‘Better take us back to apartheid’ – March and March tells government

Leader of anti-immigration pressure group March and March, Jacinta Ngobese, believes Black South Africans were better off under apartheid than under the democratic government. Ngobese led a march to the Union Buildings in Pretoria on Tuesday, where the group demanded the mass deportation of foreign nationals who are in the country unlawfully.
Ngobese accused the democratic government of, among other things, ignoring the plight of citizens, as well as gaslighting them by labelling calls for immigration control as xenophobic.
She said promises made during the democratic breakthrough of 1994 have not been fulfilled and therefore called for a return to the racist system, arguing the government of the day is failing.
“We are not bored as South Africans. We are here to submit yet another memorandum, not because we are uneducated or don’t have things to do, but because we are genuinely frustrated. It was you who promised us liberation, but now we have to beg you to make us a priority in our own country. You took us from white rule, promising liberation, but things are worse now; you might as well hand us back to the whites — that would be better,” said Ngobese.
Another protest leader, Nkosiikhona Ndabandaba, also known on social media as Phekelumthakathi, called for the collapse of all Black political parties, arguing that an entirely new vehicle is required.
“The ANC has history and must close down with that history. The IFP has history and must close down with that history. The leaders of all these political parties must come together to form a new political party to represent Black people because currently we are suffering. If we had a strong political party, it could use the wealth of the country to give each one of us at least a million rand each year,” he said.
Although the demonstrators did not act violently or go around confronting suspected foreign nationals, businesses in the Pretoria CBD closed out of caution, with their closure upsetting protest organisers.
The groups were expected to hold another protest in Johannesburg on Wednesday.
Currently, ActionSA, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party, the Patriotic Alliance, and the African Transformation Movement are the only parties regarded as patriotic by the anti-immigration groupings, and they have tried to maintain a presence at such protests, hoping to get a share of the vote.
ActionSA MP and National Spokesperson Lerato Ngobeni downplayed xenophobic, Afrophobic, as well as tribalistic rhetoric coming out of the protests, which were led mainly by Zulu-speaking individuals and seemingly driven by stereotypes.
“The Shangaan thing, for example — we were the first to condemn it as a political party when it happened in the Eastern Cape and elsewhere — so that is not what we are about,” said Ngobeni.
She said police should take responsibility for sporadic violence that has characterised the anti-immigration protests.
“Every protest, especially when you have large numbers of people, will always include groups with nefarious intentions, and that is why we have law enforcement here — that is why we have the police here. It is they who must do intelligence work and identify the troublemakers,” she said.