African Centre for Migration & Society, Wits University

📺 VIDEO: In the second instalment of 'Checkpoint: Abahambe', eNCAnews examines the political, economic and social forces shaping South Africa’s migration debates amid growing anti-immigrant mobilisation. This episode explores how undocumented migrants often become scapegoats for broader structural challenges such as unemployment, weak service delivery, corruption, and failures in migration governance. It also interrogates who benefits from a system that leaves migrants vulnerable while fueling public frustration and social division.

ACMS senior researcher and co-director, Associate Professor Jo Vearey, argues that the issue of migrants has become politicised: “We then have political parties using this as part of their campaigning, it resonates with people. And people aren’t challenging that. People aren’t saying: ‘Well, what next? If we get rid of these foreign nationals, what’s actually going to change? Are you going to suddenly be improving service delivery?' Obviously not. I would argue. But because, if we are saying it is the fault of the foreigners, then you are potentially going to believe us, and actually vote for us.” [22:38 into the video]

The documentary ultimately asks a critical question: if migration is being framed as the problem, who is escaping scrutiny for the deeper failures of governance, accountability and economic inclusion?

Catch the full documentary here: https://www.enca.com/shows/checkpoint-abahambe-part-ii-14-june-2026



Wits - University of the Witwatersrand
Xenowatch ACMS

CheckPoint | Abahambe Part II | 14 June 2026

🗣️ OP-ED: 'Xenophobia in South Africa: state’s complicity with gangs and vigilantes is threatening its ability to govern'

South Africa's ongoing xenophobic mobilisation is often framed as a border-control issue. But this important op-ed argues that the deeper challenge lies elsewhere: in the growing complicity between state actors, vigilante groups, and informal power structures that undermine the rule of law and democratic governance. Rather than strengthening sovereignty, tolerance of exclusionary violence weakens the state's ability to govern.

This is a timely and thought-provoking analysis by ACMS's Prof. LB Landau and Dr. Jean Pierre Misago on the intersections of migration, governance, accountability, and democracy in South Africa.

Read the full op-ed on our website: https://migration.org.za/op-ed-xenophobia-in-south-africa-states-complicity-with-gangs-and-vigilantes-is-threatening-its-ability-to-govern/



Xenowatch ACMS
Wits - University of the Witwatersrand

OP-ED: Xenophobia in South Africa: state’s complicity with gangs and vigilantes is threatening its ability to govern | ACMS Many citizens demand the country restore its sovereignty – the state’s ability to govern itself and determine its own laws within its borders – by tightening

🔉 PODCAST: A proposed amendment to South Africa’s employment laws could see ordinary households hit with fines of up to R100,000 for employing undocumented foreign nationals as domestic workers, gardeners or caregivers. As Parliament considers the Employment Services Amendment Bill, the question is whether these tough penalties are a necessary deterrent or an unfair burden on ordinary South Africans. ACMS senior researcher and co-director, Associate Professor Jo Vearey, discusses this with METRO FM's Faith Mangope.

💻 Catch their full conversation on our website: https://tinyurl.com/3fhs7e59

PODCAST: Should Ordinary South Africans Face R100,000 Fines for Employing Undocumented Domestic Workers? | ACMS A proposed amendment to South Africa's employment laws could see ordinary households hit with fines of up to R100,000 for employing undocumented foreign

🚨 NEW JOURNAL ARTICLE: ACMS senior researcher and co-director Dr. Jean Pierre Misago recently published this paper titled: 'Exclusionary cohesion? Rethinking the nexus between social cohesion and xenophobic violence in South Africa.'

📝 Drawing on nearly two decades of multi-case and comparative qualitative research, this article examines the relationship between social cohesion and xenophobic violence in South Africa. Echoing emerging scholarship, it challenges the conventional wisdom that social cohesion is inherently a panacea for violence. It demonstrates that, under certain conditions, social cohesion, enacted through collective efficacy, is linked to xenophobic violence, not as a solution but as a driver.

