For years, South Africa has watched the same warning signs appear – immigrants attacked, their businesses targeted, communities divided, and misinformation and fear used as tools for political mobilisation. It exposed a dangerous reality - how private actors were able to assume powers that should be reserved for the state. Not because South Africa lacks the law to stop xenophobic violence, but because the officials sworn to enforce that law have stood aside while private citizens enforce their wishes. This is happening despite explicit, repeated statements from the Presidency and the acting police minister that immigration enforcement is exclusively a function of the state. South Africa also has obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights.