Fear grips foreign nationals in South Africa ahead of Tuesday’s shutdown
South Africa appeared to be holding its breath on Monday as the clock ticked down to the planned nationwide shutdown on Tuesday, June 30.
With anti-immigrant protests expected in parts of the country, an uneasy sense of anticipation settled over communities, leaving many wondering what the next 24 hours would bring.
For thousands of foreign nationals, the uncertainty was deeply personal.
As fears of possible violence and disruption lingered, IOL spoke to several migrants about the emotions weighing on them ahead of the protests, revealing stories of anxiety, resilience and hope that the day would pass without bloodshed.
For 28-year-old Wilson Petro, the countdown to Tuesday brought a mixture of relief and uncertainty as he prepared to leave the Durban Drive-In site after days of waiting.
“We are here because we have been struggling as foreigners,” Petro said. “Today we will be leaving this camp and going to Limpopo and then, hopefully, to Malawi.”
Thousands of people waited in limbo at the site; their lives reduced to makeshift routines as they prepared for an uncertain journey home.
Men, women and children filled the sprawling camp, while clothes and blankets hung from perimeter fences, fluttering in the winter breeze as improvised washing lines.
Children lingered beside their families; adults sat quietly with the few belongings they could carry.
“I’m sorry I’m busy, about to feed my child,” a woman with a toddler and infant said.
At Sherwood Hall, where thousands of Malawian nationals had gathered in recent days, IOL found a starkly changed scene.
What remained was an almost surreal normality returning too quickly, children playing on the swings and a merry-go-round, their laughter cutting through a space still marked by recent upheaval.
At the Che Guevara Home Affairs office on the other side of town, asylum seeker Salima Tusame, a mother of three, with her eldest child aged 13, described weeks of frustration and fear as she waited for clarity on her documentation.
She said she had been at the office for around five weeks, following recent marches and unrest, and showed IOL her papers in an attempt to prove her legal status in South Africa.
“I came to South Africa in 2015, and I have been at this Home Affairs for five weeks because of the march,” she said. “I know I have papers which allow me to stay in South Africa, but they don’t care whether you have papers or not.”
“They have sworn at me and hit me,” Tusame added. “Even at the hospital, actually, everywhere you go. I used to sell fruit, but now I can’t. They said they want foreigners gone. I don’t know what will happen with the planned protests tomorrow.”
On Sunday, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli warned against a repeat of past unrest, recalling the devastating impact of previous violence on the province’s economy and communities.
He said the scars of earlier chaos were still visible and cautioned that ordinary residents were often the ones who suffered most when tensions escalated.
“July 2021 set us back years; we have not yet fully recovered. That is the price chaos extracted from this province,” Ntuli said. “Not from the instigators who vanished into the crowd, but from ordinary workers, traders, mothers and fathers who lost their shops, their jobs, their dignity.”
“We buried that pain once. We will not dig that grave again, not for unrest, and not for hatred dressed up as protest.
“Whatever our concerns about undocumented migration, however legitimate the frustrations beneath them, we will not allow this province to be set alight a second time, whether by criminality or by xenophobia.”
IOL
