So, after a long time of silence while the “abahambe” wave has been sweeping through the country consistently for three months, the self-proclaimed “leader of society” – the ANC – has finally spoken out on the issue.
But the message was more confusing than clear as the former liberation movement could not nail its colours to the mast because it has a double agenda on the subject matter.
“The NEC spent substantial time discussing and evaluating the question of the present mobilisation against unlawful migrant communities in our Republic. The NEC finds that the issues raised by the activist community are, in the main, genuine complaints and genuine demands,” said ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula this week.
“The NEC does not characterise most of these activities as xenophobic in their general character. The NEC understands the pressures on our economy and on our communities arising from unlawful immigration, and the NEC shares the concerns of the people of South Africa on these matters.”
Pleasing illegal immigrants
Instead of stopping right there, Mbalula had to somehow please the undocumented immigrants and their sympathisers within South Africa by making criminal innuendos against the leaders of the movement the ANC NEC has accepted as a “genuine” and “legitimate” call to send immigrants without papers packing.
“The conduct of vigilantism, hate speech and intimidation that the country has seen in some of its streets, at some of its clinic doors, at some of its school gates and at some of its factory floors over the past period is, in the proper legal characterisation, conduct that falls within the Prevention and Combating of Hate Crimes and Hate Speech Act, Act 16 of 2023.
“When we protest and when we mount pressure movements – which is our constitutional right and the standing tradition of our struggle – we urge our people to balance their actions with the discipline of legality.”
Anti-illegal foreigners movement criminalised
The obvious hidden undertone here is the attempt to seek to criminalise the leaders of the anti-illegal foreigners movement, such as Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma of March and March, her two associates, Ngizwe Mchunu and Nkosiikhona Ndabandaba.
This is exactly the problem with the ANC, which, because of its historical ties to the countries where some of the undocumented immigrants come from, feels indebted to condemn its own citizens.
A case in point is Mbalula acknowledging that it is reasonable for South Africans to feel hard done by the presence of millions of undocumented immigrants in their land, only to condemn the way they express their frustration in the same breath, going as far as insinuating criminality.
The same man and the same ANC NEC have not properly characterised the undocumented immigrants criminally because their being in South Africa without following the laws of the country is a crime.
Spitting in faces of South African citizens
However, it is easier to spit in the faces of bona fide South African citizens to nurse the fragile egos of those who are in the country without papers.
It makes sense for ANC leaders to speak with a forked tongue because they are not at the receiving end of the unhealthy competition for limited economic opportunities in the townships and rural areas where the majority of the population resides.
If anything, politicians are among those who benefit from unlawful immigration, which is a reservoir of cheap labour in sectors such as domestic workers and gardeners in the high wall and exclusive estates where they reside.
I would also behave in the way politicians are behaving if paying my undocumented immigrants’ domestic worker and gardener below the minimum wage was the benefit.
Obviously, the same would not fly when you employ a local who knows their rights and has the right of recourse to take an employer through our courts when robbed of their due wages according to the law.
Flimsy justifications
And then there is the nonsensical argument that South Africa cannot be chasing undocumented immigrants back to their countries because some of those countries hosted liberation fighters from the ANC during the anti-apartheid struggle years.
This is despite the obvious circumstances between these two scenarios because the majority of the illegal immigrants have run away from their countries, where there is democracy and no war, to say the least.
Let alone the criminal shenanigans some of them get up to here in South Africa, including human trafficking, drug dealing, and all sorts of massive crimes, for which they cannot be brought to justice because they are ghosts in the national database of people accounted for within the country.
‘We did it orderly’
Bheki Cele, an ANC NEC member, recently summed it up nicely when he expressed his opinion on the matter: “Some of these foreigners are full of it; one cannot come as far as Ethiopia, for instance, and jump all those countries to settle in South Africa. That cannot be correct.
“Some of them want to blackmail us by saying we were in exile in their countries, which is nonsensical. We did it orderly and were limited in exile camps. We never set up fruit and vegetable stalls in the streets of their countries.”
One cannot help by conclude that the ANC eventually spoke out on the issue because elections are getting closer and hoping the issue would evaporate quickly has proved a miscalculation, with now a set deadline of June 30 for all undocumented foreigners to go back to their home countries.
Moreover, politicians do not take kindly to socio-economic issues that dominate public discourse for extended periods of time without them “leading,” which is what has been happening in the past three months of patriots Ngobese-Zuma, Mchunu, and Ndabandaba leading from the front.
- The ANC has finally addressed the "abahambe" anti-illegal immigration protests after three months, but delivered a mixed message that both acknowledges citizens' concerns and condemns the protests as crossing legal boundaries.
- ANC Secretary-General Fikile Mbalula recognized genuine economic and social pressures caused by undocumented immigrants but warned against vigilantism, hate speech, and intimidation linked to the protests.
- The ANC’s stance attempts to criminalize protest leaders like Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma while avoiding labeling undocumented immigrants themselves as criminals despite their illegal status.
- The party’s failure to firmly tackle illegal immigration is seen as protecting political interests and cheap labor benefits, revealing a disconnect from the hardships faced by ordinary South Africans in affected communities.
- Political timing suggests the ANC spoke out now due to upcoming elections and ongoing public pressure, setting a June 30 deadline for undocumented foreigners to leave the country.
So, after a long time of silence while the "abahambe" wave has been sweeping through the country consistently for three months, the self-proclaimed “leader of society” – the ANC – has finally spoken out on the issue.
But the message was more confusing than clear as the former liberation movement could not nail its colours to the mast because it has a double agenda on the subject matter.
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Instead of stopping right there,
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"When we protest and when we mount pressure movements – which is our constitutional right and the standing tradition of our struggle – we urge our people to balance their actions with the discipline of legality."
A case in point is
However, it is easier to spit in the faces of bona fide
It makes sense for ANC leaders to speak with a forked tongue because they are not at the receiving end of the unhealthy competition for limited economic opportunities in the townships and rural areas where the majority of the population resides.
If anything, politicians are among those who benefit from unlawful immigration, which is a reservoir of cheap labour in sectors such as domestic workers and gardeners in the high wall and exclusive estates where they reside.
I would also behave in the way politicians are behaving if paying my undocumented immigrants’ domestic worker and gardener below the minimum wage was the benefit.
Obviously, the same would not fly when you employ a local who knows their rights and has the right of recourse to take an employer through our courts when robbed of their due wages according to the law.
Let alone the criminal shenanigans some of them get up to here in
Bheki Cele, an ANC NEC member, recently summed it up nicely when he expressed his opinion on the matter: "Some of these foreigners are full of it; one cannot come as far as
"Some of them want to blackmail us by saying we were in exile in their countries, which is nonsensical. We did it orderly and were limited in exile camps. We never set up fruit and vegetable stalls in the streets of their countries."
One cannot help by conclude that the ANC eventually spoke out on the issue because elections are getting closer and hoping the issue would evaporate quickly has proved a miscalculation, with now a set deadline of June 30 for all undocumented foreigners to go back to their home countries.
Moreover, politicians do not take kindly to socio-economic issues that dominate public discourse for extended periods of time without them "leading," which is what has been happening in the past three months of patriots
