Archbishop William Malebo and the All Bishops Council held a media briefing in Pretoria to address ongoing protests against undocumented migration [1].
The statement comes as South Africa faces rising immigration tensions and social unrest. By framing the issue as a regional failure rather than a localized crisis, the church leadership seeks to shift the focus toward collective African border management.
Malebo said that border management has become a regional problem that is now spilling into South Africa [1]. He said that the current challenges regarding undocumented migration are not isolated to one nation but are the result of broader systemic failures across the continent.
The briefing aimed to provide a religious perspective on the tensions currently affecting the country. The All Bishops Council said that the instability caused by unchecked migration requires a coordinated response from multiple governments, not just the South African administration [1].
While the council did not propose specific legislative changes, the briefing served as a call for regional cooperation to stabilize borders. The council said that the ongoing protests are a symptom of these larger, unaddressed migration patterns [1].
“Border management has become a regional problem spilling into South Africa.”
The All Bishops Council is positioning itself as a moral mediator in the xenophobia and migration debates. By defining undocumented migration as a regional failure, the church is attempting to discourage localized violence and pressure the African Union and neighboring states to share the burden of border security and migrant processing.
