Africans are not South Africa’s problem. Failed governments are.

Thebe Ikalafeng

Tomorrow, 30 June, South Africa faces a day of reckoning it could have avoided. A number of fellow Africans have been queuing at airports, bus stations and border posts, trying to leave ahead of a deadline that began, extraordinarily, with a fake poster.

Someone generated an official-looking Department of Home Affairs notice, declaring that all undocumented foreigners must leave by that date. The government never issued it. But it went viral, and it gave the March and March movement something it did not yet have: a date. A moment. A match thrown into dry grass.

What began as scattered demonstrations has evolved into a nationwide mobilisation. The organisers insist it will be peaceful. But the buildup has already caused intimidation, unrest and mass displacement among migrant communities across the country. The government says it is ready to protect the migrants and assert law and order.