South Africa’s migrant exodus leaves employers short-handed

A Malawian farmworker stands in a citrus orchard on a farm close to the town of Robertson, in the Western Cape Province, on July 9, 2026. RODGER BOSCH / AFP Zimbabwean farmworker Aaron Majatamhe was heading home at sunset after a shift in one of South Africa’s top fruit-producing regions, where bushes laden with bright unpicked citrus stood in rows. “I see a lot of farm owners who are crying now… people have to harvest those naartjies, but there is no one,” the 33-year-old told AFP.

The same shortage, he said, is looming in the vineyards. “It’s time to cut off the grapes, and there is no one.” Similar scenes are playing out across South Africa as factories, farms and even ordinary households scramble for labour after thousands of foreign workers left in a matter of weeks to escape deadly anti-migrant protests and intensified immigration enforcement. Fringe anti-foreigner groups had set June 30 as an unofficial deadline forundocumented migrantsto go home, triggering the exodus of more than 160 000 people, according to an AFP tally based on figures from African governments repatriating their citizens.

Zimbabwe, which accounted for the largest share of those returning, said many had worked in South Africa’s farming, domestic work and construction sectors. The first cracks were felt almost immediately in KwaZulu-Natal’s sugar belt. One farmer on the north coast said he lost up to 80 per cent of his cane-cutting workforce virtually overnight.

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“Production and supply have deteriorated to the point where it is going to be difficult for the mills to stay open,” he said, speaking anonymously because he feared retaliation. Another grower near Mid-Illovo, a region of rolling hills south of Durban, said most cane cutters in his area came from Lesotho, the tiny kingdom encircled by South Africa. “There are fields we are supposed to be cutting, but there are just not enough people. Local people don’t like this job because it is back‑breaking and physical,” he said.

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