At least 24 vehicles burned during anti-migrant protests in South Africa

South African police said at least 24 vehicles were burned during anti-migrant protests in Durban and Soweto on Thursday, 8 October. Foreign-owned shops were looted in Durban, and three people were arrested after an alleged assault there. The unrest followed renewed tension over a court ruling that removed some barriers to applying for asylum; the government says the ruling does not automatically grant anyone refugee status.

Acting national police commissioner Lt Gen Puleng Dimpane put the vehicle count at 14 in Durban and 10 in Soweto, according to the BBC and Associated Press. Authorities were checking for further damage, so the reported total may rise. The accounts reviewed do not establish who set each vehicle alight.

What happened in Durban and Soweto

In Durban, protesters gathered outside a government refugee reception centre and demanded that it stop accepting asylum applications, the BBC reported. Foreign-owned shops were looted, while police fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds and businesses in the city centre shut. AP reported that riot police were deployed and firefighters tackled fires downtown.

Police said three foreign nationals were arrested on suspicion of assaulting a protester in Durban. The BBC reported that the alleged assault preceded the demonstration’s turn to violence. The arrests establish neither guilt nor the precise sequence of the subsequent damage; police were still investigating.

Community leader Tshepo Mposula told AP that the demonstration started peacefully outside Home Affairs before participants moved to close stores. He alleged that foreign nationals fired shots. That allegation has not been independently established. Fihla described vehicle burning as retaliation, but the reports do not identify who owned the burned vehicles or assign responsibility for individual fires.

Fihla said no injuries had been reported in Soweto when he spoke, and that violence there had subsided although tensions remained high. Roads were still closed and police remained deployed when AP reported. That statement is limited to Soweto and is not a confirmed injury tally for both cities.

Why the asylum ruling became a focus

The protests came amid months of anti-immigrant mobilisation and followed implementation of a July Constitutional Court ruling on access to the asylum process. According to AP’s account of a government briefing, the ruling removed procedural barriers that had kept some people from applying, including those who entered South Africa irregularly, lacked asylum transit visas or missed reporting deadlines. The government’s Inter-Ministerial Committee on Migration held an urgent briefing about crowding at asylum offices after implementation.

The distinction between applying for asylum and receiving it is central to the dispute. A government spokesman told Reuters, in an account carried by the BBC, that false claims had suggested undocumented migrants would automatically receive legal status. The government said applications still require individual assessment and that the ruling does not automatically confer refugee status or permanent residence. Deutsche Welle also reported the government’s clarification.

South Africa has experienced repeated outbreaks of violence targeting migrants, particularly people from neighbouring countries, according to the BBC. Deutsche Welle reported months of anti-immigrant protests this year, including demands by groups that undocumented foreign nationals leave. That longer-running campaign provides context for Thursday’s clashes, but the available accounts do not establish that every incident in Durban and Soweto had the same organiser or cause.

What remains unresolved

Dimpane condemned the destruction and said the right to protest did not permit criminal acts. Police reinforced public-order deployments in areas facing unrest, AP reported. Fihla told AP that officers initially monitoring the Soweto march lacked specialised public-order training and equipment, and said they could not have predicted how the situation would develop.

The police tally is provisional, and the accounts reviewed leave the full injury count, the source of reported gunfire and responsibility for individual acts of arson unresolved. They also do not establish a later outcome for the three people arrested in Durban. The separate May Constitutional Court judgment in Irankunda dealt with subsequent asylum applications after earlier refusals; it is not the July ruling cited in reports about these protests.