South Africa caught between protecting migrants and assuaging anger over jobs
Displaced migrants in a hall, following escalation in anti-immigrant protests which heightened fears among foreign communities, in Kleinmond, South Africa, June 3, 2026.
For 48 hours, the jagged, grey peaks of the Kleinmond mountains have served as an impromptu refuge. High above the coastal roads of South Africa’s Western Cape, hundreds of African migrants, mostly from Malawi and Mozambique, have been sleeping in the winter brush, hiding from local mobs who moved door to door through townships with knives, sticks, and a clear ultimatum: leave the country or face the consequences.
Down in the valley, the Kleinmond town hall has become a place of anxious faces, crying children, and hastily gathered belongings. Among them is Lado Amido, a 49-year-old Mozambican who arrived in February. On 31 May, a mob kicked down his door, looted his possessions, and forced him to flee into the cold mountain night.
