Operation Dudula is the movement that is fighting foreign nationals.
A new government announcement from the labor department was released this week with regard to domestic workers in South Africa. There are roughly 1 million people employed in these jobs and represent about 25% of the informal job sector.
Any household who is employing a foreign undocumented worker faces fines of up to R100 000 for a first offence rising to R1 million with the threat of imprisonment. Many households in the middle to upper income levels have the luxury of employing a domestic worker who attends to the household chores.
This is unskilled work providing work to those who would not normally find any work due to not being educated. With the unofficial unemployment rates above 60% this is going to lead to more job losses due to the risk of fines. I am sure many foreign nationals are employed in this sector and why the government has now targeted this sector. For foreign nationals who are undocumented employed in this sector they will have nowhere to turn and there only choice left is to leave the country and return home.
This is not just domestic workers who attend to the house, but also those that are employed as gardeners. Our domestic worker is thankfully a South African so we do not have that particular issue. We have a domestic worker more so that someone is on the property when we are at work and is more of an added security measure. I was not in favor of having a domestic worker, but the security argument makes sense.
Currently in the country there is a clamp down on undocumented foreigners with companies being raided and fined and those found working illegally being deported on mass. We have one worker from Zimbabwe who is documented even though his documents make no sense. He is allowed to work even though his reasons for his visa state there is no work in Zimbabwe which would make him an economic migrant which would take a job away from a local citizen.
South Africa has had opened borders for years and the government is under pressure to fix this situation before it gets out of hand. The locals have given the SA government until the 30th of June before they take action into their own hands. The locals are sick and tired of being unemployed and they will not sit back and let this continue. The crazy thing is what did the government expect because this was the obvious result.
Open borders will never end well and why we see the time bomb in Europe and not just South Africa. Europe is different as that is not jobs, but a cultural difference. Controlled migration was always in place to protect local jobs and without that protection we can see the problems and why SA is a powder keg that will be lit on the 30th June. The government will not intervene and protect foreign nationals because this is out of their control with little or no law and order in place.
