Drones, choppers, closed circuit-television footage, private security war rooms and about 9,500 boots on the ground will boost police efforts in preventing a recurrence of violence, damage and unrest the country experienced during the July 2021 riots, ahead of the June 30 shutdown.
Anti-migrant organisers are gearing up for marches throughout the country on Tuesday, the self-imposed deadline by which they have demanded illegal foreigners leave the country, raising fears of civil unrest.
While organisers, including March and March founder Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, Insizwa Ngobunsizwa Development Foundation’s Nkosikhona ‘Phakel’umthakathi’ Ndabandaba, and Ngizwe Mchunu, representing amaBhinca nation and Ezokhobo, have insisted the demonstrations on Tuesday will be without violence, there are concerns chaos may ensue.
This was the case two weeks ago following a March and March demonstration outside the Pietermaritzburg city hall when a demonstrator addressed the crowd and told them her brother had been killed by Malawians a few days earlier.
Incensed, the group descended on the nearby Jika Joe settlement. There was chaos as foreigners fled, some being assaulted in the process. One man, Mishack Banda, 29, was allegedly beaten with stones and was found dead in a nearby river.
Intelligence believe this sporadic violence “may manifest” in informal settlements, potentially involving door-to-door checks for foreigners, political killings and locals against locals in opportunistic incidents in the run up to, on, and a few days after June.
According to a consolidated hotspot threat matrix across the provinces, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are extra high risk, with the Western Cape being demarcated as high risk and Mpumalanga as medium-high risk. The rest of the provinces are medium risk and the Northern Cape low risk.
Intelligence has warned there will be a higher incidence of false social media posts and AI-generated videos to create panic locally and internationally.
The involvement of the All Truck Drivers Forum in the anti-immigrant sentiment is on the police’s radar as previous demonstrations, blockades and protests have concentrated around the critical domestic trade corridor between Gauteng and Durban.
On the ground, police have activated the E2 (eyes and ears) public–private crime-fighting partnership for mitigating threats using technology, information sharing and collaboration with verified private security companies, businesses, Community Policing Forums (CPFs), neighbourhood watches and rural safety organisations to ensure the self-imposed deadline of June 30 ― by which illegal immigrants must leave the country ― passes without the loss of lives, civil unrest or looting.
On Monday, acting police minister Firoz Cachalia confirmed R600m, which would have been allocated to police stations and community policing, would be redirected to security operations for the planned shutdown. Much of this would go towards overtime for police officers whose leave and time-off have been cancelled.
Police sources said as part of the operational readiness across all provinces, station commanders have in the past two weeks engaged with CPFs, neighbourhood watches and private security to identify trusted informants in their respective communities to alert them to potential mobilisation threats linked to looting or violence.
Other voluntary community safety members ― many of whom have been given reflector jackets ― have been deployed to look after critical infrastructure and monitor marches to ensure they are peaceful.
Comprehensive deployment plans are in place to protect communities, critical infrastructure and key public spaces from June 27 to July 3, with high alerts for June 29, 30 and July 1.
“What this does is give us boots on the ground, credible information on plans by either opportunistic elements or organisations who may have plans that will destabilise a particular area.
“There will be daily operational assessments and continuous monitoring of the security environment to ensure that our deployments remain responsive to any emerging risks. This is done via control rooms that have been set up in conjunction with businesses and security companies who can monitor and communicate this to police who are the only ones who can engage with the destabilisers,” said a police source.
A risk assessment is then conducted to ensure what police resources are allocated, including public order policing if necessary.
In the past week, hundreds of CPFs and neighbourhood watch groups met their communities either online or physically to communicate the operational plan. Some shared travel advisories, others shared patrol rosters and emergency responder information urging residents not to panic and to monitor their community WhatsApp groups for credible information.
Siyanda Biyela, CPF provincial secretary, said 9,950 community in blue (CIB) patrollers have been assigned to KwaZulu-Natal’s 184 police stations to monitor the situation. The patrollers are vetted and trained local volunteers who operate under police, and local CPFs will boost visible policing and gather community-based intelligence.
“Essentially they boost police manpower and help mine data from the communities in which they live. While there is some resistance in which people see them as ‘impimpi’, they have a vital role to play particularly at times like these when we are facing serious threats.”
Biyela said CIB patrollers were the eyes and ears on the ground and provided a vital link to activating police response in the case of vigilantism or violence.
He said he was confident they had learned lessons from previous xenophobic attacks and the July 2021 riots in activating operational programmes to mitigate threats.
