Foreign nationals living in fear

SOUTH AFRICA - Cape Town - 14 May 2022 - Operation Dudula saw hundreds of protesters march from Keizersgracht, past Parliament and to Cape Town Central Police Station - Picture - Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)

SOUTH AFRICA - Cape Town - 14 May 2022 - Operation Dudula saw hundreds of protesters march from Keizersgracht, past Parliament and to Cape Town Central Police Station - Picture - Tracey Adams/African News Agency (ANA)

Published May 29, 2022

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Durban - FOREIGN nationals in Durban are living in fear as they continue to come under attack by local groups accusing them of being in the country illegally and stealing their jobs.

Eric Jean Madel, secretary-general for the Africa Refugee Social Co-operation in Durban, said there was nothing to celebrate about Africa Day which was commemorated on Wednesday.

Madel believed that the coordinated attacks on foreigners from neighbouring African countries, was being sanctioned by those in power.

He raised his concerns about Operation Dudula and the manner in which it carried out its agenda against foreigners.

“South Africa has a large number of law enforcement officers. So to give a group of people the possibility and the right to do what they want is indicative that there are people within the government who support them.

We are under the impression that the South African government is under pressure from its population to chase away refugees and migrants in general. What they are trying to do is to chase away foreigners systematically. They are ashamed to say so because of the international protocols,” said Madel.

He added that more documented immigrants lived in South Africa than illegal immigrants and, that the ideal situation would be for the country to respect the accords and the protocols that are found under the immigration laws, or to alternatively hand over the refugee situation to the United Nations Higher Commissioner for Refugees.

For Omesphoro Minani, 40, a documented foreigner residing in Durban, life has not been easy. Minani, who originally hails from Burundi, arrived in the country at the age of 18, along with his nephew during the ethnic wars that broke out in their country. His parents and some members of his family died after taking refuge in the Republic of Congo.

He moved to South Africa after DRC was invaded by Rwanda. He said organisations such as Operation Dudula has had a negative impact on him. Minani said the locals were convinced that foreign nationals were here to commit crime and limit job opportunities.

“I was self-employed and made my own money and owned a salon in Durban Central Business District and in Umlazi but ever since these organisations came about, xenophobic attacks began and we were chased away,” he said. “We are constantly living in fear because of our nationalities.

Even on the bus, you cannot raise your voice or disagree with anything and you cannot even speak your home language because once they hear you, they will attack you,” added Minani. The married father of three said that he wished stability would prevail and the South African government would listen to their pleas. He said many foreigners were fearful and the spread of Operation Dudula had not helped them.

Operation Dudula, is reputed to be a non-political civil movement that was founded by members of the Soweto community as a tool to rectify the social and economic ills in the country. They had attributed this to the presence of foreign nationals. It was founded in July 2021, following the civil unrest. The organisation was led by Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini and has since taken its campaign from Gauteng to other provinces across the country.

Prior to the nationwide launch, groups without portfolios that shared similar ideals were identified by the national leadership of Operation Dudula and assigned to lead in their respective provinces, therefore giving rise to the organisation and its membership.

It was officially launched in KwaZulu-Natal last month. Ntombi Madlala, the Provincial Secretary of Operation Dudula, said their organisation was started by community members who were dissatisfied with the state of the country – particularly destruction to infrastructure, drug dealing and consumption, human trafficking, taking over buildings illegally and all other forms of crime.

Madlala acknowledged that although it was not only foreign nationals who committed such crimes, the influx of foreigners through the borders, that were poorly regulated, also gave rise to the spate of crime and unemployment. Madlala said the organisation’s core objective was to remind the government of the immigration laws and how the current state of the country did not subscribe to them in their entirety.

Madlala maintained that Operation Dudula operated within the ambit of the law. “We have a firm programme of action. We approach firms that have been identified as hiring illegal foreigners and serve them with documents and allocate a certain number of days to act.

In these documents we quote sections of the Immigration Act and align what we have identified and the responses to the Act. We do not use physical force and we inform law enforcement and all the relevant stakeholders prior to undertaking any operations and, if they are available we go along with them so that they serve as witnesses and provide protection,” she added.

Madlala said illegal foreigners gave rise to unemployment and that locals who hired them do so as a mechanism to cut costs. “We are trying to assist the government and law enforcers so that South Africa goes back to its original state.

It is a fact that they contribute to unemployment and we are saying so because the employers use foreign nationals because they are cheap labour, while South Africans know their rights and what they want to achieve. So these are some of the issues we want to confront,” she said.

Madlala refuted the allegations of xenophobic attacks by the organisation, further saying that Operation Dudula was not a threat to people that were in the country legally. “We are not a vigilante group,” she said.

SUNDAY TRIBUNE

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