South Africa has a long history of xenophobic violence. The pogroms of 2008 and 2015 are the best known, but over the last two years xenophobic has taken a more organised and more openly political form. It is now a very well organised fascist project, acting with state support and complicity.
March and March was formed in Durban in early 2025 under the leadership of Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma. It presented itself as a citizens’ organisation that only wanted the migration law enforced. In practice it made no distinction between documented and undocumented people. With the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), ActionSA and others, it led marches that included armed men while the police stood down.
A ‘deadline’ was announced for migrants to leave the country by 30 June 2026. As that date came closer, local groups went from neighbourhood to neighbourhood threatening and assaulting people and driving them from their homes. Many had their homes, property and businesses seized. Thousands were displaced.
On 18 May 2026 hundreds of refugees who had been driven from their homes went to Refugee Social Services and then to Durban Central Police Station to ask for protection. The police attacked them after which they fled to a church building where supporters of March and March and the Jacob Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe Party tried to attack them. The state’s answer was to ‘verify’ their papers. Around 400 people taken to the Refugee Reception Centre on Che Guevara Road, where all but two were found to have valid documents. From 22 May to 15 September 2026 they lived on Che Guevara Road, where two died.
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