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South African anti-migrant ‘vigilantes’ register as party for next year’s polls
"South Africa: Death toll edges to nearly 400 after devastating floods
"‘A True South African Giant’: Tributes for Desmond Tutu, a Force for Harmony "
Operation Dudula changes tactics from evictions and violence, with plans to fight elections on platform of expelling foreigners
Related: Can Jacob Zuma emerge as kingmaker in South Africa’s election?
Zuma’s new MK party is gaining in polls while ANC support slips. But is the former
president still as influential outside the ruling party?
By Crystal Orderson Published On 8 May 20248 May 2024
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa – Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is a divisive figure. For some South Africans, the controversial former president is a liberator and saviour for millions of poor people. For others, he is corrupt and ill-fit to lead.
P - Despite having been at the forefront of some of the worst corruption and mismanagement scandals in post-apartheid history, the 82-year-old has returned ..https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/18/jacob-zumas-nine-lives-how-south-africas-ex-president-keeps-coming-back .. to the political spotlight time and again.
[...]She fears Zuma’s tendency to play the victim – as he has done numerous times since being fired as deputy president under President Thabo Mbeki in 2005 – may hinder the country’s advancement and perpetuate harmful ideologies.
P - “He gets away with the victim mentality and blames Ramaphosa for his own failings and the ANC has shot itself in the foot; they supported him for so long, no matter how unethical or corrupt he was,” Ngoasheng added.
P - Now, with Zuma poised to play a big role in yet another election cycle, his supporters are with him all the way, while those reeling from the effects of his last term in office are nervous at the prospect of having him in a position of power yet again.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/8/can-jacob-zuma-emerge-as-kingmaker-in-south-africas-election
Simon Allison in Johannesburg
Tue 26 Sep 2023 15.30 AEST
Last modified on Tue 26 Sep 2023 17.53 AEST
An Operation Dudula protest in Johannesburg in July. As unemployment and inequality in South Africa soar, calls for mass deportation of foreigners have spread. Photograph: Gallo/Getty
All links
An anti-migrant vigilante organisation in South Africa has registered as a political party and plans to contest seats in next year’s general elections.
Operation Dudula, whose name means “to force out” in Zulu, wants all foreign nationals who are in the country unofficially to be deported.
The party, which first emerged in Johannesburg’s Soweto township after riots in 2021 .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/14/vigilante-groups-form-south-africa-tackle-looting-violence , claims to have widespread support, with a formal presence in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces. It claims to be planning to stand candidates in 1,500 of the country’s 4,468 voting districts.
Many Operation Dudula followers have faced allegations of hate speech and physical violence. They have staged protests outside embassies, turned people away outside hospitals to prevent foreign nationals from accessing state medical services, and conducted door-to-door searches of businesses in poorer areas demanding to see identity documents.
In August, Philani Gumede, a 36-year-old from Durban, was convicted of hate speech .. https://ewn.co.za/2023/05/09/operation-dudula-opts-to-become-a-political-party .. after sending a voice-note to members calling on them to evict foreigners from businesses in the city. Nomalungelo Ntshangase, a regional court prosecutor, told the court that this had led directly to xenophobic attacks and looting.
In 2022, Operation Dudula followers camped outside Kalafong hospital .. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-09-01-operation-dudula-calls-off-protests-at-kalafong-hospital-after-fruitful-meeting-with-health-minister/ .. in Atteridgeville, a suburb of South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria, preventing people, including pregnant women, from entering the hospital.
Police at a Operation Dudula demonstration outside Kalafong hospital in Pretoria, where protesters stopped foreigners, including pregnant women, from entering. Photograph: Gallo/Getty
“People were turned away by the protesters based on their appearance and accent,” said Sibusiso Ndlovu, a health promotion supervisor for Médecins Sans Frontières. “They have even demanded that critically ill patients who are migrants must be ‘unplugged’ and taken out.”
Civil society groups have taken the party to court over unlawful evictions and conducting unauthorised citizenship checks in public. A court date has not yet been set.
The Operation Dudula party’s spokesperson, Isaac Lesole, said the transition from civil movement to political party would mean a tempering of tactics.
“We want to demilitarise Operation Dudula. We know the military angle did not appeal to a lot of people,” he said. “Now we’ve taken a new posture, we need to guarantee that we can still achieve a lot without people being militants and killing or kicking things. As a political party, we are governed by a different set of rules.”
But its core ideology would not change, he said. “We view illegal immigrants as criminals, and they must go back to their countries.”
