South Africa, like many countries that appear to offer better opportunities, is experiencing another painful outbreak of violence targeting foreign nationals. Since late April 2026, South African citizens have marched through Pretoria, Durban, Cape Town, KuGompo City, and Johannesburg to protest against illegal migration. In some instances, people have stopped others, demanded to see their documentation, looted foreign-owned shops, stopped people from receiving medical care, and, in several cases, inflicted terrible violence on people from elsewhere on the Continent.

An unofficial “deadline” was set by anti-migrant groups, most notably the “March and March” movement, for undocumented foreigners to leave the country — not a lawful directive, as President Ramaphosa and the police have repeatedly clarified — and this has further inflamed tensions. The leaders of “March and March” all seem to be angry yet wealthy and influential people who are not disadvantaged themselves.

Many people stayed away from work, and the country came to a standstill on 30 June 2026 when mass marches took place in towns and cities throughout the country against illegal migration. As the deadline approached, terrified migrants retreated to pop-up camps. Shameful visuals of women and children camping out for days in the open in winter, scared and without adequate ablution facilities, is an attack on the dignity of all.

The local Church, through the Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference (SACBC) and the South African Council of Churches (SACC), has spoken with unusual clarity and urgency. In a pastoral statement issued in May 2026, the bishops described these attacks as “symptoms of deeper, older failures and broken promises” and insisted that the root causes be “honestly addressed,” warning that otherwise “the cycle of anger, resentment and violence will continue to intensify.” Cardinal Stephen Brislin, SACBC President, has, for over a year, condemned the practice of denying migrants access to hospitals and schools, insisting that every person — regardless of documentation — has a right to medical care and education, and that no group of citizens has the authority to replace the police with mob action. In fact, South Africa’s Constitution goes even further than this. It emphasises that every person, whether or not they are a citizen, has access to the protections of the Bill of Rights. The right to dignity in the Constitution is a right to have our inherent dignity protected, a dignity we share with everyone, citizen or not.

As tensions rose towards the self-declared June 30 deadline, Bishop Thulani Mbuyisa, chair of the SACBC’s Justice and Peace Commission, appealed directly for calm, urging communities to refrain from violence and uphold the rule of law. Continental bodies, including SECAM, have echoed this, describing the violence as a violation of both Christian conscience and African values, while affirming that states retain a legitimate right to regulate immigration for the common good.

The Society of Jesus recognises that this is a complex, multifaceted issue with no “quick-fix solutions”. This is not a simple story of citizens versus bad migrants, or of a virtuous Church versus a xenophobic mob. The men and women marching are often the same people who have been failed for decades by collapsed municipal services, over 30% unemployment, a housing backlog stretching a generation, and endemic corruption that has hollowed out local government and abandoned its own people. Many South Africans genuinely live in anxiety and fear of a future with no gainful employment, no housing, no food for their families, and no way to educate the next generation. The tragedy is that these legitimate grievances are being redirected towards the migrant next door rather than towards those who have the power and influence to change the situation.

The complexities of this are deeper. South Africa has not effectively controlled its borders; there has been a systemic failure, exacerbated by corrupt officials. The South African authorities have also made obtaining official documents (visas) difficult, often being inconsistent and unreasonable in their demands for people who lawfully seek to enter the Republic. This all contributes to the bigger problem.

Catholic teaching, from Fratelli Tutti, and the Catechism itself, holds two truths together: migrants have a right to dignity, safety, and access to basic services, while nations retain the right to order immigration justly. Neither truth cancels the other. The pastoral task before all of us is therefore twofold: unwavering solidarity with the migrant under threat, and equally unwavering honesty — and advocacy — about the failures of governance that leave local communities feeling forgotten. A Church that condemns violence only, without naming and confronting its causes, will not be heard by the very people it most needs to reach.

Pope Leo XIV’s recent teaching in Magnifica Humanitas reminds us that human dignity is not a pie to be divided among competing claimants, but a truth that expands when honoured for one and diminishes when denied to any. We must uphold the dignity of all.

To further analyse this issue, we cannot deny that we are living in a period of increasing global instability, in which more and more people are adopting a nationalistic, xenophobic and chauvinistic approach. We cannot rule out that there are also nationalist undertones to what is happening in South Africa, as in other parts of the world.

The Jesuit tradition asks us to accompany both victims and the disenfranchised. Accompaniment means standing with migrants whose homes and livelihoods are destroyed, and with local people traumatised by crime and loss. It also requires careful analysis: tracing how corruption, weak policing, economic exclusion, and socio-political and geographical factors create fertile ground for “othering” narratives that lead to division and, ultimately, violence.

Equally, we must acknowledge that, all too often, those fleeing their countries of origin do so because of war, corrupt governance, economic failure, the denial of basic human rights, and repression. Identifying the political and criminal actors who manipulate tensions and recognising regional migration dynamics linking many African countries to the current situation in South Africa are important.

We must hold two truths together. First, many migrants who arrive in South Africa are brothers and sisters fleeing poverty, instability, or persecution; they deserve protection, dignity, and pastoral care. They are not suitable scapegoats for systemic failures at national, regional, and international levels.

Second, those who lash out—local men and women burdened by unemployment, deteriorating services, and a collapse of trust in institutions—express real and urgent grievances. Anger and fear, though never morally excusable when they turn to violence, call for pastoral listening, discernment, and concrete remedies.

St. Ignatius Loyola teaches us Jesuits to distinguish spirits — to ask what moves towards greater love and communion, and what moves towards fear, contraction, and scapegoating. Xenophobic violence is, spiritually speaking, a movement of desolation: it offers the false consolation of a scapegoat to blame, while leaving the underlying wounds — unemployment, corruption, broken municipal and national governance, and regional and international failures — untouched. The migrant shopkeeper becomes the visible target for an injustice whose real authors sit in cosy high places.

Our Jesuit response must be practical and continentally minded. We call for immediate humanitarian protection: shelter, medical care, and legal assistance for those in danger, and accountable policing that protects all people impartially. We, through our institutions and various missionary endeavours, urge governments, regional bodies, and civil society to invest in long-term solutions to ease tensions and address this crisis. We need action, not words and platitudes which are so often the response to this cyclical violence. Employment, vocational training, and well-monitored cross-border economic initiatives that reduce zero-sum competition, as well as good ethical border control, are among the practical measures that can be taken. The regional reality and reasons that cause people to flee their homelands must be confronted. We also believe that religious leaders, educators, and the media across Africa must counter scapegoating with truthful narratives rooted in solidarity, shared histories, and Scripture’s call to welcome the stranger (Matt 25:35), while upholding the rights of nations to control their borders and their responsibility to care for their own people (Acts 17:26).

As Jesuits, we are called to form “men and women for others,” committed to structural change and personal conversion. We pray for the courage to confront injustice, the wisdom to design effective interventions, and the charity to love neighbour and stranger alike. Only by combining compassionate pastoral care, rigorous social analysis, and cooperative regional action can we begin to dismantle the conditions that breed violence and build a Continent where every person—migrant and citizen—lives in dignity and peace.