South Africa Rejects June 30 Shutdown Threat

By Roger A. Agana

June 6, 2026

South Africa will not be shut down by anti-immigration groups demanding that undocumented foreigners leave by June 30, Minister in the Presidency Khumbudzo Ntshavheni said on Friday.

Briefing reporters after a cabinet meeting in Pretoria, Ntshavheni said cabinet had approved a comprehensive migration plan drawn up by the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration, along with a National Action Plan on migration. President Cyril Ramaphosa, she added, will address the nation on the strategy, though she gave no date. “There is nobody who’s going to do a shutdown of this country,” she said.

The warning comes amid a wave of anti-immigration protests, some led by the group March and March, which has told undocumented migrants to leave by month’s end and threatened a nationwide shutdown if mass deportations do not begin. Organisers blame irregular migration for crime and for straining hospitals, schools and other services, with tensions flaring in the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng.

The unrest has turned deadly, and the fallout has rippled across the continent. Ghana has moved to evacuate around 300 nationals, Nigeria has fielded requests from scores of citizens wanting to fly home, and Malawians and Mozambicans are among other foreigners who have begun leaving or been urged to stay cautious.Ghana sports news

Ntshavheni drew a firm line between protest and vigilantism, stressing that while the constitution protects the right to march, it gives no one the right to enforce immigration law themselves. Police and the national security coordination structures have echoed that warning, insisting only the state may act against undocumented migrants.

The new plan sits alongside earlier measures, including a dedicated border agency set up in 2023 and a draft labour-migration policy that would cap foreign hiring in some sectors. Such steps speak to a deeper strain. South Africa’s unemployment rate has long sat above 30 percent, and in crowded townships and informal settlements, the scramble for jobs, housing and services keeps feeding hostility toward migrants.