Residents from across the East Rand gathered in Daveyton this week as part of the Greater Benoni Rolling Mass Action, demanding urgent government intervention on crime, unemployment, and the status of undocumented foreign nationals. The peaceful march concluded with organizers handing a memorandum of demands to Ekurhuleni municipal officials.
Community members stated their position on undocumented migration is unequivocal, arguing that the current situation is unsustainable and that immigration laws must be enforced. Residents expressed concerns about document fraud and population pressures. “We are requesting the government to help us remove everyone in the country,” a participant stated. “They may come back after they fixed all their papers… we no longer trust anyone because even those docs say they are documented, when you check… you find out there are also some papers that are fraudulent.”
Organizers highlighted that communities face limited resources amid growing demand for services. They raised specific concerns about certain human settlements where, they claim, approximately 90% of residents are foreign nationals, with South Africans comprising a small minority. According to march organizers, these demographic patterns correlate with heightened crime challenges in those areas.
A prominent figure in the march emphasized that participants seek constructive engagement with leadership rather than confrontation. “We love our government. We love our president. We love our premiers. We love everybody who’s in leadership,” the spokesperson said. “We are just sensitizing them to say we have a problem in South Africa, the problems that they know. We are just giving them courage to fix those problems.”
The spokesperson cited community-led efforts to draw official attention to local issues, including identifying buildings allegedly used for drug trade or locations where vulnerable children are found. “We go there, we find three-month-olds to toddlers… those are the evidence that we are saying to the president: address the issue,” the spokesperson stated, urging government to take community concerns seriously.
The spokesperson clarified the marchers’ core request regarding migration: “The main aim or purpose of this is to ask our brothers and sisters to go back home and come back fixing their paperwork. That’s all we want.”
Organizers confirmed that the Daveyton march forms part of broader mobilization efforts, with a major demonstration scheduled for June 30. They reiterated their commitment to raising concerns exclusively through peaceful and lawful action.
