‘South Africa is no place for undocumented citizens or illegal mining’
Mashaba against undocumented immigrants and Zama Zama's.
Last month, when the Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba visited the informal settlement of Zamimpilo in the official handover of the ablution facilities, residents from the community staged a silent protest.
The silent protest was held at the entrance of the informal settlement to indicate to the mayor what the issues are in the area, mainly: illegal mining and housing. Residents held their placards up in hope that the mayor will also address the issues.
During the ceremony of the handover, the mayor had his keynote address and during this keynote address, he said that he has two requests that he will be unapologetic about. The first being around illegal immigrants in the country.
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He said: “I am engaging with the Department of Home Affairs. This question about undocumented citizens living in South Africa, is totally unacceptable, if you are in South Africa and do not have legal documentation, please go to home affairs and go register yourself.”
“As the City of Johannesburg, we are not going to tolerate people who are undocumented, you have no reason not to be registered if you qualify. The City of Johannesburg is not willing to provide facilities more especially housing to people who are not registered.”
The second issue which the mayor addressed was around the Zama Zama issue.
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“South Africa is not a place for Zama Zama’s, this illegal mining is actually putting the lives of our people in risk with these blasting’s that’s happening, using our infrastructures such as our water and electricity.”
“I’m dealing with national government because I’m not prepared to sit back as the Executive Mayor of the City of Johannesburg and allow criminal activity to put the lives of our people at risk, so if you are a Zama Zama, just know that one day if I get the powers from national government, we are not going to hesitate.”
“We cannot wait until we have a massive disaster with the Zama Zama’s and the blasting next to gas and petrol pumps, you can imagine the day when this accident happens.
“Are we going to call it an accident?
“It cannot be an accident because it was bound to happen because we let it happen, I am not prepared to sit and say that God is going to sort it out, God gave us brains to use to make sure that we can correct the ills of the society, ” Mashaba said.
The mayor made it clear that with both issues he is pushing for the national government to assist before matters become worse.
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