A grisly video showing a foreign national being murdered on camera has highlighted the escalating violence of South Africa’s anti-migrant movement, following months of protests.

A mob of around 50 people beat a foreign national to death during protests against immigration in Durban on the country’s east coast last week, police said. The man is believed to have been in his late thirties or early forties.

Footage published on social media purported to show the attack, with protesters breaking off from a crowd to chase and assault a man attempting to flee. Police did not give the victim’s nationality ⁠and said the motive for the killing was unknown.

Five men aged 19 to 46 were being held for questioning over the killing on Friday.

Violence has been a recurring feature of anti-migrant protests that have swept the country this year, including cases of looting, arson, and murder. Nigeria, Mozambique and Malawi have all reported deaths of their nationals, and at least four people were killed during protests in Durban, a hotspot for anti-immigration sentiment, earlier this year.

This month, ‌anti-migrant protests in ⁠Durban and Johannesburg’s Soweto township turned violent after a court ruling made it easier for foreign citizens to claim asylum. Foreign-owned businesses were looted and cars set on fire.

Protesters in South Africa have been demanding tighter border controls and more deportations, claiming that migrants are contributing to high unemployment and crime rates, and crumbling public services.

Following the protests, South Africa launched a major crackdown on undocumented migrants. African governments have moved to repatriate their nationals in recent months, with about 60,000 Malawians returning, according to official statistics, and thousands more returning to Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Mozambique and elsewhere.

However, violence and protests have continued to escalate. Human rights groups have condemned such attacks and called on authorities to do more to prevent them. Amnesty South Africa said the killing last week “represents the latest wave in a rising tide of violence against migrants in South Africa. The justice system must start acting as a deterrent to these attacks and killings. The government has a legal obligation to protect everyone within its borders, regardless of nationality or immigration status.”

The African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights urged South Africa to declare the attacks on foreign nationals a crisis, and to “conduct prompt, impartial, thorough and transparent investigation into this heinous mob killing”.

South Africa’s President, Cyril Ramaphosa, has condemned acts of violence while promising to reform the immigration system and crack down on illegal crossings.

Anti-migrant movements have flared sporadically in post-apartheid South Africa. In 2008, at least 62 people were killed during anti-migrant riots.

But this bout of unrest is curious because immigration has fallen sharply, says Ivor Chipkin, head of the New South Institute think-tank in Johannesburg.

“Migration to South Africa has fallen off dramatically since 2015 so it’s not as if these protests arise as a response to some new wave,” he said. Official statistics show immigrants make up 4 to 5 per cent of the country’s population.

Official government figures show 2.4 million foreign nationals among the population of 62 million. Protesters claim there are many more in the country without documentation.

The country’s high unemployment rate – at 33.6 per cent in the second quarter of 2026, according to Statistics South Africa – is also driving anger. A report this year found that 83 per cent of South Africans wanted the government to reduce or entirely eliminate the entry of foreign job seekers.

Chipkin suggests the recent protests were partly driven by political parties seeking to exploit them ahead of local government elections next month.

Former president Jacob Zuma, who was jailed on corruption charges after leaving office in 2018 and is now leading the new MK Party – an offshoot of the ruling African National Congress – has backed the movement.

Action South Africa, a political party led by former mayor of Johannesburg Herman Mashaba, has been at the forefront of protests. Mashaba has called for “war against the invaders” and said South Africa cannot import “Ebolas.”

The protests also highlight the breakdown of government, Chipkin believes, citing blackouts and water shortages in Johannesburg, and a chronically under-resourced police force.

“It’s a real crisis of services,” he said. “I think people are feeling tremendous economic and social pressures, which are real, and political mobilisation is directing those grievances against migrants.”

Police leadership is corrupt and “largely captured by criminal networks”, said Chipkin, arguing that this had resulted in a lack of officers on the street and allowed incidents such as the mob killing this week. In a violent country with one of the world’s highest homicide rates, the force is ill equipped to tackle crime.

“Even public service-minded police are going into circumstances where they’re outgunned and they don’t have vehicles,” he said.

Chipkin suggests that authorities should be pushing back against the lawlessness rather than indulging it, and that reforms to a chaotic immigration system were also necessary.

But many South Africans are also counting down to municipal elections on 4 November, he believes, after which parties and candidates will no longer have an incentive to fuel the fire.