A force of 10,000 inspectors is being recruited to weed out foreigners: door-to-door across the nation, they will check mines, factories and shops, rounding up those without papers for deportation. Oh, and the target will be black people!
Trump madness? Marine le Pen? No, this is South Africa and a project launched by President Cyril Ramaphosa to expel millions of black migrants from across the rest of Africa who have jumped the border or overstayed their visa.
It’s Africa’s answer to ICE, though you won’t find many people protesting: quite the opposite.
Government and the police are desperate to demonstrate they’re on top of the problem; to assuage the rising rage of native South Africans, and try to stop them taking matters into their own hands.
But it’s too late for that. Things have already turned nasty. Shacks lived in by foreign workers are being torched and vigilante groups block access to schools and clinics, demanding to see proof of residence. One outfit March & March has laid down a deadline of 30 June, this coming Tuesday, for undocumented migrants to leave, or face violent eviction.
