President of Operation Dudula Zandile Dabula photo by Dimakatso Modipa
Groups representing foreigners were invited to the expensive National Convention (an overture of the National Dialogue) while firebrand lobby group-cum-political party Operation Dudula was sidelined in this regard.
Operation Dudula president Zandile Zee Dabula expressed her grief to the media as follows:
“There has always been an ulterior motive against Operation Dudula in this National Convention because we were excluded from participating in this process and didn’t even get an invitation to participate, and when I looked at the agenda of the National Convention I got disappointed that the most burning issue in the country (illegal immigration) was not on the agenda.”
She said “you can’t have foreigners participating in resolving issues that affect South Africans because they (foreigners) have their own countries and they must go and participate in such dialogues in their own countries.”
Dabula emphasised that the National Dialogue is not a continental or global dialogue but a South African dialogue.
“I am very disappointed, I foresee chaos, this whole process is chaotic and now one sees that there are some people who have been selected as members of the so-called steering committee and the question arises as to who these people are, who do they represent and where do they come from?” asked Dabula.
“If you leave behind the likes of Operation Dudula and other patriotic civic movements from the National Convention, then who is going to talk on behalf of South Africans on the issue of immigration?” asked Dabula once more.
“As Operation Dudula we want the best for South Africa and one can tell that there is no political will on the part of the government to address the issue of immigration,” fumed Dabula.
“There’s overcrowding crisis caused by immigration at schools, clinics and hospitals and the question should be how do we shut down the porous borders of South Africa once and for all for the benefit of its long-suffering citizens,” she said.
At the time of publishing this story President Cyril Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya had not responded responded to a query sent to him by Tshwane Talks in this regard.
“As we had not been invited as Operation Dudula, we had to force our way in at the Convention and when we eventually got in we were compelled to join a commission/ working group that was already half-way through with its deliberations and we therefore couldn’t make any inputs ,” said Operational Dudula Spokesperson Ndlovukazi ka Mamzizi.
“On Saturday we went back to the National Convention but the burning issue of illegal immigration was never entertained in any of the commissions/ working groups,” lamented Mamzizi.
“When we tried to raise the issue of illegal immigration we were told that the convention would contact us within three working days in this regard and what was more pathetic was that we were given only one minute to speak before we were unceremoniously cut off and prevented from speaking any further,” she said.