This is Johannesburg today and red is not a good color because it normally depicts danger. If i had seen this earlier I would not have driven through Katlehong which I did this afternoon and saw what was happening on the ground.
Today was the 30th June and we saw the March and March anti migrant protests taking place in the streets across South Africa. I never intended to be part of this and avoid bumping into any of the marches.
This morning we had a group of around 5000 armed wielding marchers move past our one warehouse premises with no incident. We were asked to visit the magistrates court this afternoon to collect some papers for our legal case and had no idea the court was in Kathlehong and a hot spot for trouble. During the drive we were ushered through by police whilst passing by a large group of people marching holding various primitive weapons which included pangas. This would be very intimidating for any foreigners in close proximity and why most have left or are in hiding. A peaceful march whilst carrying items that can kill you is a mixed signal.
The court was open, but the staff had left at 10 am this morning so nothing was open due to the threat of possible trouble. The organisers of the March to March protest stated that this would be peaceful and was more about highlighting the numbers of illegal migrants within the borders of South Africa. During the march they would like to point out crime hot spots and drug dens to the police in order to make their community more safer. This is not an unreasonable demand and I do think the intentions were good, but this was hijacked by various smaller political parties and the government.
The government on the one hand says peaceful marches with no deadlines yet they are the ones who have been upping their spot checks on illegal migrants which they had never done prior to this. Once the 30th June was the date for the marches it became the date to remove illegals across the country under the pretense of their safety.
The government had to be seen as pro active with the illegal undocumented migrants because the people of South Africa are not happy. This was a powder keg that was going to explode at some point which would leave the police useless as they could not contain the country wide uprising. The difference between here and Europe is this is not far right or far left or racist as it is Africans showing their grievances on something that is clearly wrong in how this has been handled.
The problem is not South Africa but more the countries where these millions of migrants have come from that needs to be addressed. South Africa can not handle an influx of people on this magnitude and any realist will see that this was never going to end well.
I know there are millions of migrants here documented or not documented which makes no difference with the locals on their feelings. Nigeria thinks there are 5 million Nigerians in South Africa which is a scary thought because the SA government thought they only had or they reported that there were only 5-6 million migrants in South Africa. Nigeria is middle Africa so logic tells you the neighboring countries numbers are going to be that much higher. Zimbabwe would have to be much more than 10 million, Mozambique in their millions along with Malawi and Zambia so what is the real number as this is far bigger than anyone really thought. Over 20 million is realistic which represents 1/3rd of the total legal population in SA so no wonder there is problems and the crime rate is so high along with a high unemployment rate.
The 30th June addresses the issues, but does not fix the problem and now is the time to use this opportunity to remove undocumented people on mass as soon as possible. The people know how bad this is and one can see why they are that upset. Imagine your country having 30% extra people who have no right to be there and why there are service failures due to the extra people as the systems are not capable of processing these numbers.
