Helen Zille has defended her meeting with March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, but DA insiders have questioned her mandate to engage the anti-immigration movement as pressure mounts ahead of the group's June 30 deadline for undocumented migrants to leave South Africa.
Democratic Alliance (DA) stalwart Helen Zille received a clear message when she met leaders of the March and March movement: DA ministers must urgently address illegal immigration.
"Our message was loud and clear. It is DA ministers who run the Home Affairs and Education departments. They have an obligation to South Africans to ensure that resources in our schools and health facilities are not abused by illegal immigrants. We gave them solutions during our meeting with Zille and expect her to convey them to the DA ministers and for them to act on them," a senior March and March leader who attended the meeting told IOL.
The proposed solutions include a halt to the processing of refugee applications and improved tracking of undocumented foreign nationals in the country.
Asked about Zille's response during the meeting, a source who was present said:
