19 February 2022
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Shamila Ntokozo Mdlongwa
JOHANNESBURG – Anti-immigrant group, Operation Dudula, staged a protest in the Orange Grove Suburb in a continued campaign against foreign nationals.
Most of the participants were women.
The infamous self-regulated group took to the streets once again this time in the Orange Grove district which is part of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality, it is located about 29 minutes south of Pretoria, the country’s capital City.
The protestors staged what they called a “peaceful march” to hand over a letter/memorandum to business people so as to stop the practice of employing foreign nationals as well as to march against undocumented foriegners “taking their jobs” and practicing criminal activities in SA.
Some members of the group are seen in their bras without top clothing.
The South African Police Services, SAPS, tried to maintain order by confining the protestors and a clash ensued.
It is during this melee with SAPS that some of the women strip totally naked.
A source who witnessed the incident and sent Zim GBC News a video expresses concern on the actions by the protestors.
In South Africa, abantu abawesabi amapholisa shame! Vele benza sengathi ngabantukazana. Sibindi bani somfazi sokukhulula impahla bhunyumunyu emphakathini?
Here in South Africa the populace are not afraid of the police. How can a woman undress totally naked infront of a crowd?
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She said the protestors felt that they were not taken seriously by the police and in retaliation the women removed their clothes.
Since the citizens of South Africa dig too much into their rights a scuffle with the police was inevitable to an extent that the police was forced to fire rubber bullets into the crowd and unfortunately an elderly woman was injured and had to be taken to hospital by an ambulance after she sprained an ankle.
Our source said more women joined in in taking off their clothes in solidarity with the protesters and because they were unhappy with how the police were handling matters with regards to alleged undocumented foreigners selling drugs to their children while the police were not doing much about it.
The women said that thier children are unemployed because many businesses in that Suburb employ mostly foreign nationals.
The police who were on standby and were seen guarding the TM Pick ‘n’ Pay premises to avoid any acts of vandalism on the property by the group.
The protesters said they wanted to hand over their petition to the management of business in that district.
SAPS was in agreement with the leaders but wanted the protesters to leave the letter with them (Police) instead.
The letter was finally handed over to some manager of a grocery store at the shopping complex and the protesters slowly disbanded.
The leaders of the protest that spoke to reporters said that they were satisfied with the protest as they achieved their goal.
In the meantime President Cyril
Ramaphosa is refuting claims of a possible xenophobic outraged by his citizens but events on the ground point to that direction.