On the 3rd of September 2026, members of the March and March movement crossed Che Guevara Road in Umbilo, Durban, and directly confronted a community of documented refugees and asylum seekers who have been sheltering on the pavement outside the Department of Home Affairs Refugee Reception Office for approximately three months.
What followed was hours of sustained violence. March and March members, several with their faces concealed by masks, carried rakes, sticks and sjamboks which were eventually used in assaults on the refugee community in direct contravention of the Regulation of Gatherings Act, which prohibits any person from carrying a weapon at a gathering or march. Refugees’ belongings, including bedding and shelter materials, were seized, thrown into the road, and set alight in at least one attempted arson incident. Four people were injured severely enough to require hospitalisation, among them was a child struck by a whip and trampled, a teenage girl who collapsed from fear and trauma, and two men left bleeding from head wounds consistent with blunt object strikes. A civil society human rights monitor was struck in the face on camera. Monitors and refugees alike were subjected to racist and xenophobic abuse, including direct threats of rape and violence.
The entire incident, from the moment March and March first approached Che Guevara Road up until the moment the group left the scene, has been captured across multiple timestamped videos. We have extensive footage, which is being assessed, and criminal charges will be pressed against the identified perpetrators of offences.
While we appreciate the role South African Police Service members played in preventing a potentially more violent situation, we have serious concerns as to why a group carrying weapons was ever permitted into proximity with a vulnerable community of men, women and children in the first place. It seems foolish to have permitted this march to proceed upon the published route, considering the open threats levelled against the refugee community in March and March associated social media accounts. Several assaults took place in full view of police officers on duty. Despite requests from human rights monitors at the scene for those responsible to be arrested, no arrests were made at the time.
The individuals responsible have been photographed and identified by human rights monitors. We note that several arrests have since been made, and we hope that those identified by violence and peace monitors are among them. We note an allegation that a gun was fired during the incident; this has not been corroborated by SAPS, nor does it appear in any of the timestamped videos captured by the several violence and peace monitors present throughout the day. We do note that police used rubber bullets and stun grenades to disperse the attacks on the refugees.
March and March has announced its intention to return to the same site on 4th September 2026.
SIYAFANA SONKE
ACTION CAMPAIGN
The Regulation of Gatherings Act requires that any gathering of this nature be preceded by written notice to the local authority, which may impose binding conditions on route, timing, and separation from any opposing gathering. We call on March and March and eThekwini Municipality to publicly disclose:
- The conditions attached to March and March’s Section 4 permit application for the 3 September gathering, including what measures of care and safety the organisation undertook to observe with respect to the vulnerable refugee community present at the site.
- The grounds on which eThekwini Municipality deemed it fit to grant a permit for a gathering at this site on 4 September 2026, if it has done so, given what took place on 3 September 2026.
- What steps the Municipality and the SAPS have taken and will take to prevent an unlawful gathering, with clear intention and potential for further violence and incitement of harm, from gathering at Che Guevara Road either on 3rd or 4th of September 2026.
We call on the SAPS to ensure that should any gathering proceed on 4th September 2026, a strictly enforced separation distance is maintained between the two groups, that all participants are searched for weapons before being permitted near the site, and that any individual who commits an act of violence is arrested without delay.
The events of 3rd September 2026 were foreseeable and preventable. A repeat on 4th September 2026, without decisive intervention, will not be.
Issued by:
Siyafana Sonke Action Campaign, a coalition of over 160 civil society organisations, trade unions, and community structures formed to confront Xenophobic and Afro phobic violence in South Africa
Media enquiries:
Deborah Ewing – 083 294 5031
Yeshelen Govender – 083 417 4983
