Anti-migrant protesters in South Africa escalated their campaign on Thursday, going door-to-door in townships to drag suspected undocumented foreigners from their homes and hand them to police. In Alexandra, a densely populated township on the northeastern edge of Johannesburg, groups of men carrying sticks broke down doors and entered houses where they believed undocumented migrants were sheltering. Similar marches took place in Soweto, another major Johannesburg township, and in the coastal city of Durban, marking a significant shift in tactics from mass demonstrations toward targeted neighbourhood searches.

The action follows months of often violent anti-immigrant demonstrations and an unofficial deadline of 30 June, set by protest groups, by which all undocumented foreigners were told to leave the country. The movement is led in part by the organisation March and March, whose leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has insisted the campaign is not xenophobic and has pledged weekly protests every Thursday until the government responds to its demands. Community leaders in Alexandra and Soweto cited South Africa's unemployment rate, which exceeds 30 per cent, and what they describe as inadequate border controls as driving public frustration. "The pie is now too small to share," said Soweto community leader Portia Zulu. However, even some figures sympathetic to the protests drew a line at Thursday's scenes: Alexandra community leader Musa Mabiko said the march had "got out of hand" and needed to stop immediately, while at least one local described the scenes as more akin to vandalism than protest.

South Africa hosts more than three million foreign nationals, roughly five per cent of its population, drawn largely from neighbouring and regional countries including Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi, Nigeria, and Ghana. Thousands of people from those nations have fled South Africa in recent weeks. Nigeria, which has already repatriated some of its citizens, said this week that conditions for foreigners in the country are deteriorating.

The escalation raises serious concerns about public order and the safety of migrant communities. While protesters represent a relatively small number of people, their new strategy of singling out individual homes in low-income neighbourhoods amplifies the threat felt by foreign nationals and puts pressure on the South African government to respond — both to the demonstrators' demands for stricter enforcement and to international calls to protect vulnerable residents from vigilante violence.