Pretoria - The High Commission of Nigeria has warned Nigerians living in South Africa to be “vigilant and exercise caution” following the anti-immigrant sentiments and threats linked to the Operation Dudula movement.
The advisory, seen by IOL, alerted its nationals to actions being planned against immigrants on Friday, September 2.
“This is to advise Nigerians living in South Africa to be vigilant and exercise caution in their activities due to the recent utterances of the proponents of the Operation Dudula and their threats to attack foreign nationals in this country,” the advisory said.
“The group, through public notice and video clips circulated on the social media has informed of plans to march against foreign migrants in South Africa starting from 2nd of September 2022 and specifically on foreign business owners, shops and undocumented foreign nationals.
“Nigerian residents in South Africa are hereby advised to exercise caution and be watchful carrying out their day-to-day activities,” the advisory, signed by an official from the Consular Section of the High Commission in Pretoria, concluded.
Earlier this week, violent clashes were witnessed outside the Kalafong Provincial Tertiary Hospital in Pretoria where members of Operation Dudula have been vetting patients and staff, turning away foreign nationals. The situation degenerated when the Economic Freedom Fighters went to the hospital to counter the activities of Operation Dudula.
Operation Dudula has reportedly unleashed similar “protests” at different health facilities in Gauteng.
Gauteng police commissioner Lieutenant-General Elias Mawela warned that the frequent protests against illegal foreigners in the province are diverting the SAPS’s mission to fight serious crime.
Mawela expressed these sentiments when tabling the province’s crime statistics for the period April to June this year before the portfolio committee on community safety in the Gauteng Legislature sitting at Etwatwa, Daveyton.
The commissioner’s concern came while the Operation Dudula members visited health centres such as the Kalafong Hospital, while others were at the Hillbrow Community Health Centre in Joburg, demanding that foreigners should be denied medical attention.
The Operation Dudula activities also came after Gayton McKenzie – leader of the Patriotic Alliance (PA) – vowed to remove oxygen from an illegal immigrant to save the life of a South African citizen.
While all this was happening, Mawela warned that their actions, whether violent or not, ate into the budget of the police as they had to prevent attacks against individuals who were perceived to be illegal immigrants.
“The ever-rising anti-foreigner sentiments remain a high security threat to the domestic stability in the province. This threat requires focused and aggressive social cohesion programmes to mitigate it.
“Lastly, social ills such as substance abuse, moral degeneration and socio-economic factors continue to be the underlying causative factors to the contact crimes,” Mawela said.
Gauteng has experienced a spike in cash-in-transit heists, murders and kidnappings.
IOL