AS THOUSANDS of foreign nationals scramble to flee South Africa ahead of the June 30, self-deportation deadline, anti-illegal immigration group March and March has vowed to intensify their protests if the deadline is not met.
In an interview with the POST this week, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma said that while it was “obvious that not all illegal immigrants would be out of the country by June 30,” the deadline was provided to encourage self-deportation and fast-track government action.
“Clearly, this process is daunting. But the main point is that by June 30, they (illegal immigrants) must be gone. It is sad that thousands of people have to resort to living outside until this issue is resolved. But what is even sadder is that they were working here, exploited for cheap labour, and now that they need to go home, they cannot afford to.
“Where are the capitalists who exposed them for cheap labour? They need to come out now and fork out money for the illegal immigrants to go home since they were the ones exploiting them,” she said,
“We have exposed how rampant and rife the issue is. Our protests are aimed at getting the government to take responsibility for not protecting our borders and not safeguarding our people. The government cannot blame anyone but themselves for the issue of illegal immigration and the current situation which we are faced with,” she added.
Despite there being reports of foreigners being killed and attacked during protests which turned violent, Ngobese-Zuma said March and March had planned non-violent protests to shine the spotlight on illegal immigration and how it affects the country.
She said the protests were not related to xenophobia, but rather encouraged South Africans to exercise their right to protest to get the government to respond to their failures in addressing illegal immigrants.
“There have been no attacks from our organisation. The word xenophobia is overused. People are misdiagnosing the situation. We are marching. What is xenophobic about marching on the streets as a country. It is our right. We are highlighting the laws of our country and are calling for the government to uphold those laws. If we were causing havoc, surely we would be in prison. The violence could be from people on the side, who want to do their own things.
“We do not want any violence. We are still in the planning stages for the marches on June 30, and we are shocked that the government has labelled it as a shutdown. The deadline date was for illegal immigrants to self deport, and not a threat to shut down the country on the day,” she added.
What to expect on June 30
Ngobese-Zuma said she urged South Africans to not deviate from the purpose of the day or cause violence and chaos.
“We want illegal immigrants to go back home safe and alive so they can hold their governments accountable for their failures. We want to work together as good neighbours and do things together to uplift our countries.
“Our message on June 30 is for them to go home and fix their country. They cannot be running to South Africa as a solution.
“Every country must develop. We are becoming known as a continent where people run away from and risk their lives to get to European countries. European countries are tired of us.
“As Africans we need to take accountability for our own African problems. There is a bigger picture that people are not seeing. We are more than willing to work with the illegal immigrants and echo their concerns and sentiments through our organisation and our social media, and together we can hold each other’s governments responsible for their failures.
“But we cannot do that when they are seeing us as enemies. Their governments are their enemies because they have been failing to give them jobs so that they could stay in their country,” she added.
To avoid June 30 turning violent, Ngobese-Zuma said March and March were engaging with police to enhance visibility and police presence.
“There is no country that can ignore what their own people are saying and prioritise others over their own people. We wish the government could fast-track solving the problem and give us a solid plan.
“But they cannot say they have a plan and then do window dressing exercises. This is a serious problem. The problem is that we do not have a government that knows how to treat a crisis as a crisis.
“They are treating this as an ordinary situation when the volume of illegal immigrants surfacing after our protests have proven that this is a humanitarian crisis.
“They did not come here because South Africa is cruel and hateful. They came here to seek refuge from the circumstances in their countries. But now we have seen that foreign nationals are committing all kinds of crimes, and they are crossing our borders illegally.
“We are tired of lawlessness. We want to leave something for our kids. If everyone wants a piece of South Africa and we allow it to be a ruined country, our kids will have nothing left to live for here,” Ngobese-Zuma added.
