Ten cars were set alight in Orlando West, Soweto, on Thursday following violence between community members and foreign shop owners.

It began as a peaceful demonstration in Orlando West, Soweto.

Residents had gathered on the streets on Thursday afternoon, upset by the recent Constitutional Court judgment on asylum seekers.

According to community leader Tshepo Mposule, residents were angered by the judgment and subsequent Home Affairs directive, which stated that foreign nationals should be allowed to apply for asylum regardless of whether they had entered the country legally.

"People are really angry because they came here peacefully to say that the issue of illegal migration needs urgent attention from our government," said Mposule. "On hearing about the court judgment, they came to voice out their dissatisfaction, and this was directed to the government of the day, so they went to Home Affairs."

The march to the Home Affairs offices went according to plan, Mposule said, with the community remaining peaceful.

Then things changed. Some members of the community began looking for foreign-owned shops with the intention of shutting them down.

Three shops had been closed when trouble broke out.

According to Mposule, the crowd had moved to a corner shop when a car carrying several armed foreign shop owners arrived.

The confrontation unfolded in the presence of the Johannesburg Metro...