March and March vows weekly protests until migrants leave

As the figurehead of the March and March movement, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has attracted a fair bit of hostile flak from critics over the organisation’s vigorous antiimmigrant campaign.

She is accused of knowing little about the struggles of poor people, living as she allegedly does, in an upperclass suburb of Durban.

Other accusations are that she is acting as the agent of some foreign power – possibly the US, because she was there once on a US government-sponsored programme – to promote instability in South Africa.

Those accusations need to be set against two solid realities.

First, where she lives and her status is immaterial to the tens of thousands supporting the movement.

Second, something which is obvious from the loyalty of those people, is that she did not invent the immigration crisis. It is the lived experience for many black South Africans.

After yesterday’s protests across the country, you would have to say that March and March did what it said it would: it made the country sit up and pay attention; and even if it did not cause a total shutdown, there was plenty of disruption to normal daily routines.

To emphasise that this issue is far from done and dusted in the wake of the successful protests, Ngobese-Zuma vowed to give the government six months to get rid of illegal migrants.

“Every Thursday, for the next six months we are marching until they are gone,” she told thousands in Durban.

That will be another success for the movement, if it maintains this momentum.

But it has already forced the repatriation – unofficial deportation to give it its correct definition – of thousands of foreigners.

And the message will have gone out clearly to other would-be illegals: South Africans will not tolerate you breaking our laws.

That alone could see illegal numbers dropping.