Ramaphosa sends 510 soldiers to KwaZulu-Natal as anti-immigration protests build before the 4 November vote

President Cyril Ramaphosa has authorised the deployment of 510 South African National Defence Force members to KwaZulu-Natal to support the police, with the soldiers on standby through the build-up to the 4 November local government elections.

The deployment runs from 9 October to 30 November 2026 and is budgeted at R34 082 720. The troops work under Operation Prosper, the joint security initiative that pairs the SANDF with the South African Police Service on serious crime and the stabilising of volatile areas.

The Presidency said the soldiers are there to help keep order in the province. “The members of the SANDF will assist the SAPS in maintaining law and order in KZN, especially in light of recent violent actions arising from a campaign of misinformation about the Constitutional Court judgment on the Refugee Act,” Presidency spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.

As the Mail & Guardian reported on 27 October, the deployment is a response to anti-immigration protests that followed the Constitutional Court’s judgment in Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town v Minister of Home Affairs, handed down on 7 July 2026. The court struck down key procedural barriers that had kept undocumented migrants out of the asylum system.

The judgment opened a fight that has run through the winter and into the election. Refugee reception offices were disrupted as applicants arrived in numbers the system was not built for, and Home Affairs then reversed course on policy. Justice and Constitutional Development Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi said the offices had been overwhelmed by applicants and described that as the “unintended consequences” of the court’s decision.

For South Africans in the province, the practical question is what the soldiers will be doing on the ground and for how long. The Presidency’s answer is that they are on standby to assist the police in responding to any eventuality, which places them behind the SAPS rather than in charge of the streets. The R34 million bill is public money committed for a deployment that ends on 30 November, four weeks after voters go to the polls.

The timing is the part residents will notice. Anti-immigration protests are expected to intensify as the country heads to the 4 November local government elections, and the province that carries the largest share of the country’s informal settlements and migrant labour is where the argument over enforcement is loudest.

The deployment does not settle the underlying dispute. The court found against procedural barriers in the asylum system. Home Affairs has since changed its position. The Presidency blames a campaign of misinformation about the judgment for the disorder. None of that answers the question South Africans are asking in the queues and outside the reception offices, which is who may stay, who may be removed, and what the state can actually enforce.

What is now on record is the number, the cost, the dates and the province. Five hundred and ten soldiers, R34 082 720, 9 October to 30 November, KwaZulu-Natal, with a national vote in the middle of it.