By Charmaine Ndlela
Acting Police Minister Firoz Cachalia says law enforcement agencies are fully prepared to respond to planned demonstrations linked to the 30 June anti-immigration campaign, as authorities move to prevent violence and maintain stability across the country.
Anti-illegal immigration groups including March and March and Operation Dudula have set that date as a “deadline” for undocumented foreign nationals to leave South Africa.
Cachalia received an operational readiness briefing from senior police management at the Tshwane Academy College in Pretoria over the weekend.
“While the constitutional right to peaceful protest will be respected, no acts of lawlessness, violence, intimidation or criminality will be tolerated,” he said on Monday during a press briefing.
The Tshwane briefing, led by Acting National Police Commissioner Lieutenant General Puleng Dimpane, included presentations from provincial commissioners, intelligence officials and operational commanders on plans to manage the demonstrations expected across several provinces.
“I am satisfied that the police are ready to deploy across the country. That deployment will be initiated this week in a phased way across the country,” Cachalia said.
He said he and Deputy Ministers of Police Dr Polly Boshielo and Cassel Mathale would visit provinces assessed as high-risk based on intelligence and operational assessments.
“Tomorrow I will be in the Western Cape, later in the week I expect to be in Gauteng and then KwaZulu-Natal,” he said.
The visits will include engagements with provincial premiers, metro police departments, Community Policing Forums and private security companies as government seeks to strengthen coordination ahead of the demonstrations.
On Monday, Cachalia met with Defence Minister Angie Motshekga to discuss plans in place ahead of the demonstrations. At the briefing held after that meeting, he said he and Motshekga were “satisfied that the necessary coordination mechanisms across the JCPS Cluster are in place to respond swiftly and effectively to any eventuality”.
Cachalia said SAPS remains the lead law enforcement agency responsible for maintaining public order, but should “the operational environment require additional capacity, SAPS may request the support of the South African National Defence Force to augment existing policing capacity and ensure that sufficient operational resources are available”.
Cachalia is this week scheduled to meet with the premiers from all nine provinces to reinforce cooperation among security structures.
The heightened security measures come as anti-immigration mobilisation gains momentum across parts of the country, with marches taking place also daily in the lead up to 30 June.
In Durban, thousands of Malawian nationals have gathered in the Sherwood Hall area, many having fled from nearby informal settlements after being threatened by locals, seeking a safe return to their home country.
The numbers have swollen to such an extent that women at the site on Sunday started being bussed to a second site at the old Durban Drive-in, in the CBD, where they are being processed for repatriation.
In a post on X, March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma said that she was spending “every day” urging South Africans not to resort to violence, property destruction or looting during the ongoing protests, and particularly on 30 June.
March and March groups have been leading protests around the country where foreigners have been injured, intimidated or threatened.
On Friday, a Malawian national was killed after a large anti-illegal immigrant protest in Pietermaritzburg.
Cachalia said weekly enforcement operations targeting undocumented foreign nationals would continue as authorities verify immigration status and compliance with the law.
“These operations are aimed at ensuring that all foreign nationals residing in South Africa are in the country legally and are in possession of valid documentation. Where violations of the law are identified, appropriate action will be taken in accordance with the law,” he said.
Provincial commissioners have been instructed to respond swiftly to any incidents of incitement, violence, intimidation or criminality linked to the planned demonstrations.
“We will enforce the law without fear or favour,” Cachalia said.
INSIDE POLITICS
