March and March protests are national security risk, says Ntshavheni

The marches and protests against illegal migrants are both a national security and reputational risk to the country, says minister in the PresidencyKhumbudzo Ntshavheni. Her comments, made during a post-cabinet briefing on Thursday, come after countries like Nigeria have condemned South Africa over the issue of violence against foreigners, and Ghana protested to the AU, asking for the matter to be placed on its agenda and for Pretoria to be held accountable. Other countries, including Malawi and Zimbabwe, have issued alerts to their citizens living in SA, advising them on how to protect themselves as the protests continue.

She said the State Security Agency had been roped in to monitor the protests and help law enforcement agencies clamp down on those responsible for the violence that has characterised the marches against the presence of illegal foreigners, especially those enjoying employment and running businesses in the country. The March and March movement has been leading protests against undocumented foreigners, shutting down their businesses and demanding their deportation, blaming them for the nation’s unemployment crisis. We have seen consistent attempts to mobilise an uprising in the country.

Minor issues are used … and they have failed and they will fail again in this instance Ntshavheni said while South Africans had every right to protest “the spiraling illegal-immigration challenge”, the violence linked to the protests was unacceptable. “It’s both a national security and a reputational issue.

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A reputational issue because [residents of] countries, and I won’t mention names, that have departed en masse, are now speaking up against South Africa. We have not done that [mass deportations],” she said. “Those who want to diminish the status of SA are using AI-generated videos of atrocities committed in other countries and claiming that they are from SA.

“South Africans don’t use machetes to fight, yet there are videos that are purported to be xenophobic attacks in South Africa of people using machetes to kill. “You would have [long] written about it in your broadcasts and newspapers,” Ntshavheni added. “We have not had that, but those videos are being used to propel an international outburst against South Africa which is not based on facts.”

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