[The Blacks are violent. It's pretty nasty. Jan]

Durban’s Central Business District has descended into scenes of violence, intimidation and looting as an escalating anti-immigration protest movement has spilled beyond its original target and into the streets of the city centre.

What began as a confrontation outside the Home Affairs Refugee Reception Centre on Che Guevara Road has now developed into a much broader security crisis, with reports of foreign nationals being chased and assaulted, businesses being looted and authorities struggling to contain the disorder.

At the centre of the confrontation is **March and March**, an anti-illegal-immigration movement that has been protesting against the processing of asylum applications at the Durban refugee reception centre. Protesters want the government to take a much harder line against undocumented immigration and have demanded that the facility stop processing applications.

The immediate flashpoint is a recent Constitutional Court ruling concerning access to South Africa's asylum system. The ruling has effectively required authorities to allow people seeking asylum to access the application process rather than simply preventing them from entering the system because of their immigration status.

That decision has brought large numbers of asylum seekers to the Durban centre. Among those arriving have reportedly been people from Ethiopia, Somalia, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

For the protesters, the issue is about far more than the asylum system.

South Africa is facing extraordinarily high unemployment, severe pressure on housing and public services, and widespread frustration over crime and the informal economy. In Durban, as elsewhere in the country, some South Africans accuse undocumented migrants of operating businesses without the required licences, undercutting local traders and occupying economic opportunities that they believe should belong to South African citizens.

Those grievances are real political and economic issues.

But what began as political protest has now crossed a far more dangerous line.

Reports from Durban indicate that foreign nationals have been chased through the CBD, while businesses and street traders have been targeted. The situation around Dr Pixley kaSeme Street — formerly West Street — has become particularly volatile, with reports of looting and violence.

The **Bayside Hotel area** has reportedly become one of the flashpoints.

The United States Consulate in Durban has issued a security warning amid the unrest, advising its personnel to avoid affected areas. That is a significant indication of just how seriously the deteriorating security situation is being viewed.

The refugee reception centre itself has also been forced to shut amid the confrontation.

This is no longer simply a demonstration outside a government building.

It is a breakdown of public order.

And that distinction matters.

There is a legitimate debate to be had about South Africa's immigration system. There is a legitimate debate about illegal immigration, border control, asylum applications, undocumented businesses, unemployment and the strain placed on public services.

But once crowds begin chasing people through the streets because they are foreigners, looting their businesses or taking the law into their own hands, the nature of the situation changes completely.

The danger is that legitimate grievances become submerged beneath mob violence.

South Africa has seen this before.

The country has experienced repeated waves of anti-foreigner violence, particularly during periods of economic hardship and political frustration. Durban and KwaZulu-Natal have experienced some of the worst of these episodes.

Earlier this year, another wave of anti-migrant violence in the province resulted in deaths and the displacement of hundreds of people.

The pattern is therefore becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

A government fails to deal decisively with illegal immigration. Communities become increasingly frustrated. Political movements mobilise that anger. Authorities struggle to restore confidence in the immigration system. And eventually the pressure explodes onto the streets.

The consequences can be devastating.

Foreign nationals are not a single group. Some may be undocumented. Some may have legitimate asylum claims. Others may have lived in South Africa legally for years or even decades. Many work, trade and operate businesses within the country.

The law must distinguish between these categories.

It cannot be left to crowds in the street to decide who is entitled to remain in South Africa.

At the same time, dismissing the anger behind these protests as nothing more than xenophobia would also fail to address the underlying problem.

South Africans are entitled to ask why the country's borders are not being effectively controlled. They are entitled to ask whether immigration laws are being enforced. They are entitled to question whether businesses are operating legally and whether the asylum system is functioning properly.

And they are entitled to demand that their government address unemployment, crime and the enormous pressure being placed on communities.

Those questions do not disappear simply because some protesters behave violently.

But neither do legitimate grievances provide a licence for vigilantism.

The responsibility now falls squarely on the authorities.

Police need to restore order. Government needs to enforce immigration law consistently and transparently. Legitimate asylum seekers need to have their applications processed according to the law. Illegal immigration needs to be dealt with through the legal system. And anyone who assaults, loots, burns property or attacks people because of their nationality needs to face the consequences.

Anything less risks allowing Durban to slide further into a cycle in which frustration produces protest, protest produces confrontation, and confrontation eventually produces mob violence.

What is happening in Durban should therefore be watched very carefully.

It is not simply a story about one protest or one refugee centre.

It is a warning about what happens when a population loses confidence in the ability of the state to control its borders, enforce its laws and maintain public order.

And once people begin believing that the law no longer works, the most dangerous question is no longer who is right.

It is who will take the law into their own hands next.