Cape Town | June 2026: The Human Rights Association (HRA) today calls on the Government of South Africa to take immediate and enforceable action to prosecute the vigilante groups responsible for the wave of violent xenophobic attacks targeting African and Asian foreign nationals across South Africa in
April, May, and June 2026, and to ensure that the South African Police Service fulfils its constitutional obligation to protect all persons within South Africa’s borders from unlawful violence, without distinction as to nationality.
The HRA’s review of documented cases confirms that since April 2026, a citizen-led movement known as March and March has organised demonstrations against undocumented migrants in major cities including Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Durban, with violent and in some cases fatal results.
Vigilante groups affiliated with these protests have attacked businesses owned by foreign African nationals, assaulted individuals perceived to be migrants, and in the case of at least one documented incident, attacked a Cameroonian shop owner in Durban who had lived in South Africa for nearly twenty years.
The Mozambican government has confirmed that at least five Mozambican
nationals were killed in attacks in Mossel Bay in late May 2026, with pproximately 800 Mozambican nationals caught up in the surrounding violence. Multiple governments, including Kenya, have issued travel advisories to their nationals in South Africa in response to the ongoing threat.
The attacks documented in this period are not isolated incidents. They are the most recent manifestation of a recurring pattern of xenophobic violence in South Africa that has included the nationwide attacks of May 2008, which resulted in more than sixty deaths, 1,700 injuries, and the displacement of approximately 100,000 people; the 2015 nationwide attacks that required military
intervention; and sustained vigilante activity in the 2020s associated with movements including Operation Dudula.
The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights has characterised the
current violence as part of a longstanding pattern that constitutes a grave violation of the fundamental rights enshrined in the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.
The HRA notes that South Africa’s Constitution guarantees the right to equality and human dignity to all persons within its borders, regardless of nationality or documentation status. The right to peaceful protest does not extend to the commission of violence, destruction of property, or deprivation of access to essential services.
Groups that have organised or participated in the blocking of healthcare facilities to demand proof of citizenship, the looting and destruction of foreign-owned businesses, and the physical assault of foreign nationals have committed criminal
offences under South African law. The South African Police Service has a legal obligation to investigate and prosecute those offences. The HRA’s review of documented cases indicates that this obligation has not been consistently discharged during the current period of violence.
HRA Chairman Saad Kassis-Mohamed stated: “What is happening to African migrants in South Africa is not protest. It is organised violence against people who have done nothing wrong except be foreign. A Cameroonian man who has lived in South Africa for twenty years is not a threat to anyone. Five Mozambican nationals killed in Mossel Bay were not criminals.
They were people who came to South Africa in search of a livelihood and were met with mob violence. South Africa has the law, the institutions, and the constitutional obligation to stop this. The question is whether it has
the political will to apply them.”
“What is happening to African migrants in South Africa is not protest. It is organised violence against people who have done nothing wrong except be foreign. South Africa has the law, the institutions, and the constitutional obligation to stop this. The question is whether it has the political will to apply them.”
Saad Kassis-Mohamed, Chairman,
Human Rights Association The HRA calls specifically on the Government of South Africa to direct the South African Police Service to investigate and prosecute all individuals responsible for acts of violence, destruction of property, and unlawful deprivation of access to services committed in the course of anti-immigration demonstrations since April 2026; to publicly affirm that the constitutional right to
equality and dignity applies to all persons within South Africa’s borders regardless of nationality or documentation status; to ensure that the South African Human Rights Commission is given full access and resources to monitor and report on the current wave of violence; to engage bilaterally with the governments of Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and other affected states; and to take active measures to counter the disinformation and online incitement that the HRA’s review of documentedcases identifies as a primary driver of the current escalation.
The Human Rights Association is an initiative of the WeCare Foundation, Cape Town, active across Africa, South Asia, and the Gulf region. The HRA works to protect the human rights of individuals facing unjust detention, denial of medical care, and due process violations, and engages directly with United Nations mechanisms to advocate
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