Staff Reporter.
Tensions ran high in Alexandra on Monday afternoon as the controversial Operation Dudula members clashed with migrant street vendors.
The group has been demonstrating against what they say is the employment of migrant workers over South Africans for several months now.
At least 10 people were injured during the violent standoff, according to Alexandra’s Dudula Movement leader Simon Rati, whose T-shirt had blood splatters, as he led the group on a march aimed at trying to stop foreigners from trading in the streets of the township’s CBD.
The foreign nationals resisted attempts to have them removed and blocked from vending in the township.
Rati said the violence would not deter the group from continuing with its “cleanup” and that they were planning a shutdown of the township.
The march, similar to that seen in parts of Soweto, drew heavy police presence.
I think that a time has come to petition Aaron Motsoaledi to release a forensic audit report on Home Affairs & must be followed by a Court process. #OperationDudula #PutSouthAfricaFirst pic.twitter.com/C6K9B1U8fy
— Operation Dudula ?? (@ODudula) March 7, 2022
Another member of the Dudula Movement in Alex, Agnes Malatji, denied claims the march had xenophobic undertones.
“The movement is not xenophobic, we love our African brothers and sisters however we are pleading with the government that things should be done the right way because the influx of foreign nationals in our country is super scary.
“As much as I am a South African I can’t just go to a foreign country, for example Zimbabwe, and get there and run a barber shop by the street corner. There are laws, there’s regulations, there’s procedures that I must apply to but not in South Africa.
“In South Africa people they come here and does they please ease the government allows it. The government surpasses the South African citizens,” Malatji said.
The group vowed to return to the streets if foreign nationals failed to heed the calls to leave the township.