March and March says it will go back to Che Guevara Road on Friday to continue their ‘clean-up’ operation outside the Home Affairs Refugee Reception Office.
This comes after their operation descended into violence on Thursday, after March and March supporters confronted the foreign nationals at the site.
‘We will never allow it to carry on’
March and March’s Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has called for action against the refugees, alleging that one of the group’s members had been assaulted and that a firearm was discharged during an earlier incident.
“We are planning a march to Moore [Che Guevara] Road after one of our members was assaulted by a foreigner. They discharged a firearm and got away with it because police refuse to remove their tents on the streets, and they were provoking and swearing at South Africans.”
She alleged that authorities had allowed the refugees to remain on the road for months despite complaints from the surrounding community.
“We will never be abused in our own country, and we will never allow it to carry on,” she said.
Claims of guns and lawlessness
Ngobese-Zuma also alleged that some of the foreign nationals had guns.
“So the foreigners at Moore Road have guns. The community is being abused, robbed and insulted by these people, and you continue to normalise lawlessness?” she said.
She further alleged that police failed to search the tents after the claimed firearm incident.
“Today, one of them discharged a firearm, but the South African Police Service refused to dismantle those tents on the road and search for the weapon. They claimed they need a warrant?” Ngobese-Zuma said.
The firearm allegation has not been independently verified.
‘Clean-up’ turns ugly
On Thursday afternoon, about 100 March and March supporters went to the site in what they described as a “clean-up” campaign.
The confrontation allegedly became violent when marchers picked up belongings belonging to the foreign nationals. Stones were thrown during the chaos and police intervened to separate the groups.
KwaZulu-Natal police spokesperson Colonel Robert Netshiunda said police were in the process of registering a case against a foreign national who allegedly assaulted a police officer with a stone.
“Police in KZN are in the process of registering a case against a foreign national who assaulted a police officer with a stone during a confrontation between people who were marching and foreign nationals who have been camping outside the Home Affairs office on Che Guevara Road at Umbilo in Durban,” Netshiunda said.
He said police had sufficient resources deployed to the area and intervened when the confrontation erupted.
“Police had to use minimum crowd management proportional force to manage the situation and calm has been restored,” Netshiunda said.
He warned that anyone found to have incited violence would face the law.
The March and March movement is planning another march to the Durban refugee camp after Thursday’s confrontation, with figurehead Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma vowing that the group will not back down.
Campaign slams ‘xenophobic’ action
Meanwhile, the Siyafana Sonke Action Campaign condemned the alleged “clean-up” operation, accusing March and March leaders of targeting documented African refugees.
The campaign said that the refugees had endured months of displacement, deprivation and harassment.
“The call issued by ‘March and March’ and personally amplified by Ngobese Zuma, one of its prominent figureheads, is a thinly veiled incitement to inflict more trauma and violence against a vulnerable group of registered African refugees who have already endured months of displacement, deprivation, and harassment,” it said.
SSAC further alleged that the refugees had been driven from their homes and workplaces and had spent the winter living on the streets.
The organisation said two refugees had died at the site, with the latest death allegedly involving a medical condition worsened by exposure to harsh weather and inadequate nutrition.
After a violent confrontation at the Che Guevara Road refugee camp, March and March is planning to march back to the site, amid allegations of a firearm being discharged and a police officer being assaulted.
‘The state cannot escape its responsibility’
It also criticised the state’s response, alleging that refugees had been told to return to communities from which they had allegedly been forced out.
“The state cannot be allowed to escape its responsibility for this crisis by blandly stating that refugees can simply return to their communities,” SSAC said.
The campaign called for immediate protection and temporary shelter for the refugees and demanded that anyone found to have committed acts of aggression or intimidation be arrested and prosecuted.
‘Cleaning up’ language condemned
It also condemned the language of “cleaning up”, describing it as dehumanising.
“The language of ‘cleaning up’ is absolutely dehumanising and reminiscent of the genocidal language of the Nazi genocide of Jews, the Rwandan genocide, and the Israeli genocide against the Palestinians,” SSAC said.
The confrontation comes after months of tension surrounding the refugees living outside Home Affairs, many of whom have been documented as being lawfully in South Africa.
Police said investigations into Thursday’s violence were continuing and that the arrested suspect would appear in court once all processes had been completed.
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