By Lebone Rodah Mosima
KwaZulu-Natal is still assessing the economic cost of the June 30 national marches, Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli said on Thursday, after protests over undocumented migration were followed in some areas by looting, business closures and attacks on foreign-owned shops.
“The assessment is being done, and we will issue a statement in respect of this,” Ntuli said when asked about the financial impact of the protests.
While the provincial government has not yet put a figure to the losses, Road Freight Association CEO Gavin Kelly said the logistics sector had already absorbed significant costs linked to the day’s disruption.
“Perhaps, if you add the full cost of all the extra security, extra shifts, extended warehousing and control, delayed trips (especially from ports or across borders), paid days for employees told to stay at home (just in case) – the sector may have incurred a hundred million rand, or so,” Kelly said.
Ntuli said most marches in KwaZulu-Natal were peaceful and orderly, but warned that the damage caused by criminal opportunists risked harming the province’s reputation and investor confidence.
“As is the case with any large public gathering, there were individuals who sought to exploit the moment — to hijack the peaceful character of these marches for criminal and destructive ends,” Ntuli said.
“We condemn this unreservedly. These individuals do not represent the will of those who marched in good faith, and they will face the full weight of the law. Criminal opportunism dressed as political protest will find no shelter in this province.”
The protests formed part of a national mobilisation against undocumented migration. In KwaZulu-Natal, Ntuli said the marches had tested the province’s security apparatus, leadership and democratic institutions.
“On Tuesday, 30 June, our democracy, our people, and our province were tested. They prevailed,” he said.
Ntuli said thousands of people had taken to the streets to express concerns about undocumented migration, but had done so “peacefully, lawfully, and with discipline”.
“What unfolded instead was a powerful demonstration of civic maturity,” he said.
“I commend our security services unreservedly. Their professionalism, restraint, and coordination were central to what was, in the main, an orderly day.”
Ntuli said the size of the marches also exposed deeper economic distress in the province, with many working-age adults able to attend demonstrations during normal working hours.
“The scale of their presence in the streets during normal working hours is not merely a logistical observation. It is a signal,” he said.
“It tells us something about the depth of unemployment and economic exclusion that exists in our communities. People who are employed, who are invested in routines of productivity and purpose, are not ordinarily available in such numbers on a Tuesday morning.”
He said the frustration behind the marches was not only about undocumented migration, but also about competition for scarce jobs and pressure on housing, schooling, healthcare and public safety.
“This government will not look away from that truth,” Ntuli said.
Ntuli announced that he would convene a Special Round Table on Local Economic Development as early as next week under the province’s Engangeni Ngesango Iyafohla programme, with a specific focus on spaza shops.
He said one of the sharpest grievances raised during the marches was the presence of undocumented foreign nationals allegedly operating unlawfully in townships and rural areas and competing with South African traders.
The roundtable will bring together the Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Ithala Development Finance Corporation, provincial chambers of commerce, business associations, municipalities and other stakeholders.
Ntuli said the province’s existing spaza shop support programmes, including formalisation, access to finance, business development services and supply chain integration, were not being created in response to the protests, but would now be implemented with greater urgency.
“The people who marched on Tuesday deserve more than a government that listens during a crisis and then returns to business as usual when the streets go quiet,” he said.
“They deserve to see, within days and weeks — not months and years — that their government is capable of translating their frustration into economic opportunity.”
Ntuli said the province would also intensify workplace and business inspections to identify employers who hire undocumented foreign nationals in breach of South African law.
“Employers who deliberately disregard our immigration regulations are not innocent bystanders to the tensions communities are raising,” he said.
“They are contributors to those tensions. Government will find them. Government will act against them.”
Ntuli said all incidents of criminality linked to the marches would be investigated with law enforcement partners at provincial and national level, and those responsible would face consequences “without delay and without exception”.
He said the province would also implement, track and publicly report on commitments made at the KwaZulu-Natal Summit on Undocumented Migration held on 25 June.
“Those resolutions were not ceremonial. They carry the weight of government’s word, and they will be implemented, tracked, and publicly reported on. Accountability is not optional in this administration,” Ntuli said.
Ntuli said KwaZulu-Natal would continue to engage communities, traditional leaders, civil society and national government because durable solutions to undocumented migration and economic exclusion could not come from a single march or summit.
“KwaZulu-Natal does not govern in response to trends. We do not make policy from the streets or from social media timelines,” he said.
“We govern from conviction — rooted in our Constitution, grounded in the rule of law, and accountable to every person who calls this province home, regardless of where they come from.”
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