Anti-Migrant Protests at SADC Summit Signal Rising Xenophobia in Southern Africa

Protesters rallied outside the SADC Summit in South Africa to demand curbs on migration into the country, directing anger at migrants from Zimbabwe, Mozambique, and other regional states. South Africa hosts the largest share of the region's migrants and refugees, drawn by its comparatively stronger economy — but persistent unemployment above 32%, a housing deficit, and stretched public services have made migration a potent political issue that increasingly feeds into the platforms of populist parties.

The structural dynamic is not simply political: Southern Africa is experiencing overlapping climate and economic shocks — Zimbabwe's agricultural collapse under consecutive droughts, Mozambique's exposure to cyclones of increasing intensity, and regional food insecurity — that are pushing displacement northward into South Africa. The people being protested against are, in significant numbers, climate and economic refugees from fragile states that cannot absorb the losses. Anti-migrant politics in South Africa therefore has the perverse effect of targeting a population whose displacement is partly caused by environmental failures the region shares.

SADC's own frameworks on free movement of persons have stalled, leaving migration management to bilateral agreements and national enforcement that vary widely in adherence to refugee law. Whether the 2025 summit produced any meaningful regional migration governance commitment — or whether domestic political pressure in South Africa dominated the agenda — will shape protection outcomes for hundreds of thousands of people across the region.