The March and March Movement says it has given the national government until the end of June to deal with the issue of undocumented immigrants in the country.
The Movement was part of the urgent meeting convened by the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security (JCPS) Ministers to discuss the rising protests on immigration and undocumented immigrants.
The movement’s convener in Gauteng, Sandile Dube, says undocumented foreign nationals are posing a lot of challenges to South Africa.
He says some are committing crimes such as dealing in drugs.
Dube says, “We are concerned perhaps from the Minister of Defence’s remarks that the 30th of June date that we have given to the foreign nationals to vacate the country and they take it as another shutdown that they have seen many. For us, it is like this is the government that doesn’t take South Africans seriously. South Africans are saying they have had enough with illegal foreign nationals and they want them removed from this country.”
March and March has also slammed claims that its demonstrations are supported only by one ethnic group.
Organisers say the movement has a national footprint, including in KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo, the Eastern Cape and Gauteng.
Speaking at a media briefing in Durban, the organisation’s Sanele Khambule says the movement would not have gained support in Limpopo and the Eastern Cape if it appealed only to a single ethnic group.
Khambule says, “ We wouldn’t be in Limpopo today, we wouldn’t have had a successful march in Johannesburg and Pretoria. We are doing our best to unite South Africans irrespective of race, irrespective of cultural beliefs, towards the notion of ending illegal immigrants and ensuring that our borders are not porous.”
VIDEO | March and March media briefing:
About the Author
