Community join Operation Dudula march in Pietermaritzburg against undocumented foreigners
Operation Dudula members during a march
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Skhangiwe Mthiyane
1 September 2022, 15:19 [SAST]
Reading Time: 4minutes
Some community members, street vendors and members of Operation Dudula are marching through the streets of Pietermaritzburg calling for illegal foreigners to return home.
Operation Dudula’s Bheki Dzanibe says South Africans should receive priority in terms of entrepreneurial spaces to sell their goods.
Dzanibe is also appealing to law enforcement agencies to clamp down on illegal foreigners.
“We are here in Pietermaritzburg as Operation Dudula, we are removing foreigners on the street and we are demanding that law enforcement agencies must be part and parcel and enforce these foreign nationals to go back to their own countries because 90 percent of foreigners that are here in South Africa are illegal. We are saying the law enforcement agencies including immigration officers must do their own job.”
Operation Dudula demands for army deployment in crime-riddled areas
A movement under the Operation Dudula banner, Izimbokodo, marched to the Department of Defence in Pretoria in August. to demand for the deployment of the army in crime-ridden areas, especially in the west of Gauteng and where illegal mining is rife.
The women say they’ve had enough of social ills ravaging communities.
Operation Dudula members march to the Defence office calling for an end to GBV:
The Movement’s Zandile Dabula said the Defence Minister is their last hope. She said as women they will stand up because women are the most affected people in this country.
The movement’s Zandile Dabula said they’ve been asking the President since May to declare a State Of Emergency and now they have pinned their last hopes on the Defence Minister. She said as women they will stand up because women are the most affected people in South Africa.
Dabula said, “So we will take it upon ourselves to make sure there won’t be operations until the army is deployed. We’re going to block the roads, people will not be going to work and unfortunately, businesses will have to shut down on those days.”
The women said they are tired of living in constant fear.
One of the members of Imbokodo said she can’t walk in the streets alone at night and that she is even afraid to walk after 8pm because she does not feel safe.
“We were told that someone was killed daily and the most frustrating thing is that for us in Mohlakeng, we don’t have a police station. Our military goes out of the country to go and defend or to assist other countries when their communities are attacked the way we are attacked but because they are in a war, that’s why their soldiers are going out. So why can’t they protect us for the same crimes that they got out to protect those citizens in those countries they are supporting,” said a marcher.
Mass deportation of illegal foreigners
Their demands included the mass deportation of illegal foreigners and for the army to assist law enforcement officers to fight crime. They also highlighted the problem of Zama Zamas, the rape and murder of women, the high rate of kidnapping and human trafficking and the proliferation of drugs.
She added that they are going to speak to Minister Modise, from one woman to another, because they expect her to understand their plight as women.
“That’s why we are marching to her to say go speak to your boss up there and tell him people are suffering on the ground. They might not be affected but we people on the ground are affected. They must make a plan. I’ve heard that there is no budget for the armies but if they can have people for their monthly salaries how it is possible there’s no budget, if they are working in their offices then let them go around on the ground,” explained Dabula.
The memorandum was received by the Head of Communications Siphiwe Dlamini.
“Your behaviour was professional and very serious and we take this matter as seriously as we take it,” said Dlamini.
