WeeklySA_AdminArrest: Over 40 000 undocumented migrants were arrested in the first half of 2026
By Monk Nkomo
Thousands of immigrants, including hundreds of legally documented refugees, are camped outside facilities like Sherwood Hall in Durban after fleeing anti-immigrant protests, looting and intimidation orchestrated by groups such as March and March, according to GrounUp.
The South African government has also significantly stepped up immigration enforcement under operations like Shanela. Over 40,000 undocumented migrants were arrested in the first half of 2026 and deportations have surged to more than 57,784 in the past financial year.
Even documented long-term residents and refugees faced severe administrative hurdles at the Department of Home Affairs, with reports of permanent residence records vanishing and stateless individuals unable to access citizenship application forms. Faith leaders and communities are attempting to intervene in flashpoints along the Garden Route and in Tshwane, where the State’s justice and security clusters are scrambling to draft national action plans to curb xenophobic violence and illegal immigration.
• According to GrounUp, over 10,000 undocumented foreign nationals, primarily Malawians, are stranded in KwaZulu-Natal and Cape Town awaiting deportation and voluntary repatriation following a wave of anti-immigrant protests and vigilante deadlines. Thousands of displaced migrants are concentrated at a makeshift camp in Sherwood, Durban, as well as the Diakonia Centre in the CBD.
• The eThekwini Municipality and Department of Home Affairs (DHA) have set up a virtual court linked to the Durban Regional Court directly at the Sherwood site to fast-track deportation and verification orders. Clashes broke out between police (using stun grenades and rubber bullets) and migrants frustrated by slow processing times, a lack of food/sanitation and a severe shortage of buses to transport them home.
• KZN Police Commissioner, Lt-Gen Nhlanhla Mkhwanazi noted that many cases collapsed or were delayed because individuals present pending asylum-seeker documents, though those confirmed undocumented were being processed.
• Meanwhile, large numbers of undocumented immigrants from Cape Town were being loaded onto buses and transported across the country to the Beitbridge Border Post in Musina (Limpopo) for processing and deportation. Protests and threats—including a widely circulated “deadline” for migrants to leave the country—have forced dozens of refugees and asylum seekers in the Western Cape to seek emergency shelter and evacuation.
• For those formally arrested and detained inland, the maximum legal detention limit before deportation or release under the Immigration Act is 120 days, with many ultimately transferred to the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has warned against scapegoating migrants for South Africa’s homegrown economic problems, emphasizing that only law enforcement agencies—not citizens or vigilante groups—had the authority to demand identity documents or enforce immigration laws.
He also announced the government’s Five-Point Action Plan to enforce immigration laws which included :
• Border Control: Preventing irregular entry and strengthening physical and digital border security.
• Cracking down on the violation of labour and immigration laws, prosecuting employers who hired undocumented workers and establishing faster immigration courts.
• Stamping out corruption within the Department of Home Affairs.
• Strengthening laws, tightening asylum claims, introducing quotas for foreign national employment in specific sectors and rolling out secure biometric identity systems.
• Improving migration cooperation with other African nations to find long-term solutions.
Western Cape Premier, Alan Winde and several members of his Cabinet attended a Joint Operations Centre meeting, led by the Provincial Disaster Management Centre to further coordinate the province’s plan to address social unrest stemming from illegal immigration.
Multiple authorities, including the South African Police Service, South African National Defence Force, Department of Home Affairs, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and municipalities, form part of the JOC, to ensure a coordinated and effective response.
All role players were working together to identify flashpoints and defuse tensions. The SAPS was monitoring social media platforms. The Western Cape’s plan was based on the following priorities:
• IVisible policing in hotspots
• IStrengthening intelligence networks
• IProactive communications
• IRapid mediation and engagement.
The Western Cape Government welcomed interventions implemented by the Inter- Ministerial Committee on Migration, constituted by President Ramaphosa, and has offered its support, wherever necessary, to bolster the work of this entity.
Winde called on all foreigners living in the province without the required legal documentation to take immediate steps to regularise their status in accordance with the country’s immigration laws.
MIRROR Briefs
FORENSIC OFFICER LINKED TO MURDER
The Pretoria Magistrate Court has granted suspended senior forensic South African Police Service officer and ballistics expert Laurence Makgotloe bail.
He has been released on R15,000 bail under the conditions that he surrender his passport and refrain from contacting any of the witnesses.
