Many civil organisations in Cape Town have rejected the March-and-March movement ahead of a local protest calling for the removal of undocumented immigrants.
The movement has been active in other parts of the country, most recently in Durban, with scores of people gathering to protest and shut down businesses owned by foreign nationals. It says it is “advocating for stronger immigration enforcement and protecting opportunities for South African citizens”.
WATCH: Tensions flare outside Durban’s Diakonia Centre as March and March founder Jacinta Ngobese Zuma arrives, while foreign nationals seek protection from local threats.
Video by Mbali Dlungwana.#DiakoniaCentre #DurbanUnrest #RefugeeProtection pic.twitter.com/T8GKQcRIwe— Daily Sun (@dailysunsa) May 21, 2026
A cluster of the movement in Cape Town has planned a march for Saturday from Bellville to Parow.
However, a coalition of 48 organisations in the city has signed a statement in which they accuse March-and-March of xenophobia by exploiting public frustration.
In the statement released on Thursday, the organisations said the movement wanted to bring “its politics of fear and chaos to Cape Town”. The signatories (which the letter said included residents, workers, organisations, migrants, refugees, activists, faith communities, students, and community members) said they rejected them completely.
“March and March pretends to be a large civic movement, and pretends to speak for ordinary people, while directing anger downward, toward migrants, refugees, street traders, undocumented workers, and the poor, instead of toward the systems and institutions actually responsible for misery in this country. They take real pain and misdirect it into xenophobia,” read the groups’ collective statement.
The coalition further rejected claims that migrants were responsible for unemployment, failing services and inequality, and accused March-and-March of being “funded and exploited by opportunist political parties”.
It warns that the movement’s rhetoric could result in escalated tensions in vulnerable communities.
“March and March pretends to oppose only undocumented migration, but in practice it fuels hostility and violence toward migrants as a whole, especially poor African migrants. It fuels tribalism. Even Home Affairs has acknowledged serious backlogs in processing asylum, refugee, and other permits. Yet March and March creates an atmosphere in which people are treated as criminals simply because they were born somewhere else. It is xenophobic and it is anti-black, no matter how carefully it is branded and packaged.”
It further criticised what they described as anti-immigrant language, arguing that phrases such as “citizens first” and “illegal foreigners” are masked xenophobic politics.
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Among the organisations opposing the march are Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia, Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa, Ndifuna Ukwazi, Equal Education Law Centre, Palestine Solidarity Campaign and the Sex Workers Education and Advocacy Taskforce. The coalition called on police and public officials to act responsibly to prevent intimidation and “xenophobic violence” during the planned protest.
“Cape Town and South Africa do not belong to right-wing nationalists, vigilantes, predatory politicians, or people trying to build movements around exclusion and scapegoating. We stand with migrants, refugees, undocumented people, and all those targeted by xenophobic politics. We stand for solidarity across borders and against every attempt to turn vulnerable people into enemies.”
ALSO READ: “Compliance check” and crackdown on illegal immigrants in CPT CBD – Smile 90.4FM
*This article has been updated to correct the number of organisations involved from 23 to the accurate number of 48.
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