ActionSA has expressed dissatisfaction with President Cyril Ramaphosa’s recent address on illegal migration, stating that the speech failed to deliver concrete solutions or clear timelines for strengthening border management.
In a statement following the address, ActionSA spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni said the party had hoped for a more substantive response from the President. “We were hoping for much more punch,” Ngobeni said, adding that South Africans have become “accustomed to being placated” with considered statements that lack follow-through.
Ngobeni emphasized that the “proof will be in the pudding,” drawing parallels to previous presidential responses, including the Phala Phala matter raised over two years ago, which the party believes followed a similar pattern of limited actionable outcomes.
ActionSA outlined three specific expectations the party had for the presidential address:
First, the party wanted the President to genuinely acknowledge and validate the concerns felt by South Africans regarding migration, rather than addressing them in what Ngobeni described as a “glib passing comment.”
Second, ActionSA called for clear timelines. With public marches having set a deadline of 30 June for government action, the party expected the President to provide equally specific milestones for implementing migration reforms.
Third, and critically, ActionSA questioned how the Border Management Authority could effectively execute new measures while operating at only 25% capacity. Ngobeni noted that the authority remains “chronically underresourced,” and that efforts mentioned during the State of the Nation Address have yet to enable it to function at full capacity.
“Everything that he said to us this evening, all these measures that he’s talking about, will never actually come to pass because we have a border management authority that is really underresourced,” Ngobeni stated.
ActionSA maintains that without addressing these foundational gaps—public trust, actionable timelines, and institutional resourcing—new policy announcements on illegal migration risk repeating past cycles of unfulfilled commitments.
