Several members of an organisation known as Human Behaviour Transformation (HBT) Movement for Peace and Justice staged a protest march together with foreign nationals at the Home Affairs refugee Centre in Marabastad, Tshwane on Thursday.
The organisation’s president Rollence Mabula told Tshwane Talks that he is a former leader of Operation Dudula; an organisation which fights against the presence of illegal foreigners in the country, but that he has now changed his mind and is now supporting foreign nationals after doing some research of his own.
“We decided to organise this kind of march because we have seen a lot of injustices being committed against foreigners, including xenophobic acts and utterances,” said Mabula.
“Now on top of that, foreigners have a challenge dealing with the Home Affairs office, whereby it is difficult for them to obtain documents that they need in order to stay in South Africa as documented foreign nationals,” he explained.
“The majority of these foreign nationals qualify to get those documents but unfortunately there are corruption elements in the offices of the Home Affairs, thus leading to them being illegal immigrants in the country,” said Mabula.
He appealed to senior Home Affairs officials to deal with this issue of corruption because though it is not easy to detect it is definitely in existence,” he enthused.
“We want the Minister of Home Affairs to make sure that those who qualify to get documents get those documents without the unnecessary hurdles,” he said.
“I spoke to many foreigners regarding the issue of them struggling to get documents and thereafter realised that the cause of their struggle is corruption at the Home Affairs, which is something that needs urgent attention,” said Mabula.
“Most South Africans don’t know what is happening at refugee Centres like this one at Marabastad, and it is about time they got knowledge about the shenanigans at Home Affairs and hopefully that will decrease their xenophobic behaviour,” said Mabula.
He appealed to the Minister to have a good look at the memorandum that was presented to Home Affairs by his organisation on behalf of foreign nationals and do what the previous Minister failed to do, and eventually sort out the problem of illegal immigration in South Africa.
Chairman of African Migration Idris Nungu told Tshwane Talks that as an organisation representing foreign nationals they appreciate the support shown to them by HBT Movement for Peace and Justice and have also joined the protest march.
“Migrants are being abused and harassed in South Africa, but it is only one or two people who do not behave like human beings and continue to spread hatred against their fellow African brothers and sisters, and so we are appealing to everybody to support us, this as other countries throughout the world are blaming us as we are fighting among ourselves as Africans,” lamented Nungu.
Nungu also complained that Home Affairs officials demand bribery before they can help applicants with the documents that they need and that those who don’t have money to pay such bribes are turned away, thus leading to a situation whereby many foreigners are undocumented in the country.
Manager at the Department of Home Affairs Kabelo Mashele received the memorandum and promised to hand it over to the Minister.
The following is a copy of memorandum: