The first mission of the newly-launched branch of Operation Dudula in the Western Cape will be to clean up “drug trafficking and prostitution” in Parklands.
On Saturday, more than 500 supporters wearing branded T-shirts, and carrying banners and placards marched through the Cape Town CBD singing Struggle songs and handed a memorandum to a Home Affairs official.
The movement is a splinter group of the social media campaign Put South Africans First, led by Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini, who was not at the launch.
Labelled by some as “xenophobic and dangerous”, the group has taken root around the country, having started in Soweto a few months after the July riots erupted when former president Jacob Zuma was sentenced to jail for contempt of court.
The movement targets suspected drug traffickers, and businesses that hire illegal foreigners to allegedly pay them lower wages than legally required.
In the memorandum, the group demanded that officials verify the legal status of foreign nationals in the City, and to arrest and deport them if they aren’t.
The national deputy chairperson of the movement, Dan Radebe told the Weekend Argus, said they wanted to make the people of Cape Town aware of the “foreign invasion” in the country.
He said that they would be attending to allegations of young girls in Parklands having sex with older men for money, which set social media abuzz last week.
“In Parklands, we will make sure that the area is cleaned,” Radebe says.
“We want to flush out all foreign nationals in that area because they have proven to the nation that they are not here for a good course, but to destroy our country.”
President Cyril Ramaphosa as well as political parties have condemned the movement.
EFF provincial spokesperson Wandile Kasibe said Operation Dudula was trying to sow divisions and instigate violence amongst black people.