South Africa’s Anti-immigration movement launched in Durban

Hundreds of Operation Dudula members have marched through the streets of Durban demanding that the government take strong action to deal with high numbers of illegal immigrants.

The protesters sang and chanted anti-immigrant slogans, under the watchful eyes of the police. They then proceeded to Point Police station where they handed a memorandum with demands.

They called for government action to address the issue of undocumented immigrants, alleged to be involved in various criminal activities.

The rise in anti-immigrant sentiment once again in mostly low-income South African communities, also known as townships, has left immigrants and refugees fearing for their safety but Dabula wonders why.

For Dan Radebe, deputy chairperson of the movement, “Durban becomes a critical point of this movement because it houses the busiest harbour in the Southern African Development Community”.

She claims that is the very same harbour that is being used as the point of entry for all the fake goods that have flooded our country, killing the textile industry which then affects the unemployment rate.

Operation Dudula is a splinter group from a faction in the Put South Africans First movement, an organisation that first popularised and renewed anti-immigrant campaigns on social media before finding expression on the ground.

The new movement is led by 36-year-old Nhlanhla ‘Lux’ Dlamini, born Nhlanhla Paballo Mohlauli.