“When we talk about it to the government, they say it's xenophobia. How can it be xenophobia if they don't put SA first?
“I have a cousin who is in Canada and every time his visa expires, he always comes back to SA and renews his visa, then go back to show that he is complying with the law. Why are they not compliant? What makes them special? And we are not only talking about black foreigners — we are also talking about Chinese and other races, all the cultures who are foreigners in our country, not only Zimbabweans.
“We want our land back so that we can get our economy back,” he said.
The group started gathering at open ground in Marabastad.
Moraba said they would direct the attention of police monitoring the protest to the shops operated by foreigners who did not pay taxes because they were undocumented.
“Police must take action with these shops. We are going to go inside shops with them so that they can see them. We want to talk about something that we are seeing.”
'We want our land back': Organiser of Tshwane week-long protest against illegal immigrants
Image: Sunday Times/Esa Alexander
A group of Tshwane residents on Monday began a week-long protest against illegal immigrants living in South Africa, complaining they were breaking visa rules that are accepted internationally and hurt the economy by not paying tax.
Given Moraba, one of the organisers who describes himself as a concerned community member, said the action was also sparked by the recent decision by home affairs minister Aaron Motsoaledi to extend the Zimbabwean Exemption Permits (ZEP) for another six months to end December.
The government's intention to scrap the system has been challenged in court.
“The problem with the government is that they do not come into communities on the ground and ask them what is happening and how they feel about the decisions. They just act and they forget that we are the ones that vote for them. We are going to elections next year,” he said.
“We are not saying we don't like the ANC, but if it comes with these things we are going to change the stream now because we want our land back.
December extension for Zimbabweans living in South Africa on exemption permits
“When we talk about it to the government, they say it's xenophobia. How can it be xenophobia if they don't put SA first?
“I have a cousin who is in Canada and every time his visa expires, he always comes back to SA and renews his visa, then go back to show that he is complying with the law. Why are they not compliant? What makes them special? And we are not only talking about black foreigners — we are also talking about Chinese and other races, all the cultures who are foreigners in our country, not only Zimbabweans.
“We want our land back so that we can get our economy back,” he said.
The group started gathering at open ground in Marabastad.
Moraba said they would direct the attention of police monitoring the protest to the shops operated by foreigners who did not pay taxes because they were undocumented.
“Police must take action with these shops. We are going to go inside shops with them so that they can see them. We want to talk about something that we are seeing.”
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