DURBAN – The March and March Movement, along with its supporters, has renewed calls for the mass deportation of undocumented foreign nationals in South Africa, leading a march through the Pinetown Central Business District in KwaZulu-Natal.
Scores of people marched from Edgewood Campus to Pinetown, echoing demands that government prioritise citizens in access to opportunities. The group handed a memorandum of demands to officials, insisting that authorities take immediate action.
The movement has faced accusations of intimidating foreign nationals out of their homes, with reports that some individuals sought shelter at the Diakonia Centre in Durban. However, a spokesperson for the March and March Movement strongly denied those claims.
“From my knowledge, there are no rogue elements calling for any type of violence or any type of vigilantism,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t support that. We are a very disciplined movement and our marches are our way of expressing ourselves. We don’t use violence. We don’t use any type of threatening where we go knocking on people’s doors or anything like that. Those accusations are completely false.”
The spokesperson acknowledged that violence had occurred, but said it was directed at movement members who broke internal rules. “It must be made absolutely clear that the violence was against members of the march who were not adhering to the discipline that we had put on them. They were looting or they were getting out of hand. So in order to bring them back into line, stronger measures were used, but it was never against a foreigner.”
The group also criticised the eThekwini municipality for what it called a slow response to criminal activity in certain buildings. “There is no council resolution from the council to say that this building must be closed down,” the spokesperson said. “We have made numerous raids in this particular building. We have made numerous arrests. But there is no leadership provided in terms of the council to say that this building must be closed. Not only here in the town of Pinetown — every town in South Africa has a hotspot whereby illegal immigrants are conducting criminal activity, and we are saying this cannot continue.”
Authorities have been given five days to respond to the group’s demands. The march comes ahead of the June 30 deadline ordering all illegal foreign nationals to leave the country.
