Johannesburg - Civic organisations who marched to the head of the country at the Union Buildings in Pretoria yesterday have demanded the mass deportation of all illegal immigrants to allow South African citizens to be put first.
Scores of residents, under the banner of various civic organisations from across the country, and political parties marched through the Pretoria CBD, saying they were tired of constantly sitting back and watching illegal foreigners destroy the country's infrastructure, siphon resources and flood communities with drugs.
David Ratladi, President of the Inwoners Baagi Civic Organisation, said the different civic movements, non-government organisations and forums had gathered to demand the intervention of the president and law enforcement in dealing with the severe problem of illegal immigrants.
Ratladi said that as it stood, the country battled with “unacceptably” high levels of unemployment due to the high influx of undocumented foreigners who were taking all of the available opportunities.
He said, "Factories like Nissan, restaurants, informal shops and traders on the streets are predominately foreign nationals, and this is unacceptable. For every street in our CBD, there are foreign nationals, and some of them are even in our taxi ranks selling things, and it's against the law.
"We said we don't even want political parties talking because collectively they have all failed us as citizens. We don't want to be xenophobic, but we are saying those who are undocumented must go back and fight for their rights in their own country."
Ratladi said the group would not only be demanding intervention from President Cyril Ramaphosa but would also be heading to all the embassies to plead with them to intervene before the situation spirals out of control.
Kgothatso Moloto, President of Voice It In Action and a member of the steering committee, said the march was a culmination of all the efforts by various entities that had for a long time demanded that the issue of illegal immigrants be heeded by the government and law enforcement agencies.
He said that as individuals, the groups realised that not much change or action was forthcoming from the relevant authorities and thought perhaps uniting through various groups would yield better results.
"Being labelled names while you are trying to do something for future generations is fine as at the end of the day we need to be accountable about the state of our country," said Rendani Ramashia, Chairperson of the Tshwane Bahlali Dudula, in response to concerns about the organisations being labelled as xenophobic.
The organisations called on South Africans to join in the call for the mass deportation of illegal foreigners and to boycott shops and businesses belonging to them in a bid to turn around the sad state of affairs being witnessed by all communities.
Should their pleas be ignored, the organisations vowed to amplify their call across all the provinces to ensure that the government implements immigration laws without further delay.
The Star