Mamelodi residents demand denial of asylum for foreigners
The Mamelodi Concerned Residents organisation is adamant that it will be marching to the Department of Home Affairs on Friday, to demand foreign nationals be denied asylum.
Organiser Makgoka Lekganyane says some of the residents’ concerns include the high unemployment rate and crime.
“The Sustainable Livelihoods Foundation did a study in townships in South Africa and found that 60% of the people in townships are unemployed. Yet we have tuckshops owned by foreign nationals in our townships that do not pay tax,” he says.
Lekganyane says they want the government to deport foreign nationals who are selling drugs and involved in human trafficking.
“Home Affairs must deport people who are selling drugs and selling young women as sex slaves. We have never had these things in South Africa,” says Lekganyane
News of the march have sparked fears of renewed xenophobic attacks in the area.
Lekganyane says they are against xenophobia, but want their grievances to be addressed.