A joint delegation of African evangelical bodies published a report in early July detailing widespread displacement, fear, and institutional failure surrounding South Africa’s escalating tensions over foreign nationals, following a four-day field mission to Johannesburg and KwaZulu-Natal in June 2026.
The mission, convened by the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA), the Evangelical Alliance of South Africa (TEASA), and the Africa Church Transformation Forum (ACT Forum), with support from the Institute for the Study of African Realities at Africa International University. They visited the region from 16–19 June in response to a 30 June deadline set by civic groups demanding the removal of foreign nationals — a deadline the report notes carries no legal force but had already produced serious humanitarian consequences.
Rev. Dr. Master Matlhaope, the General Secretary of the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA), noted that reviewing the situation in South Africa is a matter of “founding purpose.”
Matlhaope argued that the evangelical bodies (AEA, ACT Forum, and TEASA) exist to address the common challenges of African churches and the communities they serve, including challenges that the continent’s political systems and structures have, at times, failed to resolve. “The mandate for this mission is grounded in the conviction that every person encountered in this crisis, citizen and foreigner, documented and undocumented, bears the image of God and is owed equal human dignity,” he stated.
Led by Bishop Never Muparutsa, the Presiding Bishop of Pentecostal Assemblies ofZimbabwe. and President of the Evangelical Fellowship, along with a ten-member delegation, visited sites including the Sherwood Hall processing center in Durban. In the Durban center, between 6,000 and 15,000 displaced people, mostly Malawian nationals, were sheltering amid inadequate repatriation transport.
Outside Durban’s Home Affairs refugee office, hundreds of people — many holding valid documentation — were found waiting on the pavement without shelter or active case management. At the Church of Pentecost’s Kempton Park headquarters, 318 displaced Ghanaian nationals, including 79 mothers and children, were being sheltered entirely through church resources, with no formal government support.
A central finding was that displacement was not confined to undocumented migrants: documented residents, asylum permit holders, and even South African citizens of African origin reported being forced from their homes and living in fear.
The report argues that what is commonly labeled “xenophobia” actually conflates three distinct dynamics: legitimate governance grievances over service delivery and immigration enforcement; criminal exploitation and trafficking; and deliberate political instigation exploiting migration anxieties to deflect accountability. It traces the crisis to deeper structural roots — unresolved inequality from apartheid, the historic commoditization of migrant labor in the region, and the political weaponization of unregulated migration.
Delegates heard testimony from a wide range of stakeholders, including South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, at the National Youth Day commemoration, Home Affairs officials, the civic movement March and March, the South African Refugee-Led Network, and numerous church leaders. Presiding Bishop Nkosinathi Myaka of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa was quoted as admitting the church had not acted promptly enough, allowing displacement to occur before it responded. The Mission found that churches were often organized along national or ethnic lines rather than uniting migrant and South African congregations.
The report’s recommendations call on the South African government to close the gap between policy and ground-level protection; on churches to build structured relationships with migrant congregations; on the AEA to plan a follow-up mission and develop continental humanitarian capacity; and on civil society to create dialogue forums and counter misinformation.
The mission was formally adopted and accompanied by calls for prayer, fasting, and peace issued to congregations across South Africa ahead of the 30 June deadline, urging communities to reject scapegoating and violence while acknowledging the legitimacy of citizens’ economic grievances.
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