About 3.95 million immigrants live in South Africa, according to 2022 estimates .. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-53.pdf .. by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). However, there is no such thing as an “illegal foreigner” in South Africa, as its constitution – widely hailed .. https://www.justice.gov.za/constitution/docs/25thAnniversary.html#:~:text=It%20is%20widely%20acknowledged%20not,social%20relations%20in%20South%20Africa. .. as one of the most progressive in the world – confers limited rights upon all people within the country’s borders, regardless of nationality or birthplace.
Operation Dudula has its roots in the riots .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/13/troops-deployed-in-south-africa-amid-violence-rarely-seen-in-the-history-of-our-democracy .. that swept across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces in June 2021. In the absence of police, some citizens banded together to protect shops and businesses from thieves.
A man shuts his shop in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township as an Operation Dudula march passes. The group targets foreign-owned shops. Photograph: Michele Spatari/AFP/Getty
“You saw a lot of communities starting to self-protect. They started cordoning off malls, and protecting them from being looted. Some of these organisations also felt emboldened to have more operations, under the auspices of ‘anti-crime’,” said Lizette Lancaster, an ISS researcher.
Lancaster said the chronic failures of the state in South Africa .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa , which has high rates of corruption, unemployment and violence, created the space for the party to thrive.
[That's a shout-out to all anti-government people. A strong state helps.]
“South Africans have been trying [to hold the state accountable] through protests, but are not getting anywhere,” she said.
“It is almost natural for people to look for another scapegoat. The most obvious scapegoat would be our brothers and sisters that have come here to look for better opportunities.”
Although not expected to win any outright majorities, the fractured nature of South African politics means that small parties can influence the formation of coalition governments – and demand major concessions in return. The current mayor of Johannesburg is from the Al Jama’ah, a fringe Islamist party .. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-11-19-al-jama-ah-the-small-islamic-political-party-with-a-narrow-vision-and-big-ambitions/ .. that won just one of the city’s 135 wards.
Established parties are struggling to respond to Operation Dudula, with seemingly contradictory messages.
In April, President Cyril Ramaphosa .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/cyril-ramaphosa .. called it a “vigilante-like force” taking “illegal actions” against foreigners. “These things often get out of hand,” he said. “They always mutate into wanton violence against other people.”
However, with the ruling African National Congress seeing its support eroded .. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/14/the-guardian-view-on-south-africa-the-anc-is-losing-its-grip .. in recent years by a series of corruption scandals, rising inequality, high unemployment and violent crime, it has also begun to echo the rhetoric of Operation Dudula in a bid to shore up its electoral chances.
An activist pickets the Human Rights Commission in Johannesburg in protest at the surge of xenophobia and vigilantism in South Africa. Photograph: Michele Spatari/AFP/Getty
Last year an ANC spokesperson, Pule Mabe, told the Mail & Guardian newspaper .. https://mg.co.za/politics/2022-04-01-dudula-vigilante-group-has-the-anc-stamp-of-approval/ .. that Operation Dudula was affirming the views of the ANC. “These [foreign] people come here to sell drugs, seat [live] here illegally, undermine our sovereignty, create illegal business.”
Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a militant leftwing party, said in a speech .. https://ewn.co.za/2023/07/28/criminals-in-cahoots-with-ministers-purport-sa-to-be-xenophobic-malema .. in July: “South Africans are not xenophobic. [Operation Dudula] is a group of criminals who are in cahoots with some ministers. They are small boys who must be put in their place.”
Desperate Zimbabweans risk police or crocodiles in bid to reach South Africa
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/feb/08/desperate-zimbabweans-face-police-or-crocodiles-in-bid-to-reach-south-africa
However, in a sign of how politically expedient xenophobia has become in South Africa, even the ostensibly pan-Africanist EFF has campaigned for restaurants to employ more South Africans. Malema visited restaurants .. https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/malema-visits-restaurants-in-midrand-to-check-employment-ratios/ .. last year demanding to see the identity documents of workers as he demanded businesses hire locals.
Amir Sheikh, spokesperson for the African Diaspora Forum, said: “At the end of the day, Dudula will not be the only party that is right wing or anti-immigrant, even including the ruling party, which is leaning towards the right wing.”
Many foreigners are returning home with their families, or moving to more friendly countries, although that is in part due to high crime rates and economic decay, said Sheikh. “Even the locals with the means to travel out of the country are doing so.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/sep/26/south-africa-anti-migrant-vigilante-operation-dudula-registers-as-party-2024-elections
"South Africa: Death toll edges to nearly 400 after devastating floods
"‘A True South African Giant’: Tributes for Desmond Tutu, a Force for Harmony "
Operation Dudula changes tactics from evictions and violence, with plans to fight elections on platform of expelling foreigners
Related: Can Jacob Zuma emerge as kingmaker in South Africa’s election?
