Foreigner-Targeting Operation Dudula’s Tiny March Was Denounced As Violent And Xenophobic

The Education Department-targeting march of roughly 30 Operation Dudula supporters has drawn harsh criticism for being aggressive, bigoted, and discriminatory.

Members of the group marched in Cape Town on Wednesday while waving South African flags and wearing fake battle gear, pleading with the government to “take care of its own first” by giving South African instructors and students priority in the educational field.
The organization is widespread in Gauteng and has fought with unauthorized immigrants who own companies there.

On Wednesday, supporters from the District Six neighborhoods of Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Mfuleni, and Philippi marched to the Western Cape Education Department (WCED) from Hanover Street.

“No foreigner must be employed ahead of a South African,” read a poster from Operation Dudula South Africa that was distributed online.

The march was a component of a national initiative directed at provincial ministries of education.

Project Dudula Western Cape deputy chairman Lulamile Bavuma asserted that while South African children stayed at home, schools were “flooded with foreign nationals.”

“We demand that the government, specifically the Department of Education, ensure that no kid in South Africa is denied access to education because foreigners have already taken the available spots. Therefore, we are arguing that they must take those children out before allowing South African children in.

According to Bavuma, they concentrate on unaccompanied foreign minors.

We are prepared to help and welcome Ukrainians at this time because we are aware of the ongoing conflict in their country. However, there are no wars in these African nations.

“People are simply fleeing their nations, returning in December, then returning in January as though they were still in another region. That is an insult to our people, who are qualified citizens but are stuck at home without jobs, said Bavuma.
According to Mike Johnson, the provincial secretary for Operation Dudula, there were no problems finding qualified, credentialed teachers.

No unemployed South African teacher was part of the march, but the group claimed to know of many unemployed qualified teachers and new graduates just “sitting at home”.

Education MEC David Maynier said the group was attempting to manufacture a fake crisis in an attempt to justify their xenophobia and disregard for human rights.

Maynier said a mere 31 out of 33 652 teachers (0.09%) employed by the WCED were foreign nationals. An average of 1 995 foreign learners joined the 1.1 million learners at the province’s schools annually.