As the protests against illegal immigrants continue to gather momentum nationwide, thousands of protesters reportedly made their way to Sunnyside Police Station in Pretoria.

Police have confirmed that there had been no violence in the Pretoria CBD.

The country has been on high alert in preparation for the national protests on June 30, and the capital has been no exception. Large numbers of police and private security have been deployed around Church Square, where the route for a march of over 1 000 protesters from Church Square to the Sunnyside Police Station began.

Protest activity from various political organisations, civic groups, and community organisations disrupted traffic flow to at least 10 streets in the inner city.

March and March national executive member, Sandile Dube, said they were in Sunnyside to speak out against how their protests have been covered in the media. He insisted that their actions were peaceful and in the best interests of the country.

“We are here to speak out against misinformation about March and March. We have heard that March and March is vigilantism, that it is xenophobia, and that it is tribal.

“We are here to say that the people of Tshwane represent all tribes in South Africa. When you stand here in Church Square, you are seeing all the tribes of South Africa represented.

“We are here to say that there is no form of intimidation or misinformation that the government can use against the people of South Africa that will stop us from expressing our voices,” Dube said.

Dube said the police station is a point of contact, but that the group is actually marching to the Provincial Commissioner of Police in Gauteng, as well as to the Office of the Premier, which houses the Community Safety Department.

He said they intend to hand over a memorandum to the Premier and the Mayor of Tshwane, adding that there are issues requiring the attention of local leadership.

“Some of the issues require the attention of the municipality. Your by-laws – when you talk about the township economy, for it to be effective, it requires by-law enforcement.

“If that by-law enforcement is not adhered to, we are saying as South Africans we will vote for a local government in November that will ensure that there are by-laws in place that remove Somalians, Mozambicans, Ethiopians and everyone else, and replace them with South Africans,” he said.

Dube also said the government appeared to have been caught off guard regarding repatriates, and that its constant delays have contributed to the situation the country now finds itself in.

“Not knowing how many illegal foreigners we have in the country is where the problem starts. We argue that there are 4% illegal foreign nationals in South Africa. [But] you cannot have that percentage with open borders, which just creates inflows,” he said.

“But Durban’s people have vindicated us. When you have 15 000 Malawians in Durban alone, then you add the Zimbabweans, the Mozambicans and all other illegal foreign nationals – you end up in chaos. We called on the President to address the nation in May on Africa Day before this protest.”
Dube said they appreciate that the President did in fact do so, but said they felt he needed to go further.

“We call on the President to declare a state of disaster regarding illegal foreigners. Gauteng is leading this, and there is resistance from these groups. That is why we are having many protests in Gauteng, in Johannesburg and Tshwane. Soweto is rising today; Cosmo City is rising today.

“We are taking our marches to the centres of where these illegal foreigners are. We are calling on civic organisations in the countries where most of them reside to become active against their governments and build thriving democracies, instead of what we are seeing now,” Dube said.

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