Today, June 30, marks the deadline set by the anti-immigrant vigilante groups in South Africa. The ultimatum, carrying no legal weight, backed by no law, and enforceable by no legitimate authority, has nonetheless reshaped the lives of hundreds of thousands of Africans over the past several weeks. The crisis has exposed with painful clarity which African governments treat the protection of their citizens as a genuine obligation.
Protests against foreigners have unfolded across South Africa. The Ministry of Police described the demonstrations as largely peaceful, though there have been scattered incidents of looting and attempted looting in several areas. Johannesburg, the site of one of the main marches, is reportedly quiet, with shops in the city centre shuttered and a strong police presence on major roads. Still, some protesters have hurled bricks and shattered windows of flats in Yeoville, a suburb home to many African migrants.
In Soweto, the country’s largest township, five people were arrested for allegedly looting a foreign-owned shop, while another five were detained in Hammarsdale, KwaZulu-Natal, for allegedly breaking into a small shop. Durban’s city centre has also seen widespread business closures, with a police helicopter circling overhead.
Ahead of the marches, President Cyril Ramaphosa met with protest organisers on June 29 in an effort to ease tensions, repeatedly calling for demonstrators to remain peaceful while acknowledging that immigration reform is a legitimate concern. In his weekly newsletter, he distinguished between documented and undocumented migrants, pointing out that many foreign nationals live in South Africa lawfully —working, studying, raising families, and contributing to the economy and broader society. He emphasized that these legal residents remain entitled to the full protection of South Africa’s laws and Constitution, and warned that the right to protest does not extend to threats, intimidation, vandalism, or violence.
The scale of the human displacement since the earlier weeks of this crisis has been staggering. Around 10,000 Malawians gathered at a temporary shelter in the eastern city of Durban trying to return home. More than 8,000 have since left on buses provided by the Malawian government or private sponsors, but others continue to gather. The images from Durban have been among the most haunting of this entire period: families queuing in South African winter cold outside the Malawian consulate, children wrapped in blankets, waiting for a bus that would take them back to the country they left for a better life. South Africa has processed more than 15,000 Malawian nationals for deportation and repatriation, with thousands more still awaiting clearance in makeshift encampments.
The crisis has drawn responses from across the continent, with Uganda being among the latest governments to act. In a statement issued on June 28th, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs Haruna Kasolo announced that President Yoweri Museveni had directed relevant government agencies to begin arrangements for the evacuation of Ugandans who wish to return home because of worsening security concerns. The government confirmed that 746 Ugandan nationals have so far voluntarily registered for evacuation, and that one Ugandan was killed in an attack in KwaZulu-Natal. Uganda Airlines will operate special charter flights for the evacuation, with the costs to be borne by the Ugandan government.
However, South Africa tightened security across the country ahead of this deadline. The police minister has said that the force is deploying extra security nationwide, and South African police have said they will not tolerate violence after it passes. Military units remain on standby, yet the promise of order after the deadline is cold comfort to those who have already lost everything before it.
With all the events unfolding across the continent, the country with the most at stake and, arguably, the weakest response, remains Nigeria.
Nigeria’s response has been largely diplomatic and reactive rather than forceful. Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, called her South African counterpart, Ronald Lamola, to address the xenophobic acts against Nigerians, including the deaths of three nationals including a businessman popularly known as “Big Joe” who was shot to death in front of his shop in Witbank. The Permanent Secretary of the ministry also summoned South Africa’s acting High Commissioner to lodge a formal complaint, but the South African minister pushed back, noting that Nigeria had not formally provided credible evidence for the extra-judicial killings it alleged.
Nigeria’s main action since then has been repatriation of its citizens in South Africa. President Tinubu also directed missions to set up a crisis notification unit, but Nigerians were simply advised to contact South African security authorities themselves if threatened, placing the responsibility of safety on victims rather than securing real protection for them through diplomatic pressure.
