Immigrants are being driven into the mountains in more and more cities in Africa's richest country

Four days ago, Lado Amido, a Mozambican immigrant, heard knocking on the door of his home in the South African town of Kleinmond. Outside, an angry mob told him that foreigners like him had to go. Members of the group went door to door and delivered the same message, Reuters reports.

Amido ran away and spent two nights in the mountains. He is now housed in the local town hall, like other Malawian and Mozambican immigrants in South Africa's Western Cape province, forced into hiding by anti-immigrant groups. Incidents of this kind have occurred in several coastal cities.

South Africa has faced a wave of anti-immigrant protests in recent weeks, which have sometimes turned violent. Mozambique announced that five of its citizens were killed over the weekend in xenophobic attacks in the town of Mossel Bay.

Amido lives in Kleinmond, about 300 kilometers away.

“On the 31st, people came to my house, knocked on the door and then took all my belongings,” the 49-year-old man told Reuters. He has been in South Africa since February, looking for a job.

In Kleinmond's town hall, he is with about 100 other immigrants, some of whom hope to join voluntary repatriation programs organized by their governments.

Immigrants blamed for South Africa's economic problems

With a nominal GDP of nearly $480 billion, South Africa has the largest economy on the continent.

But long-standing economic inequalities dating back to the Apartheid era persist. The Gini coefficient, which measures the disproportion in the distribution of income and wealth, shows that the country has the highest inequalities in all of Africa.

And xenophobic attacks have become a recurring problem in South Africa, where immigrants are often blamed for economic woes such as high unemployment and crime.

Despite the lack of any evidence to support this claim, politicians from almost all parties have tended to give it credence in an attempt to win populist votes ahead of local elections, such as those due to be held at the end of the year.

“As we work to build a safer and more prosperous society, we must address the challenge of migration,” South African President Cyril Ramaphosa told parliament on Tuesday, but he condemned recent acts of xenophobic violence.

Grant Cohen, Kleinmond's local district councilman, said immigration authorities have visited the city in recent weeks to check restaurants and other businesses for undocumented workers.

He pointed out in comments made to Reuters that many of the immigrants sheltered in the city hall are in the country legally.

“We have children here who should be in school, who were in school in Kleinmond … but now they want to flee the country because of fear and intimidation,” says Cohen.

“I don't think residents should have to do justice for themselves,” he added.

Immigrants, chased away with knives and clubs

Michael Markson, a 31-year-old man from Malawi, said he spent a night sleeping in the mountains after fleeing the informal settlement where he had lived for about a year on Saturday.

“My landlord came and told me I have to evacuate the place because if they find us, they will kill us,” he said.

The next day, one of his friends called his boss, who brought them food while they hid in the woods.

Markson said he was close enough to see a large crowd of protesters in the city, some of them carrying knives and clubs.

Now he is waiting for help to return home, a journey he cannot afford.

“There is not a good economy in our country … but it is still better than living in a community where your life is threatened,” the man told Reuters.