Operation Dudula bears the hallmarks of an impending disaster

Hawkers plying their trade at the Bara taxi rank in Soweto are slowly trickling back after being forcibly removed a few weeks ago by people who say they are “fixing” South Africa by ridding the country of “illegal” or undocumented migrants and drug dealers.

Operation Dudula

Going by the ominous name of “Operation Dudula”, which in Zulu means “to drive/ push back” or “to beat back”, the emotionally charged action saw traders chased from their stalls at the rank and elsewhere in Soweto, Hillbrow and other areas around Joburg.

The trouble with this is that it pits locals against foreigners – mostly black Africans – and already the generalised claims of South Africans being xenophobic are being peddled online – and that includes me. To me, the whole thing is akin to stabbing yourself in the stomach with your own spear.

I suppose it can only happen in South Africa that citizens take the law into their own hands to deal with an issue that the ANC-led government has long promised to sort out.

Immigrants are not to be found in SA only – and to deal with the issue needs the government to play a central role. That the people have started doing this – although it clearly bears the hallmarks of an impending disaster – shows it is an issue that needs urgent attention (among many others President Cyril Ramaphosa has to tackle).

In Soweto, you can have your car spray-painted, your daughter’s hair braided, your lawn mowed and your roof painted by someone from Mozambique.

But when you buy your bread and milk, and your airtime and cold drink, the man behind the counter is most likely to be from Ethiopia, Bangladesh or Pakistan.

The woman hanging out someone else’s laundry and scrubbing their floors and babysitting their children could be from Lesotho or Zimbabwe; and so could the man you see building an extra room or a perimeter wall – and not only in the townships, but also in the suburbs.

Equally so, at the schools and universities the lecturers and professors are from across the continent and abroad. This is the result of globalisation and how the world works, whatever corner of the globe you look at.

Undocumented migrants

Remember, this is the year 2022. What the organisers of this shameless action say, is they are targeting “undocumented” migrants.

This issue is not as simple as dragging a poor woman from Congo selling cassava on the streets of Hillbrow, or a woman from Malawi selling tomatoes, on a pavement in Kliptown.

It has to start with our porous borders. It is mindblowing how simple it is to just walk into South Africa from Lesotho, Botswana, eSwatini, Mozambique and Zimbabwe.

Drugs are sold and abused on the streets of Joburg in broad daylight. I cannot wait to see the day people and groups like Operation Dudula take all their energy and effort fighting this scourge of drug abuse in our communities.

I dare them to go push back the drug peddlars and druglords, who are making millions of rands at the expense of our children.

And, if there’s another issue that needs a committee in the Presidency, it should be the issue of migration.

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