To recap where things stand, yesterday, the federal government confirmed that an Air Peace aircraft would depart Nigeria on Monday, June 29, at 3:00 pm, expected to arrive in South Africa at approximately 9:00 pm local time, with another evacuation flight departing today, June 30. As of 11 am today, a flight carrying about 271 Nigerians landed at Murtala Muhammed International Airport.
Before this latest operation, the Nigerian government had already evacuated 328 Nigerians in two batches. The first evacuation flight on June 11 brought home 262 Nigerians, while a second batch of 66 returnees arrived in Lagos on June 25. The numbers are modest, and the logistics have been troubled throughout. One evacuation flight was abruptly cancelled; another was delayed due to permit clearance issues and administrative concerns.
The diplomatic fallout from the first evacuation reveals the depth of bad faith between the two governments. South African authorities claimed that all 268 Nigerians cleared for repatriation were undocumented and residing illegally in the country, and slammed them with a five-year ban. Foreign Affairs Minister, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, had already made her frustration plain, accusing the South African government of failing to strongly denounce violence against Nigerian nationals and saying this had damaged the bond the two countries shared since Nigeria’s solidarity during the apartheid struggle.
The political atmosphere inside Nigeria has also heated up. Senator Adams Oshiomhole, representing Edo North in Nigeria’s National Assembly, told the Senate what many Africans have long felt but rarely heard from an official platform: “When we have this balance of madness, I believe there’ll be sanity.” Implying that Nigeria should be prepared to impose costs on South Africa comparable to how Nigerians are being treated. Minister Odumegwu-Ojukwu also summoned South Africa’s High Commissioner to protest the treatment of Nigerian citizens, and the government demanded thorough investigations into the deaths of the two Nigerians killed during the violence, as well as access to autopsy reports.
The contrast with Ghana is damning. Ghana evacuated its nationals, stalled Gold Fields’ mining lease renewals, petitioned the African Union, and advised its citizens against travel to South Africa. In Nigeria, law enforcement agencies have fortified key locations to prevent potential vandalism or looting, with additional security detachments stationed around South African diplomatic missions, critical infrastructure, and commercial hubs, essentially deploying state resources to protect the very South African corporate interests that Nigeria has declined to use as leverage. The optics are not flattering.
What makes this moment historically significant is not only the scale of the violence, though the scale is severe, but what is happening to South Africa’s continental standing in real time. South Africa’s Justice Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi, admitted that South African entertainers have lost work opportunities across the continent while businesses operating abroad are experiencing difficulties, saying “We cannot deny that there is a backlash.”
Mafikizolo, a South African music duo, have been reportedly removed from the line-up of the upcoming Buddie Beatz concert on July 5 in Zimbabwe. The decision was taken after calls from Zimbabweans for their performance to be excluded due to the ongoing tensions surrounding xenophobia against Africans in South Africa.
South Africa entered the 2026 World Cup with the hope that the tournament would showcase the country at its finest. Instead, it became a referendum on how the continent feels about them. South Africa’s 2-0 loss to Mexico in their opening match triggered a uniform reaction across parts of Africa, with football fans openly celebrating Bafana Bafana’s defeat. Many social media users linked their support for Mexico to growing concerns over anti-migrant sentiment and recent xenophobic actions in South Africa.
South Africa have now been eliminated from the 2026 World Cup after suffering a 1-0 defeat to Canada in the Round of 32. The decisive goal came in the 92nd minute in Los Angeles after a tightly contested match. This was the furthest Bafana Bafana had ever gone at a World Cup, a milestone that in another year would have been met with continental pride. Instead, across Africa, people are openly celebrating the loss, citing xenophobia and anti-immigrant sentiment as their reasons for withdrawing support.
While anti-immigration protesters take the streets of South African cities and townships, other African nationals are either fleeing, leaving loved ones behind as they go back to the countries they left for South Africa, or are hiding in fear of being attacked by unruly protesters. South Africa’s deliberate indifference to the violence visited upon other Africans on its soil should not be forgotten, and African countries must act accordingly henceforth.
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