Malawi Returnees Arrive with Nothing After Fleeing South Africa

When Iweni Pachulu stepped off the bus at a soccer stadium in eastern Malawi, he fell to his knees and raised his hands in prayer. After a three-day trek with 60 others escaping a wave of anti-migrant protests in South Africa, he had finally arrived back home.

Alongside him were the few possessions he managed to salvage after four years in the continent’s largest economy – a plastic bag and a backpack packed with clothes. The 26-year-old shop employee underwent a health screening and received transportation funds to Machinga, a village situated 170 kilometers (106 miles) away.

“I am coming home with virtually nothing. I’m unsure how I will start over, but at least I am alive,” he stated. “The items I purchased in South Africa, intending to send money back home, were left behind. There wasn’t enough time to collect everything. My main focus was to preserve my life.”

Pachulu is among tens of thousands of Black Africans who have been displaced from South Africa – either deported or fleeing in fear – as waves of protesters marched through cities, even going door-to-door demanding that migrants depart. They blame foreigners for exacerbating high unemployment and insufficient government services.

Read: More than 53,000 foreigners deported or repatriated in the crackdown on illegal migration

In response to the protests, the government has intensified enforcement against undocumented migrants. Although citizens are urged not to take the law into their own hands, authorities have struggled to contain outbreaks of violence and looting, leading to at least four fatalities.

South Africa, famed for its large and diverse economy, has always been a magnet for migrants from impoverished and conflict-affected nations.

Since 2000, Zimbabweans have streamed across the border en masse following a failed land reform that initiated a prolonged economic crisis. On the other hand, Malawi has some of the highest poverty rates globally.

While xenophobic tensions primarily targeting Black African migrants arise periodically, the current protests have been particularly organized and extended.

Waiters, drivers

Protesters argue that the government has not done enough to generate jobs in a nation where one in three individuals is unemployed, expressing frustration over the large number of undocumented migrants employed as waiters, delivery drivers, and in construction.

They have also raised concerns about overcrowded schools and overstretched public health clinics.

Organizations like March and March have set a self-imposed deadline of June 30 for all undocumented migrants to leave, climaxing in nationwide protests on that date. Demonstrations have continued every Thursday, albeit on a smaller scale.

While the most recent census estimated 2.4 million foreign-born individuals in the 63 million-strong nation, the government claims it lacks accurate statistics regarding the undocumented migrant population, suggesting the numbers could be significantly higher.

Read: South Africa bracing for anti-immigrant shutdown on June 30

Zimbabwe has reported that over 100,000 of its citizens have returned, while more than 53,000 Malawians have also departed South Africa. Mozambique, Uganda, Nigeria, and Ghana have facilitated the repatriation of their nationals by bus or plane.

Many returnees had been sending remittances back home, supporting families in nations with fewer job opportunities and widespread poverty.

On August 7, the European Union announced a donation of $345,000 in humanitarian aid “to assist in supporting the increased number of Zimbabwean returnees fleeing violence in South Africa” amid a cholera outbreak.

In the first six months of this year, Zimbabweans working in South Africa sent back $420 million home, according to government data. The South African central bank reported that Malawians transferred approximately $128 million in 2024, although exchange controls mean that a significant portion of this money flow remains unmonitored. The government of Malawi does not provide statistics regarding remittances.

Read:
Conditions for Zimbabweans in South Africa have shifted…
The UK has now become the top source of remittances to Zimbabwe, surpassing South Africa

Shattered dreams

Now, many who have returned find themselves wrestling with whether to attempt a return to South Africa or face the harsh realities of earning a living in their home country.

In Malawi, 47% of the approximately 22 million population lives below the government’s poverty threshold of 1,563 kwacha per day, which is less than a dollar at the official exchange rate and even less at the more commonly used parallel-market rate.

“I was working as a domestic worker, sending money back home. My dream was to build a house,” Grace Magombo shared after stepping off the bus, explaining that she had abandoned her vegetable-selling business in Malawi to join her husband in South Africa at the beginning of 2025.

“That dream has been shattered. I return with nothing, no place of my own. I have no starting point,” lamented the mother of three boys.

Anti-immigrant sentiments have been on the rise in South Africa, and with crucial local elections approaching in November, political factions such as Action SA, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, and the Patriotic Alliance have openly advocated for more deportations.

The African National Congress, the ruling political party in the country, has largely refrained from criticizing the protests.

In a national address, President Cyril Ramaphosa expressed understanding for the frustrations of the populace. Justice Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi indicated that foreign workers are often exploited by unscrupulous employers while advising against vigilantism.

In addressing the issue late last month, she highlighted that some South Africans who looted the properties of foreign investors were apprehended.

Read: Fleeing migrants leave hard-to-fill gaps in South Africa’s struggling economy

“The government has never supported citizens taking the law into their own hands,” stated Chrispin Phiri, spokesperson for South Africa’s Department of International Relations and Cooperation.

“We have consistently maintained that the responsibility lies with Home Affairs,” he remarked, adding that incidents of violence are “very regrettable.”

A study conducted in May by South Africa’s Human Sciences Research Council indicated a notable increase in anti-migrant sentiments among nearly all but the wealthiest South Africans since the late 2010s.

In a survey conducted on August 5 by Afrobarometer, 32% of South Africans expressed a desire to keep foreign job seekers out of the country, placing South Africa second only to Madagascar in a study involving 38 African nations.

Yet, while opportunities in Malawi remain limited, many returnees are reluctant to consider returning to South Africa due to the escalating hostility they encounter.

“I wasted two years in South Africa. I will never return to that country,” declared Pichesi Pachulu, who traveled back on the bus with his brother Iweni. “South Africa is teeming with opportunities, but the people are difficult.”

Others, however, remain unsure.

“If conditions improve, I might attempt to return. My employer in South Africa suggested I take a break and come back when things have calmed down,” said shop worker James Wahela, who has been sending money back to his wife in a district near Malawi’s commercial center, Blantyre.

“The reality is that South Africa offers more opportunities than Malawi. I believe I will go back one day, for the sake of my family’s well-being.”

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