Army Deployed to Durban as KZN Premier Requests Military Help After Days of Anti-Migrant Violence
On Sunday, October 11, 2026, South African National Defence Force soldiers arrived in Durban's central business district to help quell days of anti-immigrant violence. The Sunday Times, IOL and SABC reported a military convoy moving into the CBD and surrounding areas. KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli said he had requested the SANDF deployment to quell widespread violence; unrest had also broken out in Umlazi and Merebank south of the city, where protesters continued to loot small businesses, damage property and set buildings and vehicles alight.
The violence began on October 8: protesters demanded the refugee reception office stop processing asylum applications, 14 vehicles were torched in Durban, foreign-owned shops were looted, a scrapyard was set on fire and dozens of shops vandalised. Police said about 30 people had been arrested in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng since Thursday, 25 of them in KZN, for offences including public violence, illegal gatherings, obstruction and resisting arrest, with others held for attempted murder and discharging a firearm in public. Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi condemned the violence and property destruction, stressing that the right to protest does not extend to threatening others or damaging businesses.
The deployment drew political pushback: the National Freedom Party rejected the army's presence in a statement on October 11, accusing the premier of answering public frustration with military force instead of addressing immigration enforcement, unemployment and asylum processing, and threw its weight behind the March and March movement. A court has meanwhile barred anti-immigrant protesters from going near Home Affairs offices, with bail hearings for the accused set to continue on October 16.
The government blames disinformation around the Constitutional Court's July ruling, which granted no citizenship to asylum seekers, and Home Affairs withdrew its asylum intake directive on October 9. Durban's city centre is home to Chinese businesses and residents; the deployment was reported to run until October 31, and order in the city centre was gradually being restored under the military-police presence.
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 南非国防军士兵在训练中。摄影：US Army Africa，CC BY 2.0，来源：Wikimedia Commons
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