Heavy security deployed in South Africa ahead of anti-migrant protests | BBC News — Transcript

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1. 0:00Now to South Africa because security
2. 0:02personnel have been
3. 0:03deployed across the country due to fears
4. 0:05that anti-immigration protests could
5. 0:08descend into widespread violence against
6. 0:10foreigners. Now the planned
7. 0:12demonstrations mark an unofficial
8. 0:14deadline set by campaigners for all
9. 0:17undocumented migrants to leave.
10. 0:20This morning's newspapers from across
11. 0:23the country reflect the tensions there.
12. 0:25The Sowetan's headline "Nation on a
13. 0:27knife's edge".
14. 0:29And the headline in The Citizen
15. 0:31newspaper "South Africa holds its
16. 0:33breath". Well, we'll hear live from BBC
17. 0:36correspondents in a moment, but first
18. 0:37Nomsa Maseko reports from Durban where
19. 0:40police say they are ready for any
20. 0:42possible disruption.
21. 0:44>> We are currently in Durban at the
22. 0:46drive-in just opposite North Beach where
23. 0:48thousands of Malawians have been camping
24. 0:51for the last 2 weeks. They were
25. 0:53threatened with violence in their homes.
26. 0:56That's what they have been telling us
27. 0:58and that is why they say they decided to
28. 1:01come to this area because for them it
29. 1:03was safer
30. 1:05and that to ensure that they will not be
31. 1:07attacked. The priority for all of these
32. 1:10people who've gathered here is to leave
33. 1:12South Africa by the 30th of June because
34. 1:15of that unofficial deadline by protest
35. 1:19organizers. But it has been
36. 1:22painstakingly
37. 1:23slow and very frustrating for these
38. 1:26people to be first verified, documented,
39. 1:30be given,
40. 1:31you know, a piece of paper that
41. 1:33basically says that they were in South
42. 1:36Africa illegally and that they are now
43. 1:38being deported or repatriated out of
44. 1:41South Africa.
45. 1:42>> We want anything that will be happening
46. 1:44to be a peaceful. Everything in fact to
47. 1:47be happening peaceful and we want law
48. 1:50and order to be observed.
49. 1:52>> This piece of paper here is these
50. 1:56people's tickets to safety
51. 1:59for them to be able to leave the country
52. 2:01before
53. 2:02the mass protest that are planned for
54. 2:05Tuesday.
55. 2:06The police as well as city officials
56. 2:09have said that they will ensure that
57. 2:12everyone who is here in this camp and
58. 2:14many others
59. 2:16in this province and of course the
60. 2:18country
61. 2:19you know their safety is ensured
62. 2:23and secured but also The protest
63. 2:25organizers themselves have said that
64. 2:27they have no interest
65. 2:29in looting in damaging property
66. 2:32but that they want for their message
67. 2:35and the government to take illegal
68. 2:37immigration serious
69. 2:39in this country. They have promised
70. 2:42that they protest on June 30th will be
71. 2:45peaceful.
72. 2:46This is one of the buses that will be
73. 2:48making its way to the Limpopo province
74. 2:51in Musina at the Beitbridge border post
75. 2:55that will be ensuring that the people
76. 2:57here the more than 70 Malawians on this
77. 3:01bus will be taken home to safety. How do
78. 3:05you feel about this?
79. 3:09>> I am relieved to be going back to my
80. 3:11home country even though I have never
81. 3:13been attacked or intimidated while
82. 3:15living here
83. 3:17but I am heartbroken because I am
84. 3:19leaving my four young children behind.
85. 3:28>> That demonstrate the high visibility of
86. 3:31police officers that have been deployed
87. 3:34here in KwaZulu-Natal. This province has
88. 3:37been identified as one of
89. 3:40a possible hotspot where
90. 3:43demonstrations can turn violent but
91. 3:46there are many other thousands of police
92. 3:48officers who have has deployed to this
93. 3:51province as well as the Gauteng province
94. 3:54cuz it's also been identified as a
95. 3:57hotspot.
96. 3:59>> Well, that was Nomusa reporting on
97. 4:00tensions in Durban. Let's go live now to
98. 4:03Johannesburg and our correspondent
99. 4:04Nomusa Filani.
100. 4:06Uh Nomusa, just take us through the
101. 4:07situation where you are. The president
102. 4:10calling for peace.
103. 4:15>> Yes, we are in the Johannesburg city
104. 4:17center at the starting point of one of
105. 4:19the three main protests here in Gauteng
106. 4:22province. Crowds are starting to gather.
107. 4:25We've been here for about 2 hours and
108. 4:26people are slowly trickling in. Some of
109. 4:28them live within the city center itself
110. 4:31and they're walking from their homes to
111. 4:32meet at this gathering point. From here,
112. 4:35they will be marching to Constitutional
113. 4:38Hill where one where their leaders will
114. 4:40be handing over a memorandum of demands.
115. 4:42Now, these demands are what they want
116. 4:44the local police to do about what they
117. 4:46say is illegal occupation of businesses,
118. 4:50illegal occupations of buildings that
119. 4:52they say have been taken over by an
120. 4:54undocumented
121. 4:55migrants and they want that to be
122. 4:57investigated, but also they want those
123. 4:59buildings to be taken over and handed
124. 5:01back either to the city or to South
125. 5:04Africans.
