In a major pushback against rising anti-immigrant mobilization, the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) and local community leaders have rejected a planned demonstration scheduled to take place this Saturday, June 13, 2026, in Cape Town’s Du Noon township.
The planned demonstration, mobilized across social media channels under the banner of the “Dunoon Community Peaceful March,” is being organized by a coalition of anti-immigration groups including March and March, Operation Dudula, and the Labour and Civic Organisation (LACO). Despite the organizers’ public calls for a non-violent event, local leadership structures have united to strongly urge the organizers to cancel the march, warning it could act as a catalyst for widespread instability.
SANCO’s Oliver Tambo branch chairperson, Sinethemba Matomela, confirmed that civic representatives have held multiple urgent community stakeholder meetings since late May alongside religious structures, the South African Police Service (SAPS), and foreign national representatives to explicitly coordinate opposition to the march.
“We are completely against March and March coming to Du Noon,” Matomela stated during a briefing. “We fully agree that our national immigration laws must be rigidly enforced, but only statutory law enforcement agencies and the Department of Home Affairs are authorized to determine whether a person is legally in the country. We do not solve systemic economic problems by turning neighbors against one another.”
SANCO and local faith leaders noted that Du Noon’s micro-economy is intricately bound to the foreign nationals living within the community. Activists emphasized that many local South African households directly rely on rental income from leasing backyard properties and commercial spaza shops to immigrants. Evicting these tenants, SANCO warned, would decimate the primary revenue streams of impoverished families, leaving many to face starvation.
The local resistance in the Western Cape follows recent regional unrest in Kleinmond, where foreign nationals were forced to flee into nearby mountains following threats by vigilante groups, prompting the Malawian government to bus over 150 citizens home last week.
Western Cape Provincial MEC for Cultural Affairs and Sport, Anroux Marais, echoed calls for calm, warning that provincial authorities will not tolerate intimidation or harassment. As the country edges closer to March and March’s self-declared June 30 national shutdown deadline, SAPS public order units have been placed on high alert to prevent the township from descending into localized violence on Saturday.
