World

South Africa’s Anti‑Migrant Protests Turn Violent in Soweto and Durban

By AFP , AP and Reuters

Violence erupted on Thursday in Johannesburg’s Soweto township and the east coast port city of Durban after protests demanding that refugee centres stop processing asylum applications. Police said 10 vehicles were torched in Johannesburg and 14 in Durban, where three people were arrested. In Soweto, a Reuters reporter observed residents carrying groceries out of a shop they said was owned by a person from Somalia, whom they chased away; the residents fled after police arrived. In Durban, Reuters reporters saw cars torched in the urban centre and foreign‑owned shops looted. AFP reporters in the city said police opened fire with rubber bullets to disperse protesters who reportedly set alight a business run by foreigners. The unrest follows a July Constitutional Court decision that removed procedural barriers to seeking asylum, including for people who entered South Africa irregularly, lacked asylum transit visas, or missed reporting deadlines. The government’s Inter‑Ministerial Committee on Migration held an urgent briefing on Thursday to address overcrowding at asylum offices after implementing the ruling; a day earlier the committee said all its offices were overwhelmed by the number of incoming applications. Government spokesperson William Baloyi said the violence was triggered by people spreading deliberately false information about the constitutional court ruling. Baloyi added that the court decision had been widely misrepresented and that it does not automatically grant refugee status, permanent residence or other legal rights to undocumented migrants. "We are deeply concerned by what is going on now," he said. Months of protests by populist, anti‑immigrant groups against undocumented foreign nationals, demanding they leave South Africa, have led tens of thousands to flee, some repatriated by their governments. Three decades after apartheid ended, South Africa remains deeply unequal and about a third of people are out of work. Migrants are often blamed for taking jobs, fuelling crime and straining public services, although such claims are not supported by evidence.