Makgotloe is accused of being an accessory after the fact in the murder of Vereeniging engineer Armand Swart. The State alleged that after receiving ballistic evidence from the murder scene, the senior forensic officer compiled false ballistic findings and weakened the murder investigation. Furthermore, when Makgotloe was arrested at his home, police allegedly found 43 rounds of live ammunition and 28 ballistic reports in his possession.
During closing arguments in court last week, Makgotloe’s legal team portrayed him as a “devoted family man” with a clean criminal record, while the State argued that he was a flight risk.
Delivering his bail judgment, Magistrate, Johannes Kruger, said there were no suggestions that Makgotloe’s release on bail would interfere with his upcoming trial.
“The concerns raised by the investigating officer were duly considered. However, the court is not persuaded that such concerns constitute compelling or real reasons to refuse him bail. The court is satisfied the applicant has discharged the onus resting upon him’’. – Lehlohonolo Lehana.
COUNCILLOR IN BRIBE RAP
A councillor at the Thulamela Local Municipality in Limpopo has been arrested on charges of corruption for the alleged attempted bribery of a Special Investigating Unit (SIU) investigator.
According to the SIU, the Councillor, Netshivhumbe Gumani, allegedly offered the investigator about R70 000 in exchange for obstructing the ends of justice in an investigation at the Mahikeng Local Municipality.
He appeared in the Molopo Magistrate’s Court in Mahikeng and the case was postponed to June 29 for a bail application. The corruption busting unit is investigating allegations of maladministration and corruption in Mahikeng concerning two tenders related to lease agreements.
“The SIU’s forensic analysis revealed suspicious financial flows from the municipality’s service provider to unrelated companies and individuals.
“During the investigation, Gumani allegedly first approached one SIU investigator, who refused the bribe. He then allegedly targeted a senior investigator, offering R70 000 to ‘close one eye’ and disregard evidence. On 18 June, 2026, during a meeting in Mahikeng, the suspect allegedly handed over R10 000 in cash as part of the bribe.”
The SIU alerted the South African Police Service and the Hawks, who authorised an entrapment operation. The suspect was arrested immediately after allegedly handing over the cash and the money was seized and counted in the presence of law enforcement officers. – SAnews
MK PARTY FIRES ZUMA’S DAUGHTER
The Umkhonto weSizwe (MK) party has expelled Duduzile Zuma-Sambudla, and former national spokesperson Nhlamulo Ndhlela from the party with immediate effect. MK Party Secretary General, Sibonelo Nomvalo, made the announcement during the media briefing in Johannesburg in the presence of party leader Jacob Zuma.
Nomvalo said, the actions of both members created confusion among supporters, encouraged factionalism and weakened organisational discipline. He said Zuma-Sambudla repeatedly used public platforms and social media to promote factional narratives, challenged leadership decisions and exposed internal matters.
Ndhlela is accused of acting without authority, holding unauthorised media briefings and misrepresenting official party positions and structures.
“Their conduct included unauthorised public statements and actions that created internal divisions within the party,” Nomvalo said.
The party also raised concerns about the conduct of both members following the death of MK Party MP, Muzi Ntshingila. Nomvalo said both members had participated in an activity that resulted in the transfer of an ailing Ntshingila to another health facility without the knowledge of his family.
The party said neither Zuma-Sambudla nor Ndhlela had authority to involve themselves in matters relating to Ntshingila’s illness or to separate him from his family. It also said concerns had been raised about the removal of Ntshingila’s personal belongings from his parliamentary residence without the knowledge of his family. – Lehlohonolo Lehana.
SERIOUS FINANCIAL LOSSES INCURRED AT PIC
Africa’s biggest fund manager is again tangled up in a governance and management crisis, while its unlisted investments continue to underperform.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana and the Public Investment Corp’s board met during the week as a public rift over the management of parts of the R3.6 trillion fund expose the latest bout of executive and political infighting.
The PIC manages the pension savings of 1.3 million civil servants and has endured serious governance breaches and financial losses due to investment decisions often linked to politically connected individuals.
It has invested about R67 billion in nearly 150 unlisted entities since its inception in 2005 and at least 78 of these have lost some or all of the money, according to parliament data. The fund manager has suffered significant losses with deals done around cement-maker, AfriSam and chicken company, Daybreak Farms, among many others, according to the data.
An investigation by PwC was ordered by Dlamini into valuations related to a Black economic empowerment deal linked to an investment in Lanseria airport outside Johannesburg. The report exposed alleged wrongdoing and named PIC staff. A whistleblower report later accused Dlamini of
