Image by Sarah Lötscher from Pixabay
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It was, er, coincidentally former US president Franklin D Roosevelt who famously admitted: “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.”
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I have a confession to make. I thought the 30th of June deadline was a once-off event.
It turns out that – I am sure, like most South Africans – I was wrong. We are going to have – who would have thought we would use this term again in the new South Africa – “rolling mass action” every Thursday. It was announced on the 30th of June by none other than Jacinta Ngobese Zuma, the leader of the March and March movement, that every Thursday for the next six months South Africans will take to the streets until all illegal immigrants are gone.
Brace yourself; the weekly marches are coming to a town near you. As one community leader stated live on national TV on the 30th of June: “This was just a warning shot. We will visit all of them one by one.”
The marches were largely peaceful. There were some fears that the nationwide marches would lead to violence, which inadvertently would lead to loss of life. That did not happen. Even the sporadic looting that was reported by the media, only happened in the evening after the official marchers had gone home. And, as such, it has been suggested that those were just opportunistic criminals who were exploiting the situation.
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Even those immigrants who showed their legal documents were taken by the police, because communities were insisting that everyone must be “verified”.
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Some community members – still on the 30th of June – started going to selected houses (one person called it a door-to-door campaign), looking for (or is it hunting down?) illegal immigrants, live on national TV. Even those immigrants who showed their legal documents were taken by the police, because communities were insisting that everyone must be “verified”. This, once again, highlights how much things have collapsed. It means, in simple terms, that there is suspicion that some legal immigrants have – through their own backdoor Home Affairs – created pseudo and fake visas and permits.
All in all, approximately 900 people were arrested for various offences, including contravention of the Immigration Act, harbouring immigrants, public violence, looting, business robbery, etc. The first take-away is, overall, we dodged the bullet. Or should I say we dodged a knobkerrie? But given that the government had ringfenced R600 million just for D-Day, the 30th of June, seemingly billions more will be needed, because the marches, as was announced, will now be a weekly affair.
There is something, in all this noise, that has been forgotten (maybe conveniently so): the use of private security companies to help the police. It shows – in fact, it is an admission by the state – that, on its own, it cannot deal with all eventualities in our country. We, as citizens, should be alarmed, but, eish, most of us are just “carrying on”.
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Am I the only one who has thought of the possibility that some of the contracted security officers might – horror of horrors – be illegal immigrants themselves? Imagine the irony and embarrassment.
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Is it just me who thinks about the potential legal implications of security personnel being used to beef up the police force? What training do these security officers get, especially when it comes to public order and crowd control? What happens if a security officer shoots and, even worse, kills a protester or protesters? (Just to stretch things a bit further: Am I the only one who has thought of the possibility that some of the contracted security officers might – horror of horrors – be illegal immigrants themselves? Imagine the irony and embarrassment.)
There were media reports that one security company was planning on deploying “about 35 000 personnel, seven helicopters and an undisclosed fleet of drones”. I would love to see that (extremely juicy, life-changing) invoice.
The question we, as South Africans, should be asking now is: How much of the ringfenced R600 million was spent on the 30th of June? I sincerely hope that one day we do not have to institute yet another oversight committee (or, even worse, a commission of enquiry) to investigate “alleged irregularities into monies spent during the anti-illegal immigration protests”.
The second take-away is that we should not be naïve and forget that during upheavals and emergencies, other people (let us call them thugs, because that is exactly what they are) see an opportunity to steal large amounts of money. (We have been here before: Was every cent duly accounted for from the COVID 19’s R500 billion relief package?)
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With all this planned weekly rolling mass action, there is one question that is getting louder and louder: Who is funding these “leaders” and organisations?
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With all this planned weekly rolling mass action, there is one question that is getting louder and louder: Who is funding these “leaders” and organisations? It is a fair question, especially if you consider the idiom, “Whoever pays the piper calls the tune.”
Some South Africans have been questioning the fact that in April of this year, as anti-illegal immigrant marches were gaining traction nationwide, Nkosikhona “Phakelumthakathi” Ndabandaba was gifted a brand-new double cab Ford Ranger – which retails at more than R700 000 – by an anonymous businessman. This is not a secret, because he himself posted it on social media as he was receiving the vehicle branded with his name.
Another question that is being asked is: Is it a coincidence that in the second half of 2023 (August to be exact), Jacinta was sponsored by the US embassy to attend the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) in Washington? The official name of the programme was Media Responsibility in an Age of Disinformation.
In March 2024, a handful of months after the programme, March and March was up and running. Again, the trip to America is not a secret, because Jacinta posted about it at the time and called it “life-changing”. It was, er, coincidentally former US president Franklin D Roosevelt who famously admitted: “In politics, nothing happens by accident. If it happens, you can bet it was planned that way.” But then again, March and March is not a political party.
And is it a mere coincidence that March and March’s treasurer, Sanele Khambule, was on the uMkhonto WeSizwe Party’s (MKP) election list in the 2024 general elections? He did not make it to Parliament because MKP’s 14,6% of the vote secured (only) 58 seats, and Sanele was number 100 on the list.
Be that as it may, the point that is raised by anti-illegal immigration movements is fair: Everyone who enters out country must do so legally. What we are dealing with here is the failure of government. Within this context, the South African government has failed to do the bare minimum. And this failure has been allowed to fester over decades.
Some South Africans, and rightfully so, are feeling strongly about – among other things – the lawlessness that illegal immigration brings into the country. In fact, truth be told, porous borders – especially in the medium to long term – threaten not only internal security, but also the sovereignty of our nation.
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What we are witnessing is a symptom and/or result of the failure of the state. Why must it take nongovernmental organisations to do work which was and is supposed to be done by government?
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What we are witnessing is a symptom and/or result of the failure of the state. Why must it take nongovernmental organisations to do work which was and is supposed to be done by government? Put differently, why is the government failing to govern? Is it pure incompetence, or is there more to it than that? One theory says that there is a political party that was planning on getting citizenship for millions of illegal immigrants, so that the party can be guaranteed votes again and again at the polls. It does not sound too farfetched.
On the 1st of July, a day after D-Day, I found myself in Johannesburg’s central business district. One thing really struck me: There were hardly any hawkers on the streets. Shops were open and pedestrians were walking up and down the streets, but there was no hustle and bustle often associated with downtown Jozi, especially around areas like Park Station and the Wanderers taxi rank. I left the city wondering if – indeed, as some have been saying for quite some time – a sizeable portion of hawkers in the big cities are immigrants (both legal and illegal).
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Do not be surprised if one day, poof, we have a massive anti-poverty movement and/or anti-inequality movement and/or anti-high unemployment movement.
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In conclusion, this is the final take-away: Let us, as a country, deal with our real systemic issues. For as long as the state fails to do its job, there will always be social pressures, which will then be used by certain individuals and/or organisations to exploit the millions who are already the victims of the current circumstances. Do not be surprised if one day, poof, we have a massive anti-poverty movement and/or anti-inequality movement and/or anti-high unemployment movement. Let the government effectively and efficiently govern, so that nobody – especially our enemies – will find cracks to manipulate and capitalise on. Until then, we will always be one movement away from facing possible anarchy.
See also:
(Illegal) immigrants, migration and immigration: What is next?
Conversations beyond the comfort zone | Etienne van Heerden Veldsoirée 2023
When the stick becomes a slogan: Zulu cultural weapons and the politics of theatre
Black African migrants are not the reason South Africa is broken