March and March has achieved something that no civic organisation has managed in years, and that is putting a single domestic issue at the top of national politics and keeping it there.

The goal was never subtle. The movement popularised a deadline of 30 June 2026 for all undocumented immigrants to leave South Africa, with its founder warning that supporters would take to the streets if the issue was not addressed by that date.

The demand was clear: the state must act, the borders must hold, and those deemed to be in the country illegally must go. What followed was the largest coordinated anti-immigration mobilisation South Africa had seen since the violence of 2008. The question that matters now is the one that outlasts the chanting and the marching and the memorandums: what, if anything, actually changed?

More than 900 people were arrested amid nationwide anti-migrant protests on 30 June, with 120 marches taking place across the country, some of which descended into violence.

South Africa says about 25,000 foreign nationals left the country amid the recent protests.

Nigeria and Ghana repatriated nearly 2,000 people on government-sponsored flights, citing concerns over their safety, and said there would be more evacuations. Zimbabwe and Mozambique repatriated smaller numbers, while more than 8,000 Malawian nationals left the country on buses provided by the Malawian government or private sponsors.

The government processed more than 8,000 foreign...