South African police said more than 900 people were arrested Tuesday as thousands marched in coordinated demonstrations demanding that undocumented migrants leave the country, a nationwide mobilization that the Ministry of Police said stayed largely peaceful but drew soldiers into Johannesburg and Durban.
Deputy National Police Commissioner Tebello Mosikili told a press conference that 108 of 120 marches were peaceful and that 12 required law enforcement to intervene. Police reinforcements moved into five of the country's nine provinces overnight, and Police Minister Firoz Cachalia confirmed the army was deployed "on a contingency basis" in parts of Johannesburg and Durban.
The deadline
Tuesday marked a deadline set by anti-migrant groups including March and March, Operation Dudula and Progressive Forces for undocumented migrants to leave the country. In Hillbrow, a Johannesburg suburb with a large migrant population, police arrested three people after officers said the suspects had "opened fire at protesters who were passing through the street." Marchers then set the suspects' vehicle on fire, police said, and two people were injured, including a 17-year-old.
In Germiston, about 15 kilometers from Johannesburg, demonstrators went to homes and handed people they suspected were foreign nationals to police for document checks, local media reported. Officers also arrested five people for alleged looting of a foreign-owned shop in Soweto and about 10 more for looting in KwaZulu-Natal.
The repatriations
South African police say 25,000 foreign nationals have been repatriated so far, and about 50,000 migrants have been arrested since January for being in the country illegally. Nigerian officials said 632 Nigerians have returned home voluntarily, including 271 who arrived in Lagos on Tuesday. About 7,000 Malawians have been repatriated, according to Malawian media, and buses have been moving through the Beitbridge checkpoint into Zimbabwe.
Ramaphosa's line
President Cyril Ramaphosa met protest leaders Monday night and urged peaceful demonstrations while accepting the need for immigration reforms. In his weekly newsletter, Ramaphosa wrote that "Some foreign nationals who live in South Africa are here lawfully," and added that "The right to protest and freedom of expression does not allow people to threaten or intimidate others, or to engage in acts of vandalism or violence," describing the limits of Tuesday's marches.
Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, who leads March and March, told the BBC her group would protest every Thursday for the next six months to force the government to "get rid of" undocumented migrants. Protest leader Ngizwe Mchunu told The Associated Press that illegal immigration was fueling drug trafficking. Mchunu said, "It is time for our government to put South Africa first."
The counterview
Amnesty International South Africa said migrants, refugees and asylum seekers are being unfairly blamed for unemployment, inequality and struggling public services, arguing those problems stem from the legacy of apartheid and failures in the asylum system. Neither wire covering Tuesday's marches carried a right-of-center South African political voice, leaving business-community critics of the marches unrepresented in the immediate reporting.
Official figures put the documented foreign population above three million, and South Africa's unemployment rate remains above 30 percent. March and March has said the Thursday protests will continue through the end of the year.