THE LAST NEWS WORD
SECURITY, XENOPHOBIA AND THE RULE OF LAW On 11 April 2022, President Cyril Ramaphosa, in his weekly newsletter, addressed the concerns that have been widely debated around the actions and stances adopted by Operation Dudula, an unregistered community organisation seen to be a split-off grouping from the Put South Africans First movement. By Peter Bagshawe.
B
oth movements have an anti-immigrant stance, with Operation Dudula claiming to be driven by the burden placed on public health services, job opportunities and social grants due to the ‘influx of illegal immigrants’ to the disadvantage of South African citizens. Additional accusations of criminality within immigrant communities have been made by Operation Dudula leaders. Operation Dudula came to prominence after the July 2021 insurrection. Within President Ramaphosa’s newsletter, three extracts resonated and
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SECURITY FOCUS AFRICA APRIL 2022
these are quoted below. “Attacking those we suspect of wrongdoing merely because they are a foreign national is not an act of patriotism. It is immoral, racist, and criminal. In the end, it will lead to xenophobia, whose consequences we have lived through in previous years. “Even as we intensify our fight against crime, there is no justification for people taking the law into their own hands. “We are a democracy founded on the rule of law.” Xenophobia and violent attacks are not new to South Africa and the effects of
xenophobia are far reaching and tragic. Between May 2013 and June 2014 there were instances of xenophobia in Cape Town, Pretoria and Port Elizabeth, targeting principally Somali nationals that led to calls by the Somali Prime Minister for intervention and the protection of his nationals. In April 2015 there were waves of attacks against foreign nationals and their businesses that started in Durban and ran through Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng, with Alexandra particularly affected. Malawi announced it would repatriate its nationals, which was followed by other African countries. The
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