By Staff Reporter
Crowds of Zimbabwean nationals, including families with young children and elderly relatives, are sleeping on pavements outside the Zimbabwean Consulate and have begun relocating to a repatriation site in Epping.
Officials are rushing to process voluntary returns before an unofficial Tuesday deadline set by anti-immigrant groups threatening nationwide marches, while humanitarian teams scramble to provide food, water and blankets to the desperate and fearful gatherers.
Families with young children and elderly relatives have gathered outside the Zimbabwean Consulate, seeking help to return home. Many have spent nights on the cold pavements, too scared to stay in their usual neighborhoods.
Anti-immigrant groups have threatened marches across major cities on Tuesday. Although South African police have promised to protect, past attacks have left migrants deeply distrustful.
It is not yet clear whether the Zimbabwean government will provide transport before the deadline.
As tensions escalate, police in South Africa have opened investigations into the recent murders of several foreign nationals.
Police said two Mozambican men were killed during violence in late May in Mossel Bay, a coastal town in the Western Cape, where more than 50 shacks in an informal settlement were burned. Mozambique later said five of its citizens had died in what it described as “xenophobic attacks.”
A general view of houses of migrants allegedly destroyed in anti-migrant attacks in KwaNonqaba, Mossel Bay, on June 4, 2026.
Displaced women and children from Malawi board the first bus to leave at an abandoned municipality building on Mayor’s Walk in Pietermaritzburg on June 23, 2026, after fleeing their homes amid fears of xenophobic attacks and threats from anti-illegal immigration groups.
Rajesh Jantilal/AFP/Getty Images
Authorities are also investigating the death of a Malawian man after he was allegedly killed by a mob at an informal settlement in the city of Pietermaritzburg, near Durban. The attack forced hundreds of migrants to seek shelter in churches and mosques, according to state broadcaster SABC.
With the end of the month fast approaching, the migrant exodus has continued as fear of further mob attacks spreads through poor neighborhoods and informal settlements.