Zuma’s new MK party is gaining in polls while ANC support slips. But is the former
president still as influential outside the ruling party?
By Crystal Orderson Published On 8 May 20248 May 2024
KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa – Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma is a divisive figure. For some South Africans, the controversial former president is a liberator and saviour for millions of poor people. For others, he is corrupt and ill-fit to lead.
P - Despite having been at the forefront of some of the worst corruption and mismanagement scandals in post-apartheid history, the 82-year-old has returned ..https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/4/18/jacob-zumas-nine-lives-how-south-africas-ex-president-keeps-coming-back .. to the political spotlight time and again.
[...]She fears Zuma’s tendency to play the victim – as he has done numerous times since being fired as deputy president under President Thabo Mbeki in 2005 – may hinder the country’s advancement and perpetuate harmful ideologies.
P - “He gets away with the victim mentality and blames Ramaphosa for his own failings and the ANC has shot itself in the foot; they supported him for so long, no matter how unethical or corrupt he was,” Ngoasheng added.
P - Now, with Zuma poised to play a big role in yet another election cycle, his supporters are with him all the way, while those reeling from the effects of his last term in office are nervous at the prospect of having him in a position of power yet again.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/5/8/can-jacob-zuma-emerge-as-kingmaker-in-south-africas-election
Simon Allison in Johannesburg
Tue 26 Sep 2023 15.30 AEST
Last modified on Tue 26 Sep 2023 17.53 AEST
An Operation Dudula protest in Johannesburg in July. As unemployment and inequality in South Africa soar, calls for mass deportation of foreigners have spread. Photograph: Gallo/Getty
All links
An anti-migrant vigilante organisation in South Africa has registered as a political party and plans to contest seats in next year’s general elections.
Operation Dudula, whose name means “to force out” in Zulu, wants all foreign nationals who are in the country unofficially to be deported.
The party, which first emerged in Johannesburg’s Soweto township after riots in 2021 .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/14/vigilante-groups-form-south-africa-tackle-looting-violence , claims to have widespread support, with a formal presence in seven of South Africa’s nine provinces. It claims to be planning to stand candidates in 1,500 of the country’s 4,468 voting districts.
Many Operation Dudula followers have faced allegations of hate speech and physical violence. They have staged protests outside embassies, turned people away outside hospitals to prevent foreign nationals from accessing state medical services, and conducted door-to-door searches of businesses in poorer areas demanding to see identity documents.
In August, Philani Gumede, a 36-year-old from Durban, was convicted of hate speech .. https://ewn.co.za/2023/05/09/operation-dudula-opts-to-become-a-political-party .. after sending a voice-note to members calling on them to evict foreigners from businesses in the city. Nomalungelo Ntshangase, a regional court prosecutor, told the court that this had led directly to xenophobic attacks and looting.
In 2022, Operation Dudula followers camped outside Kalafong hospital .. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2022-09-01-operation-dudula-calls-off-protests-at-kalafong-hospital-after-fruitful-meeting-with-health-minister/ .. in Atteridgeville, a suburb of South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria, preventing people, including pregnant women, from entering the hospital.
Police at a Operation Dudula demonstration outside Kalafong hospital in Pretoria, where protesters stopped foreigners, including pregnant women, from entering. Photograph: Gallo/Getty
“People were turned away by the protesters based on their appearance and accent,” said Sibusiso Ndlovu, a health promotion supervisor for Médecins Sans Frontières. “They have even demanded that critically ill patients who are migrants must be ‘unplugged’ and taken out.”
Civil society groups have taken the party to court over unlawful evictions and conducting unauthorised citizenship checks in public. A court date has not yet been set.
The Operation Dudula party’s spokesperson, Isaac Lesole, said the transition from civil movement to political party would mean a tempering of tactics.
“We want to demilitarise Operation Dudula. We know the military angle did not appeal to a lot of people,” he said. “Now we’ve taken a new posture, we need to guarantee that we can still achieve a lot without people being militants and killing or kicking things. As a political party, we are governed by a different set of rules.”
But its core ideology would not change, he said. “We view illegal immigrants as criminals, and they must go back to their countries.”
