Foreigners continued to leave South Africa over the weekend, while mounting xenophobic tensions led to President Cyril Ramaphosa addressing the nation on Sunday, 7 June 2026. He announced plans to tighten the country’s borders and clamp down on undocumented foreign nationals.
On Saturday and Sunday, chartered flights carried Ghanaians wishing to leave South Africa to their home country.he even said the is no one who gonna stop any one on the street asking ID or asking about the nationality ,we must to join theNo other person is allowed for example to confront someone in the street to demand proof of identit,y we know that South Africans are not xenophobic” President Cyril Ramaphosa
“As communities and as a society we must not be tempted to join those who want us to turn against people who were not born in South Africa, we will and must not allow groups to use the legitimate concerns of South Africans to destabilise our country through inciting lawlessness and violence”
This comes as anti-foreigner marches continued to take place around South Africa, the most recent on Saturday in Daveyton, Gauteng, where hundreds of people demanded that foreigners depart the country by 30 June.President Cyril Ramaphosa says there is no space for intolerance in South Africa. He says only authorised government officials may act against violations of the law, including immigration laws.
In the Western Cape, a statement released over the weekend by Overstrand municipal manager Dean O’Neill said three buses left from the Kleinmond Town Hall on Friday to take undocumented foreign nationals to the Lindela Repatriation Centre. Two buses departed from Gansbaai to take undocumented foreigners to the same facility.
In Hermanus, O’Neill said 38 people displaced by anti-foreigner protests were living on the municipal farm. He said that a bus sent by the Mozambican Embassy picked up citizens from that country who wished to depart.
O’Neill said municipal facilities would not be reopened to accommodate people because the venues would now be prepared for the voters’ registration weekend of 20 and 21 June 2026.