The South African Police Service rejects allegations of indiscriminate arrest.
The Nkqubela informal settlement in Robertson, where foreigners and locals live alongside each other. But it has been tense in recent months due to anti-immigrant protests. Raids across Robertson, Montagu, Ashton, Bonnievale and McGregor since June 2026 have led to the arrest of an estimated 200 people, mostly nationals of Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Malawi and Lesotho, with at least 100 still held in police cells across five Western Cape towns on charges related to overstaying visas.
The Western Cape Coalition Against Xenophobia states that people were arrested on the streets and in their homes and that some who produced valid documents were detained anyway; the South African Police Service rejects allegations of indiscriminate arrest. Michael Chanyamwaka, arrested on 1 June, paid his R1,800 fine on 27 June but was released only on 19 August; community leader Lovemore Maporisa was arrested on 27 August while delivering toiletries and status documents to detainees, and remains at Robertson Correctional Centre with his matter postponed to 10 September.
The Zimbabwean Civic Movement has called on South African authorities to process and either release or repatriate detainees, and reports deportees losing phones and cash despite signed property affidavits. Among those held is a couple whose three-year-old daughter is in a relative’s care; many detainees were household breadwinners, and the consequences include interrupted remittances, separated families and undocumented returns.
Source: Desperate plea as 200 Zimbabwean migrants languish in South African cells
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