Nkosi Ndlovu, a 48-year-old pastor participating in the protest, accused immigrants of driving local drug problems. "We have been talking nicely.
Tomorrow, we're not going to talk. We take action," he said.
Another demonstrator, 40-year-old Mfundo Zulu, argued that foreign workers suppress wages and reduce job availability for local youth.
"Life will be better now," her friend added. "We don't hate them, but they overstayed."
Mukandjwa Shomri of the Southern Africa Refugee Organisations Forum criticized the government for failing to hold perpetrators of xenophobic violence accountable.
"The hope many of us had as refugees when we came to this country – that South Africa is upholding human rights, a country affirmed internationally as a democratic state – is no longer there," he said.
Leon, an asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who went into hiding after his shop was vandalized, expressed terror regarding the post-deadline environment.
"Even the police are telling us openly that we are tired of you, you must leave our country," he said from a safe house.
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He noted that open harassment has escalated severely, leaving many refugees feeling completely unsafe. "Now, we're just living like somebody who is already dead," Leon said.
