South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has ordered the deployment of 510 soldiers to KwaZulu-Natal to support police efforts to control anti-migrant protests, his office said on Tuesday 27 October 2026. The deployment runs from 9 October until 30 November and is expected to cost 34.1 million rand, about $2.05 million.

Why now

It comes before local government elections on 4 November and after calls by anti-migrant groups for nationwide protests. The presidency said the deployment followed recent violence linked to misinformation about a Constitutional Court ruling on asylum seekers. The July ruling held that asylum seekers cannot be denied access to South Africa's asylum system solely for procedural reasons.

Months of marches

South Africa has seen months of anti-migrant marches this year, drawing international criticism. Some have descended into violence and thousands of African foreign nationals have fled the country. This month, protests in Durban — KwaZulu-Natal's biggest city — and Johannesburg's Soweto township turned violent, with vehicles torched and shops looted, and a foreign national was allegedly beaten to death by a crowd in Durban last week, according to Reuters.

The deployment is a support role for the police, not a replacement for them, and it runs for nearly two months — a sign of how seriously the presidency is taking the risk of further violence in the run-up to the vote. How long soldiers stay on the streets after the elections will be a test of whether the move calms tensions or merely pauses them.

Source: Reuters, 27 October 2026.