Activists criticise March and March’s Durban anti-immigration protests - TimesLIVE

Activists have criticised March and March protests, saying unemployment, poverty and poor service delivery cannot be blamed on migrants.

About 300 March and March protesters gathered for another “clean-up” demonstration against migrants outside the home affairs refugee reception offices on Che Guevara Road in Durban on Thursday.

The protest came a week after a tense confrontation between protesters and refugees living outside the offices, during which police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

At least three people were injured and one person was arrested in the September 3 confrontation.

March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma said her organisation would continue protesting against refugees living on the pavement.

She called on police at Thursday’s protest to enforce the law and remove the people living on the pavement.

“South Africa has laws and those laws include that people are not allowed to sleep on pavements or create homes on pavements,” she said.

Ngobese-Zuma referred to the 2012 Marikana massacre while addressing police and protesters.

“Did you see what your government did to Marikana? It can also do that to you, and turn and say you must vote for them. The government is not afraid of South African people,” she said.

Her comments came amid continued tension between March and March protesters and refugees who have been living outside the Home Affairs offices after fleeing their homes.

Speaking to TimesLIVE at the demonstration, peace activist Ela Gandhi said the country’s economic problems needed to be addressed by fixing the economy and improving solidarity among South Africans rather than targeting migrants.

“South Africa has a lot of problems in terms of unemployment, poverty and so on, but what they are [doing] is not the way to solve the problem. It’s the economy that we have to put right,” she said.

Gandhi said she was particularly concerned about refugees who had been forced from their homes and were now living on the pavement.

“It’s absolutely terrible that they chased these people out of their homes and now they are saying that they are living on the pavement,” she said.

She said the reason for that was because protesters chased them from their homes.

She criticised violence during protests, saying stones had been thrown at people attending the gathering and that one of her colleagues had been injured.

“I would say that it would be very sad if people voted for people who instigate violence the way they did,” Gandhi said.

KwaZulu-Natal leader of the civil society organisation Siyafana Sonke, Yeshlen Govender, said some of the issues raised by protesters, including unemployment, corruption and poor service delivery, were not caused by foreign nationals.

“If they’re in the country legally, then they have every right except the right to vote. That is what people need to understand,” Govender said.

He said the government needed to take responsibility for delays in processing refugee applications.

“Our own home affairs department must take responsibility for why people are waiting to get refugee applications approved after 16 years,” he said.

Govender said long delays could result in migrants spending years in South Africa and building lives in the country while waiting for their applications to be processed.

“You wait in the country for 16 years without an application being approved. People start lives,” he said.

He said the focus should instead be on improving governance and creating jobs.

“If you’re looking at the issues that a lot of the protesters raise —service delivery, corruption, unemployment — they are not caused by foreign nationals,” Govender said.

March and March has described the pavement camp as an eyesore and health hazard and has called for the refugees to be removed.

Meanwhile, Gandhi said authorities needed to urgently find safe temporary accommodation for the refugees and prevent further clashes.

She said continued unrest could hurt Durban’s tourism industry.

“The economy will get worse if we tolerate this kind of unruly behaviour.”

Gandhi said protests could be held without violence.

“We also march, but peacefully. We never carry weapons, we never throw stones,” she said.