As the late afternoon sun slipped behind the hills, the sound of the Adhan (Muslim) call to prayer rang out across the Sherwood Community Hall grounds in Lockley Road, Durban.
But the usual tranquillity of the suburban neighbourhood has been replaced by the grim reality of a swelling humanitarian tragedy.
More than 8 000 Malawian nationals have gathered at the Sherwood Hall grounds, desperate to return home after a wave of xenophobia plaguing South Africa. In the past two weeks, amid the outbreaks of violence, two Mozambicans were killed during protests in Mossel Bay.
The atmosphere on site is a tense mix of desperation, resilience and procedural chaos. Heavy police presence, immigration officials and Department of Home Affairs personnel are visible across the grounds, trying to manage a situation that is rapidly spiralling out of control.
Scattered across the field are countless families, mothers cradling babies and children huddled alongside large groups of young men. Bulging suitcases and black dustbin bags represent entire lives ready for the two-day journey home.
Despite the peaceful environment, the infrastructure has buckled. A heavy stench of urine hangs thick in the air.
When water tankers rolled onto the site, women broke into a run, buckets in hand, desperate to collect whatever water they could. As night approached, people could be seen bringing wood into the camp to start evening fires against the winter chill.
For the residents of Sherwood, the encampment has transformed their suburb overnight, drawing sharp criticism from their leadership.
Preggy Govender, an executive member of the Sherwood Residents Association and a ward committee member, said residents were angry about the impact on the neighbourhood.
"Residents are extremely upset," he said. "This is a very upmarket neighbourhood. It's been turned into a cattle-feed kind of thing. People are just walking around, urinating, messing the place, frustrating people with traffic. We feel all those who are trying to assist have failed this community,” he said.
Govender expressed frustration with the influx of various government and mayoral visits over the past seven days, accusing officials of "looking for complex answers to a very simple situation".
He said the camp had been growing exponentially since last Sunday when the first 70 people arrived.
"Every time you're processing an immigrant, you're getting three more immigrants coming in. There is no mathematical correlation. This is going to be an endless situation that's just going to continue and spiral out of control now.”
Govender called for immediate containment, urging the city to deploy its metro police force to cordon off the area and halt the influx of new arrivals while they attempt to process those on site.
He also raised a controversial point regarding the economic status of those seeking a way out of South Africa, suggesting that many are taking advantage of state-funded relocation.
"Do not, for a moment, think that these … people here are unemployed. These people are employed," Govender said. "These people were ready to go home a little while back. They had the money but the moment they heard of the opportunity that they could be expatriated at somebody else's cost, they're saving the money ... and making this a problem for us as residents, for the city, if not this country."
The community's sentiment has shifted dramatically as the situation scaled up.
Belinda Adams, the chairperson for the Sydenham Sherwood Sub Forum, said people had tried to be supportive at first but the growing numbers were causing distress.
"Initially, when it all started, everybody was quite compassionate but as the numbers are increasing, it's getting very scary. People are actually fed up and I'm worried about the escalation," she said.
Driving the frustration was the lack of infrastructure and the impact on the surrounding neighbourhood.
"Some people aren't able to enter or access their properties. There's fighting, urinating and defecating outside,” she said.
Ward 30 Councilor Warren Burne echoed the sanitation concerns, clarifying that while the local government had attempted to step in and a rental company and eThekwini Municipality had provided 36 toilets, the provisions were inadequate for the volume of people.
"Residents are very unhappy with the amount of loitering outside of the park,” he said.
Beyond the municipal and health crises, residents are fearful of potential violence, drawing parallels to the July 2021 unrest that devastated the city.
Ward 31 Councillor Remona Mackenzie said the community was on high alert, with some residents taking security into their own hands and cordoning off streets to limit access.
"The residents are concerned because they are fearful that this could also lead to looting. Residents are now wondering what is going to happen with the march on 30 June and are preparing to protect themselves,” she said.
While the community grapples with the immediate strain, government departments are working on the backlog to facilitate voluntary repatriation. KwaZulu-Natal’s Community Safety and Liaison head of department, Nokuthula Khanyile, said the process relied entirely on voluntary compliance.
"They all want to go home. They came here of their own free will because we are currently at the stage of voluntary perpetuation where they are coming forward requesting that they be moved back to their home country,” she said.
Khanyile said the cost and execution of the repatriation "is done by Malawi", while South African departments, including Home Affairs and the Premier's Office, were handling the verification, documentation and coordination of the migrants.
Khanyile said the government was organising the repatriation in conjunction with the Malawian government and civilian leaders on site.
“They are taking registers so that, at least by tomorrow, we will have an exact number of how many there are,” she said.
“We're hoping that tomorrow we will have a register to separate those who have been verified and those who still need to be verified. That will assist us in the movement of the buses that we are awaiting tomorrow (Tuesday).”
She said KZN Premier Thami Ntuli would visit the site on Tuesday to assess the situation.
“The main issue for him is to engage the national government because you'll appreciate that the issue of migration is a national competence, but it is affecting us as the province of KwaZulu-Natal.
However, logistical hurdles remain massive. Mackenzie said despite an estimated need for an average of 150 buses to manage repatriation of the influx of people, progress has been slow, with only seven or eight buses expected to arrive on Tuesday.
"It takes about an hour to load one bus, because the whole process is across several borders, so they need travel documents to travel to Zimbabwe and Mozambique to get to Malawi,” she said.
Burne urged authorities to treat the situation with urgency.
"We request all officials to push themselves, as if it were the Comrades marathon, to struggle to the finish to get the job processed as soon as possible and get the people relocated,” he said.
Yet, beneath the political and logistical battles lies the human cost of the fear of violence that drove these thousands from their homes. For many in the camp, the loss of their worldly possessions is a secondary concern to their survival.
A Malawian man, full of faith and speaking on condition of anonymity as he prepared for the long journey home, summed up the quiet fortitude of those trapped in the crisis: "We are okay. We are not sad because we have our life. They can take our money. They can take our things. We have faith in God. We will be okay.”
But the worried faces of many around him belied this confidence.