Government is scrambling to contain the fallout from the violent anti-migrant protests in Durban, with the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on Migration convening an urgent media briefing early Sunday morning.
The Presidency confirmed that an advisory will be issued soon, but sources say the briefing is expected to outline government’s response to the escalating unrest that has left Durban’s CBD scarred, shops gutted and more than 19 people arrested for public violence and malicious damage to property.
It is the clearest sign yet that Pretoria now sees the Durban violence as a national security crisis, not just a KZN policing problem.
For two days, what started as a march against undocumented migrants in the Point precinct collapsed into stone-throwing, looting and running battles with police. Cars were torched, shopfronts smashed, and groups filmed carrying stolen goods from CBD stores while rubber bullets cracked in the background.
KZN police spokesperson Robert Netshiunda said arrests were made across the province, with most of those in custody being young people.
“At least more than 19 of them, mostly are students, no surprise because we saw the numbers on the ground they were young people,” Netshiunda said.
The KZN Premier has already requested the deployment of the SANDF, fearing a repeat of July 2021, when similar localised anger exploded into province-wide looting that left more than 300 people dead.
Sunday’s IMC briefing will be crucial. The committee, chaired by the Presidency and including Home Affairs, Police, Defence, Employment and Labour and COGTA, was established to coordinate government’s response to migration pressures. Until now, it has been largely silent as anti-migrant marches spread from Durban to Johannesburg and Pretoria.
That silence has cost government.
On 30 June, thousands marched in Durban blaming undocumented migrants for crime, joblessness and collapsing services. This week’s protest was meant to be a continuation – but SABC News reported that some marchers did not even know the controversial asylum directive they were protesting had already been withdrawn.
Who is mobilising these young people? Who is feeding them half-truths on TikTok and WhatsApp?
“This was predictable. For years we have warned that if government does not fix the porous borders and the asylum system, people will take the law into their own hands,” a senior IFP leader said this week.
Human rights groups are expected to press the IMC to condemn what they call xenophobic violence, while business in eThekwini wants assurance that the CBD will be secured and that troops will be deployed before another night of looting.
