By Sihle Mavuso
March and March Movement leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has called on members of the anti-illegal immigration movement to take leave on October 15, as the group prepares to open a new front in its campaign against illegal immigration.
Ngobese-Zuma issued the call on Thursday after a protest march during which members of the movement briefly clashed with foreign nationals camping outside the Home Affairs Refugee Reception Centre on Moore Road in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal.
Although she did not specify what action would be taken on October 15, Ngobese-Zuma said the movement was changing its approach after becoming frustrated with what it described as the government’s failure to act on memorandums of demands handed over during previous protests.
She also linked the planned action to the November 4 Local Government Elections, saying the movement wanted political parties to set out their plans on illegal immigration and local economic opportunities.
“What I am begging you to do is that you must take leave. We will not go and vote while the foreign nationals are still here. So, on 15 October, we want the government to give us a clear answer. Since they say we must go and vote on November 4, we want to vote for people we want to know what they are going to do with foreign nationals,” said Ngobese-Zuma.
“We want by-laws that will stipulate that the local economy is for South Africans. We are tired of Pakistani, Bangladeshi men and others coming and all of a sudden owning shops.”
Asked to elaborate on what would happen on October 15, Ngobese-Zuma said the media would be briefed at a later stage.
“Be patient with us. We will call a press conference to brief you,” she said.
Meanwhile, eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba said foreign nationals camping in Durban, including Congolese, Tanzanians and Burundians, had agreed to be repatriated to the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng.
Xaba said the group had initially refused an offer to leave the area and return to the communities where they had lived before moving to Che Guevara Road, outside the Department of Home Affairs offices.
He said the relocation process would begin once Home Affairs conducts a second verification of the foreign nationals.
“I heard that they are accepting the second option; they are going to Lindela [Repatriation Centre]. I came here to speak to the leaders (about the matter),” Xaba said on the sidelines of the chaotic march, where he was booed by protesters.
However, the spokesperson for the group, Bishop Raphael Bahebwa, declined to confirm the arrangement when asked by Inside Politics.
“I don’t like that question, to ask that question, no,” he said.
INSIDE POLITICS
