Al-Qalam 
A shortage of buses is compounding the repatriation process of more than 10 000 undocumented Malawian nationals in Durban who are begging to go home, Ismail Suder reports.
As South Africans hold their breath ahead of the “March and March” campaign against undocumented migrants on June 30, two of the group’s leaders have assured members of the United Ulama Council of South Africa (UUCSA) and a community leader that his people would remain disciplined and peaceful.
In a meeting held with the march leaders, well-known community leader, Moulana Muhammad Vanker, told Al-Qalam that he privately met with two of the leaders of the anti-immigrant movement, Ngizwe Mchunu and Nkosikhona Ndabandaba in Durban. They assured him the marches across many parts of the country would be tightly controlled by its monitors. “Don’t worry, the march will be disciplined and peaceful.”
The purpose of the meetings was to “better understand the motivations of the protest actions and the broader movement behind them; to dispel misconceptions about the Muslim community, and to help ease tensions ahead of the planned national shutdown of 30 June.
Moulana Vanker said he engaged the leaders about misconceptions and unsavory utterances made by some of their followers against Muslims.
He said the two ‘March and March’ leaders had no idea that the Muslim community were always generous and at the forefront of alleviating poverty and hardships across all communities in the country. “They were clearly surprised when I pointed this out to them,” Moulana Vanker told Al-Qalam.
He said their gripe was mainly against undocumented foreigners – and those foreigners with forged documents. They explained to Moulana Vanker that the movement was forced into taking drastic measures because the Government has refused to listen to them, even after explaining that undocumented migrants were draining resources meant for South Africans.
However, Moulana Vanker said he understood the group’s point of view, but informed them that the manner in which they were going about doing it was wrong.
Moulana Vanker has urged employers not to dump their foreign workers at refugee centres, but to instead purchase bus tickets so they could travel home without stress – and to give them enough money to help them settle in when they get to their home countries.
In a statement, Moulana Yusuf Patel of UUCSSA said March and March leader Ndabandaba provided assurances that every measure would be taken to avoid violence. “The demonstrations, he explained, are intended to mobilise the Government to effectively enforce the laws of the country and to address growing concerns around lawlessness.”
Thousands of members of the police together with private security companies have been roped in to manage the marchers.
Meanwhile, at the secured repatriation camp in North Beach, Pastor George Nzenda – a representative of the Malawian Embassy who is overseeing the welfare of his fellow citizens – said he was extremely grateful to Gift of the Givers and the greater Muslim Community who pulled out all stops to provide food, sanitary wear, a mobile clinic and much more. “They have never stopped helping us, and we will never forget” he added.
“Our citizens are here because they were harassed, beaten and chased from their places of work by vigilante gangs from March and March. Even when my countrymen sought refuge at a park in Sherwood, these vigilantes came to attack our people in front of the police.
“On top of that, the Government of SA threatened bosses that if they continued to employ undocumented migrants, they would be fined up to R100 000, so understandably they had no choice but to release them. The tragedy is that when these estimated 15 000 migrants return home, they face a very bleak and uncertain future,” Mzenda said.
He pleaded through Al-Qalam for communities to sponsor buses to take his people home to Malawi. Mzenda can be contacted on 0616640819.
The Palestinian Solidarity Alliance (PSA) has issued a scathing statement against the Government: “It read: “The real crisis in South Africa is not caused by poor and working-class people crossing borders. It is caused by a system that has failed the majority of people who live here. It is caused by unemployment, corruption, inequality, collapsing public services, landlessness, exploitation, and an economy still shaped by elites and capitalists who extract obscene profits while communities are left with hunger, debt and despair.”