📥 To read and download this open access article, visit our website: https://tinyurl.com/bdd4u4xf

📢 INVITE - ACMS Public Seminar │ Hearing the City: Pentecostalism, Urban Soundscapes and the Politics of Audibility in Johannesburg's Inner City

🎙️Presenter: Dr. Brian Murahwa (Postdoctoral Fellow, African Centre for Migration & Society)
📆Date: Wednesday, 17 June 2026
⏰Time: 12:30 – 13:30 (GMT+2)
📍Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House, Wits - University of the Witwatersrand and online Zoom
💻More info.: https://migration.org.za/acms-seminar-hearing-the-city/

📜Abstract:
This article examines Johannesburg’s inner city as a complex auditory landscape where religious actors, informal economies, transport systems, and street life intersect, creating overlapping acoustic territories. Sound influences spatial order, social interactions, and belonging. Over the past two decades, the city has integrated new ‘sounds’ from Pentecostal Churches, whose growth has surged amid rising urban insecurity and uncertainty. The use of high-powered sound systems in Pentecostal churches has elicited mixed reactions – joyous for Pentecostals and an affront to other urban actors. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork, this article argues that the use of boisterous sound systems by Pentecostal Churches should not be dismissed as mere nuisances or ‘noise’, but rather, should be understood as forms of spatial production embedded within broader urban struggles over visibility, audibility, legitimacy, and survival. This study proposes ‘sonic justice’ as an alternative framework to the prevailing noise governance systems – a shift from the ‘acoustics of control’ to the’ acoustics of coexistence’, where sonic diversity is acknowledged as an inherent aspect of urban life.

ACMS SEMINAR: Hearing the City | ACMS Presenter: Dr Brian Murahwa Title: Hearing the City: Pentecostalism, Urban Soundscapes and the Politics of Audibility in Johannesburg's Inner City Discussant:

📹 VIDEO: The first 1140 Malawian nationals processed at a temporary repatriation site in Durban have been confirmed as undocumented. This is according to the Department of Home Affairs' Deputy Minister Njabulo Nzuza. The verification operation at the Sherwood Park site comes amid an intensified, coordinated effort by South African and Malawian authorities to safely return thousands of foreign nationals back home. Prof. Jo Vearey (she/her) from the Wits - University of the Witwatersrand's African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) unpacks this.

Catch this Newzroom Afrika video interview on our website: https://migration.org.za/video-first-group-of-malawian-immigrants-processed-in-durban/

🔉 EVENT: Join us next week for this hybrid public seminar by ACMS postdoctoral fellow, Dr Lydia Moyo (PhD), on 'Home Beyond Borders: Belonging and Identity among Zimbabwean Venda-Speaking Migrants in South Africa'. Her discussant will be ACMS’s researcher and postgraduate studies coordinator, Dr. Paddington Mutekwe.

📆 Date: Wednesday, 27 May 2026
⏰ Time: 12:30-13:30 (GMT+2)
📍 Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd Floor), Wits - University of the Witwatersrand (see directions here: https://tinyurl.com/46am68us)
💻Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/3dwkccpp, meeting ID: 957 8662 4514, passcode: 012731
ℹ️ More information: https://tinyurl.com/4fez3wtp

📝 Abstract:
This article explores how Zimbabwean Venda-speaking migrants in Pretoria, South Africa, construct and negotiate meanings of home under conditions of prolonged and precarious migration. Drawing on qualitative data from 30 participants collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed thematically using Atlas.ti, the study shows that home extends beyond a fixed geographical place to include emotional attachment, memory, cultural practice, and social relationships. Participants use embodied practices, such as food and music, to sustain a sense of belonging across borders while maintaining connections to Zimbabwe. Although migration was often initially viewed as temporary, prolonged residence fostered forms of rootedness in South Africa alongside enduring transnational ties. The article argues that homemaking among precarious migrants is both portable and spiritually anchored through everyday cultural reproduction, ancestry, land, and burial sites, contributing to debates on transnational belonging and identity.

🚨 REMINDER: Don't forget to join us today for this panel discussion by Prof. Jane Freedman (Université Paris VIII Vincennes - Saint-Denis) and Dr Aron Tesfai (Independent Researcher) about the Growing Up Across Borders (GRABS) project.

📆 Date: Wednesday, 20 May 2026
⏰Time: 12:30-13:30 (GMT+2)
📍Venue: ACMS Seminar Room (2163), Solomon Mahlangu House (2nd Floor), Wits - University of the Witwatersrand (see directions here: https://migration.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/DirectionsACMS.pdf)
ℹ️For more details and the Zoom link, visit our website: https://migration.org.za/acms-seminar-growing-up-across-borders/

📝Abstract:
Growing Up Across Borders (GRABS) is a project at the Université Paris 8 that explores how migration, mobility, and urban life shape the health, wellbeing, and everyday experiences of young people across Southern Africa. Bringing together research, dialogue, and community engagement, the project focuses particularly on the ways mobile and migrant youth navigate access to healthcare, social support, education, and opportunities within contexts of inequality and precarity. By centring young people’s lived experiences across borders, the project aims to generate evidence that informs more inclusive policies, responsive health systems, and youth-centred approaches to social justice and development.

European Research Council