“We have told residents that it will be business as usual based on what the organisers are saying, but based on the lessons from July 2021, we are better prepared to anticipate any sporadic acts that caught us unawares during the riots,” said Imtiaz Syed, Mayville CPF chair.
Syed said communities should guard against vigilantism and fear-mongering.
Syed said within the movement there are criminal elements.
“Look at the spate of recent hijackings. It’s happened before, it’s happening again. These are unregistered vehicles which are then used for nefarious purposes.
“We shouldn’t be arming ourselves and going out in groups. Let’s understand their plight. For example if you live on the periphery of an informal settlement, it wouldn’t be ideal if you have 20 young bucks armed and in camo gear standing guard. They are inciting residents of the settlement to rise up against them. We must be conscious of intended and unintended consequences around our actions at this time.”
In Inanda, community safety structure members have been on awareness drives for several days encouraging residents to be vigilant about potential threats to their safety, not to intimidate or threaten foreigners.
“We have planted members on the ground and have deployed members to protect infrastructure and facilities that were targeted in July 2021 so that we can be aware of what’s happening. The anxiety is very high in the community, but we feel we have a better understanding of how these things can escalate. We are now actively engaged and feel more confident,” said Andile Jali, Inanda CPF chair.
“We have a team of people in place to ensure peace and stability, and their presence is also a deterrent,” he said.
A private security company owner said he was in contact with members of various political parties in informal settlements.
“There are, for example, 595 informal settlements in and around the Durban metro and this is a threat for potential conflict because of the sheer number of people and volatility. It is important to have people on the ground who can give us the heads up and then we can feed any potential threats to the police.”
Speaking at an engagement with the CPFs in Durban on Saturday, acting KZN commissioner Maj-Gen Phumelele Makgoba lauded community organisations for their planning to mitigate threats in the lead up to June 30.
“Community safety structures are us. They are [our eyes and ears]. We have given them the marching orders and they are our force multipliers,” she said to about 200 representatives of districts throughout the province.
Zulu regiment commander Prince Vanana Zulu said the king has called for the protection of all foreign nationals on June 30.
“No one must be hurt on June 30, all those who will be marching on the day must make sure that everyone is safe,” said Zulu.
He said Zulu regiments are not part of the March and March programme.
“However, the king supports the call that illegal foreigners need to leave the country, but they need to leave freely without being hurt,” he said.
In August Ngobese-Zuma launched a crowd-funding campaign for March and March on Back-A-Buddy, which to date has raised R13,167 of its R20,000 target.
Speaking at a briefing of 27 civic organisations in Gauteng this week, she said March and March had jumped on the June 30 deadline first proposed by Phakel’umthakathi.
She criticised questions about who is funding the movement, saying these are offensive.
After an impasse with the eThekwini municipality over permission and the route for the June 30 demonstration in the city, Ngobese-Zuma maintained events will be peaceful.
She says the movement is driven by ordinary South Africans who are tired of government inaction in reducing the burden of illegal immigrants on the country’s resources.
Speaking at KZN premier Thami Ntuli’s Engangeni Ngesango summit on Undocumented Foreign Nationals in Durban on Thursday, where she and Phakel’umthakathi were on a panel, Ngobese-Zuma said June 30 was just the beginning of their campaign.
She said she didn’t start the movement because she wants to be famous, because she was already popular as a former broadcast personality, but because she uses her platform for “what is right” and doesn’t stand for looting.
She said she was one of those who “bought brooms and plastic bags with my own money” to clean up the streets after the July 2021 riots.
Ngobese-Zuma told delegates they have not advocated for violence against foreigners but instead encouraged them to “go back and fix your countries.”
“Because that’s the only way Africa will thrive. This idea of pan-Africanism that relies on one country ... that got its freedom the latest out of every other country, is not a true reflection of pan-Africanism. In fact you’re not helping other African countries. It means we want to be the stars of the show.”
Mchunu insisted violence would not mar their marches on June 30. “We have had like 100 marches recently without any incidents and we are not crazy. We have zero tolerance for any acts of crime because that is not what we are about. We can’t control some criminal elements who decide to hijack our cause, but we are saying there should be no acts of violence.
“We are satisfied that our work thus far has been seen and heard. The government is acting against the Malawians, Zimbabweans and the Ghanaians who have left the country. But we are also saying those who are still here, they must not provoke us,” he said.
South Africa has experienced recurring waves of xenophobic attacks and anti-migrant violence since 1994, with major escalations in 2008, 2015, 2019, 2021–2022.
These incidents frequently involve vigilante groups targeting foreign-owned businesses, homes and individuals, often blaming migrants for local crime and unemployment.
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