South Africa Sends the Army Into Durban: What Went Wrong?

South Africa has put soldiers on the streets of Durban after days of anti-immigrant violence, less than four weeks before the country votes in local government elections. How did a court ruling about asylum paperwork end with the army in a city centre? Tunde Adeyemi and Ngozi Okafor go through what happened, what is confirmed, what is not, and what it means for the rest of Africa. IN THIS EPISODE The timeline, from the disruption at Durban's refugee office on 6 October to soldiers patrolling the city centre. What the Constitutional Court actually ruled on asylum claims, and the false claims that spread online afterwards. Why the Home Affairs directive was withdrawn, and who says they did not know about it. The open questions about the army deployment: who authorised it, how many troops, and for how long. Unemployment, the real number of foreign-born residents, and the polls before the 4 November local elections. What it means for Nigerians and other Africans living in South Africa. Edition date: Sunday 11 October 2026. The freshest reporting available at the time of recording was dated Saturday 10 October. Police had confirmed no deaths; one outlet reported that the unrest had claimed lives. Figures are as reported by the sources below and may have changed since. SOURCES News24, Daily Maverick, TimesLIVE, The Witness, SABC News, Sowetan, Mail & Guardian, IOL, France 24, EWN, The Punch, Rio Times, Statistics South Africa, South African Government News Agency. ABOUT THIS VIDEO The presenters and their voices are AI-generated. The music is generated. Photographs and video clips are dated file pictures from Wikimedia Commons, credited on screen and in the closing credits; none shows this week's events. Maps: Natural Earth. Subscribe to The New Watcher for more analysis from across Africa. #SouthAfrica #Durban #Xenophobia #AfricaNews #SANDF #AfricaInFocus