XENOBAROMETER: Xenophobic surge dials up trauma for many immigrant pupils at SA schools in 2026

XenoBarometer tracks the anti-immigrant movement and its impact. We aim to surface underreported stories, paying close attention to potential rights abuses, emerging patterns in anti-immigrant mobilisation and failures in the government’s response.

The wave of xenophobic nationalism that has swept over South Africa in 2026 has resurfaced and inflected some longstanding issues in the education sector.

In Cape Town, immigrant parents of pupils in several schools were left dismayed in the last week of June after school authorities sent messages requesting valid immigration documentation.

On 24 June, a week before the expiry of the March and March deadline for undocumented migrants to leave the country, Excelsior High School in Belville sent a letter home with pupils of immigrant parents, asking them to “Kindly provide the school with an official study permit for your child or proof of application for study permit immediately”, and warning that “our school will be audited by the Department of Home Affairs to prevent any complications with regards to adhering to the Immigration’s (sic) Act as stipulated in the Government Gazette of 2014”.

Buren’s deputy principal, Shamini Govender, told Viewfinder that the communication had been issued “because a valid document is a requirement. Especially in matric exams, we have to check it, otherwise the student can’t write.”

She added that the process was in no way punitive, and that in cases where pupils had no documents “we assist them, by working with the relevant authorities to get them what they need in order to write”.

Excelsior High School did not respond to questions submitted by Viewfinder, but a teacher, requesting anonymity, said that the letter had followed a meeting of a group of school principals in June, at which the March and March deadline had been discussed.

“These are schools in areas where there are a lot of migrants, so it was felt that some action needed to be taken, in case [anti-immigrant] groups came [to the schools] like they did in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng. That is why a lot of schools issued letters at the same time, all saying the same thing,” the teacher said.

According to Zeenat Sujee, the head of the Education Rights Programme at SECTION27, communications from schools of this nature do not necessarily comply with the South African Schools Act.

“The Act very clearly states that a child must be allowed to attend school even if they don’t have documents. It also says that schools must not unfairly discriminate against learners in any way. Placing learners at risk of deportation is a failure to act in the best interests of the children.”

According to Sujee, the belief that matrics cannot write exams without identity documentation has a long history, and is not true.

“In 2019, the so-called Phakamisa judgment [Centre for Child Law v Minister of Basic Education] was handed down, which made it clear that a lack of identity documentation should not be a barrier to basic education.