressures converging on the city.

As the summit closed, South Africa assumed the rotating chairship of SADC and announced a new initiative: a call for an Africa-wide conference dedicated to migration. The proposal signals that Pretoria recognizes the problem cannot be resolved within its own borders alone. Whether that conference materializes, and whether it produces anything meaningful for the hundreds of thousands of people already displaced by recent weeks of pressure and violence, is the question that now hangs over the region.

More information about the summit’s outcomes and regional response is available at https://www.trtafrika.com/english/article/56aaf720ef37.