126. 5:05>> And Nomusa, just give us a sense of the
127. 5:07the atmosphere there. We've been hearing
128. 5:08about tensions. Presumably there's a a
129. 5:11large security operation going on where
130. 5:14you are.
131. 5:17>> There certainly is. On an ordinary day,
132. 5:18it wouldn't be as quiet as it is in the
133. 5:20city center. A number of the main
134. 5:22businesses where we are have been closed
135. 5:24and on virtually every street corner,
136. 5:26you're seeing police. You're seeing also
137. 5:28municipal police just monitoring the
138. 5:30crowds as they begin to come in. One of
139. 5:33the big directives that have been given
140. 5:34to protesters is not to carry any
141. 5:36weapons and this includes what could be
142. 5:38termed traditional weapons. So,
143. 5:41wooden clubs, sticks, that sort of
144. 5:43thing. Police officers have been given
145. 5:45authority to take those away from people
146. 5:48where they deem necessary. And really
147. 5:50this broadly speaks to wanting to make
148. 5:52sure that violence doesn't break out
149. 5:55that these protests, although they have
150. 5:57been given authority to be out, they've
151. 5:59been told expressly that this should not
152. 6:01turn violent, no looting will be
153. 6:03allowed, and arrests will be affected to
154. 6:06people on whether they are illegal
155. 6:09foreign
156. 6:10foreign nationals or South Africans.
157. 6:12Anyone that's found to be committing a
158. 6:13crime, the police have said will be
159. 6:15apprehended on the spot today.
160. 6:17>> Okay, Pumzile van Loon in Joburg. Thank
161. 6:19you for that update.
162. 6:20Uh let's stick with this and let's speak
163. 6:22to Ongama Mchunu, the acting director of
164. 6:24the Raymond Mhlaba Centre for Governance
165. 6:26and Leadership at Nelson Mandela
166. 6:28University. Also a lecturer in the
167. 6:30Department of History and Political
168. 6:31Studies. Um hello to you. Thank you for
169. 6:33talking to us on on BBC News.
170. 6:35Could you just explain the background uh
171. 6:38where the protests are coming from in
172. 6:40this issue over undocumented migrants in
173. 6:43South Africa?
174. 6:45>> So, there has always been a reliance in
175. 6:49South African industries on droves of
176. 6:53foreign workers [clears throat] coming
177. 6:55from the the the rural hinterland in
178. 6:57South Africa and the wider region all
179. 7:00the way to Malawi. In fact, the very
180. 7:02basis of the South African economy has
181. 7:05been mass supply of cheap and vulnerable
182. 7:09workers, mostly black from the wider
183. 7:11continent. In the democratic period,
184. 7:14these shifted from mining, which was the
185. 7:17huge biggest culprit in the
186. 7:20at apartheid period, to sectors like
187. 7:24agriculture, construction, and others. I
188. 7:27must say that even though anecdotal
189. 7:29evidence, that is what people experience
190. 7:33as they work in farms and live in
191. 7:35communities where there are
192. 7:36concentrations of illegal immigrants,
193. 7:40the data from Statistics South Africa
194. 7:42and other research agencies does not
195. 7:45correspond with the deep with the deeply
196. 7:48entrenched perceptions that the scale of
197. 7:51illegal immigration
198. 7:53and and their consequences on people's
199. 7:55jobs and public infrastructure are
200. 7:58anything close to what the perceptions
201. 8:00from anecdotal evidence suggest.
202. 8:04>> Yeah, so just explain where this there's
203. 8:05clearly antagonism
204. 8:09particularly worries over this spreading
205. 8:11onto the streets today with these with
206. 8:13these anti-immigration protests. Where
207. 8:16is that antagonism between the two
208. 8:17groups come from?
209. 8:19>> The reality of the matter is that South
210. 8:21Africa as an economy doesn't work for
211. 8:23everybody. We've got 10 million strong
212. 8:27young people who are neither in
213. 8:29employment, education, or training. And
214. 8:33data from Stats South Africa shows that
215. 8:37poverty levels here reach about 40
216. 8:40million people
217. 8:42who are in the different categories of
218. 8:45the poverty lines, the three official
219. 8:47poverty lines. And the people who
220. 8:50experience the consequences of migration
221. 8:54and undocumented
222. 8:57foreign nationals are people who are
223. 9:00operating in the informal economy
224. 9:02through the labor market informal labor
225. 9:04markets or those that are operating
226. 9:06businesses such as retail outlets,
227. 9:10informal retail outlets in townships,
228. 9:12and they make it seem as though
229. 9:17you know, the informal traders are
230. 9:19taking jobs from locals. That's why
231. 9:21there's a disproportionate feeling in
232. 9:24terms of
233. 9:25you know, the scale of illegal
234. 9:26immigration and its consequences among
235. 9:29people in the lower classes and in
236. 9:31poverty-stricken areas compared to their
237. 9:33middle-class counterparts.
238. 9:35>> Yeah, okay. It's really interesting. So,
239. 9:37the perception doesn't necessarily
240. 9:38reflect the reality of the situation. Uh
241. 9:41really good to talk to you. Thank you
242. 9:42for that uh
243. 9:43uh contextualizing what's happening in
244. 9:44South Africa today. That's Ongama Mchunu
245. 9:46from the Nelson Mandela University.
246. 9:48Thank you.