Newly formed anti immigrant pressure group March and March has rejected the call by government for it to stop blocking entrances at public health facilities.
The group, along with Operation Dudula and some political parties have been blocking foreign nationals from accessing health services at public institutions insisting that only South Africans be accepted.
March and March activist Johannes Maluleke who led one such campaign in Rossetenville, Johannesburg on Monday said government was not obliged to rollout services to immigrants arguing they ( foreign nationals) should pay for services rendered by private providers.
“We want to say to President Cyril Ramaphosa, you are failing to take care of 2 million people but want to invite another 7 million into the country. our resources are strained and should be reserved for South Africans since it is us who pay taxes,” said Maluleke.
He said South Africans have been displaced across the economy by foreigners.
“Right here where we are when we go around we find that South Africans are tenants and foreigners are the landlords. tell me if that happens in any other country. I can tell you it does not because they put their people first while we are expected to take care of everyone, its not fair,” said the activist.
The pressure group has vowed to extend raids to schools and factories where it believes there’s a lot of immigrants.
The campaign initially targeted undocumented immigrants but now the group is escalating it saying all foreign nationals should not access public services.
“They are everywhere, in the security sector, hospitality, in the factories and in the taxi industry, we are going to be going there to take them out. you can see how empty it is inside the clinic because we blocked them,” he said.
The raids have been condemned by several NGOs along with the South African Human Rights Commission who cited provisions in the constitution barring the discrimination of ‘anyone’ who is in South Africa when rolling out services.
“When they said South Africa belongs to all who live in it they were referring to us, the black majority that had been oppressed and the boers ( white population) there was no foreigners then and the law was not intended to protect them but our own people,” he said.