Johannesburg, South Africa – On the outskirts of southern Johannesburg, residents gathered on Sunday in the informal settlement of Tembelihle ahead of a June 30 deadline that anti-immigrant activists have set for foreign nationals to leave South Africa.
The meeting was organised by the Tembelihle Crisis Committee, a grassroots movement that has previously opposed xenophobic violence. Its leaders said the aim was to discourage attacks on foreign nationals as tensions rose across the country.
About 300 people attended, including Malawian migrants worried about what the coming days might bring.
The meeting exposed sharp divisions. Some speakers urged residents not to target foreign nationals, while others blamed migrants for crime and social problems. Calls for foreigners to leave South Africa were met with applause and ululations from sections of the crowd.
By the end of the evening, after residents had dispersed from an area locally known as Park Station, word spread that a Malawian resident had been stabbed nearby.
It was unclear whether the attack was opportunistic crime or linked to anti-immigrant sentiment.
Luke Sinwell, a professor at the University of Johannesburg, told Al Jazeera that efforts to discourage violence were overshadowed by division inside the meeting.
Before the gathering, organisers had discussed how to persuade residents that violence was not the answer, he said. But during the meeting, competing views emerged over whether undocumented migrants should remain in the country.
After the meeting, he learned of the stabbing.
“The way local residents described the incident was interesting,” Sinwell said. “They saw it as opportunistic criminality rather than a direct act of organised xenophobic violence. However, these things are interconnected.”
Fear and rumours
For Malawians gathered outside their country’s consulate in Johannesburg, the debate over whether incidents are criminal or xenophobic feels distant.
Many believe they are being targeted.
The June 30 deadline has become a source of fear across migrant communities.
An unnamed Malawian man told Al Jazeera that he had to return home or risk harm to his family. “I have to get home before June 30, or they will kill my family,” he said, referring to residents who, he said, had warned migrants to leave before Tuesday.
He has been sleeping outside the consulate while searching for transport. With less than 48 hours remaining, he has no certainty about what will happen next.
The unofficial deadline spread through social media posts and pamphlets that appeared to mimic official government notices. The flyers falsely claimed that undocumented foreign nationals had until June 30 to leave South Africa or face arrest, detention and deportation.
The South African government dismissed the notices as fake.
James Macki, a Malawian barber in Johannesburg, told Al Jazeera he first heard about the deadline from neighbours.
“They said the blood will flow if we don’t go by June 30,” he said.
He is among thousands hoping to return home but still waiting for assistance. “If we don’t get out, they are not going to stop until we all die,” he said.
Mobilisation and tension
One of the groups behind anti-immigration mobilisation, March and March, says its campaign targets government failure over undocumented immigration rather than foreign nationals.
However, incidents linked to similar mobilisation have raised concern among authorities.
In Mossel Bay, mobilisation was followed by the deaths of Mozambican nationals. In Pietermaritzburg, a Malawian man was beaten to death following public incitement linked to anti-immigrant activism.
On Sunday, acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia told Al Jazeera that law enforcement agencies were on alert, with police leave cancelled and additional resources deployed ahead of possible unrest.
Protests were already taking place in parts of Johannesburg and Durban. In Soweto, residents marched, blaming undocumented immigration for government failures and later handed over a memorandum at Moroka Police Station calling for stricter border controls.
A Soweto protester told Al Jazeera: “The state is worried more about illegal immigrants than us.”
March and March founder Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma told local media the demonstrations were directed at government policy and rejected claims of xenophobia.
“You can’t label us as xenophobic for standing up for what’s right,” she said.
But for migrants sleeping outside consulates and shelters, the line between political messaging and personal threat has become increasingly blurred.
State response and uncertainty
Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, who chairs the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration, told Al Jazeera that rhetoric had moderated over the weekend following government warnings.
She said organisers had stressed that marches must remain peaceful and noted concerns that pamphlets were being circulated without their knowledge.
“There is no single structure that says, ‘This is what we are doing,’” she said.
Statistics South Africa estimates that about 2.4 million documented and undocumented migrants live in the country.
Kubayi said government was focused on maintaining order while assisting migrants who wished to leave, but added that no refugee or transit camps would be created.
A fear that remains
For Sinwell, the events unfolding around the June 30 deadline reflect how frustration over unemployment, crime and state failure can be redirected towards migrants.
“When communities begin dividing people into those who belong and those who do not, that can become extremely dangerous,” he said.
He added that research on Operation Dudula showed how legitimate grievances can be channelled towards migrants rather than institutions, a process he described as the weaponisation of grassroots democracy.
President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government welcomed assurances that planned protests would remain peaceful, warning that violence would not be justified under any circumstances.
But in southern Johannesburg on Monday, less than 24 hours before the deadline, fear remained on the ground.
“If they don’t go, we will make them go,” one resident said.