About 3.95 million immigrants live in South Africa, according to 2022 estimates .. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/sar-53.pdf .. by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). However, there is no such thing as an “illegal foreigner” in South Africa, as its constitution – widely hailed .. https://www.justice.gov.za/constitution/docs/25thAnniversary.html#:~:text=It%20is%20widely%20acknowledged%20not,social%20relations%20in%20South%20Africa. .. as one of the most progressive in the world – confers limited rights upon all people within the country’s borders, regardless of nationality or birthplace.
Operation Dudula has its roots in the riots .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jul/13/troops-deployed-in-south-africa-amid-violence-rarely-seen-in-the-history-of-our-democracy .. that swept across KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng provinces in June 2021. In the absence of police, some citizens banded together to protect shops and businesses from thieves.
A man shuts his shop in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township as an Operation Dudula march passes. The group targets foreign-owned shops. Photograph: Michele Spatari/AFP/Getty
“You saw a lot of communities starting to self-protect. They started cordoning off malls, and protecting them from being looted. Some of these organisations also felt emboldened to have more operations, under the auspices of ‘anti-crime’,” said Lizette Lancaster, an ISS researcher.
Lancaster said the chronic failures of the state in South Africa .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/africa , which has high rates of corruption, unemployment and violence, created the space for the party to thrive.
[That's a shout-out to all anti-government people. A strong state helps.]
“South Africans have been trying [to hold the state accountable] through protests, but are not getting anywhere,” she said.
“It is almost natural for people to look for another scapegoat. The most obvious scapegoat would be our brothers and sisters that have come here to look for better opportunities.”
Although not expected to win any outright majorities, the fractured nature of South African politics means that small parties can influence the formation of coalition governments – and demand major concessions in return. The current mayor of Johannesburg is from the Al Jama’ah, a fringe Islamist party .. https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2020-11-19-al-jama-ah-the-small-islamic-political-party-with-a-narrow-vision-and-big-ambitions/ .. that won just one of the city’s 135 wards.
Established parties are struggling to respond to Operation Dudula, with seemingly contradictory messages.
In April, President Cyril Ramaphosa .. https://www.theguardian.com/world/cyril-ramaphosa .. called it a “vigilante-like force” taking “illegal actions” against foreigners. “These things often get out of hand,” he said. “They always mutate into wanton violence against other people.”
However, with the ruling African National Congress seeing its support eroded .. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/jul/14/the-guardian-view-on-south-africa-the-anc-is-losing-its-grip .. in recent years by a series of corruption scandals, rising inequality, high unemployment and violent crime, it has also begun to echo the rhetoric of Operation Dudula in a bid to shore up its electoral chances.
An activist pickets the Human Rights Commission in Johannesburg in protest at the surge of xenophobia and vigilantism in South Africa. Photograph: Michele Spatari/AFP/Getty
Last year an ANC spokesperson, Pule Mabe, told the Mail & Guardian newspaper .. https://mg.co.za/politics/2022-04-01-dudula-vigilante-group-has-the-anc-stamp-of-approval/ .. that Operation Dudula was affirming the views of the ANC. “These [foreign] people come here to sell drugs, seat [live] here illegally, undermine our sovereignty, create illegal business.”
Julius Malema, leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), a militant leftwing party, said in a speech .. https://ewn.co.za/2023/07/28/criminals-in-cahoots-with-ministers-purport-sa-to-be-xenophobic-malema .. in July: “South Africans are not xenophobic. [Operation Dudula] is a group of criminals who are in cahoots with some ministers. They are small boys who must be put in their place.”
Desperate Zimbabweans risk police or crocodiles in bid to reach South Africa
Read more > https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/feb/08/desperate-zimbabweans-face-police-or-crocodiles-in-bid-to-reach-south-africa
However, in a sign of how politically expedient xenophobia has become in South Africa, even the ostensibly pan-Africanist EFF has campaigned for restaurants to employ more South Africans. Malema visited restaurants .. https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/malema-visits-restaurants-in-midrand-to-check-employment-ratios/ .. last year demanding to see the identity documents of workers as he demanded businesses hire locals.
Amir Sheikh, spokesperson for the African Diaspora Forum, said: “At the end of the day, Dudula will not be the only party that is right wing or anti-immigrant, even including the ruling party, which is leaning towards the right wing.”
Many foreigners are returning home with their families, or moving to more friendly countries, although that is in part due to high crime rates and economic decay, said Sheikh. “Even the locals with the means to travel out of the country are doing so.”
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/sep/26/south-africa-anti-migrant-vigilante-operation-dudula-registers-as-party-2024-elections
It was Plato who said, “He, O men, is the wisest, who like Socrates, knows that his wisdom is in truth worth nothing”
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