Eastern Cape education MEC and ANC PEC member Fundile Gade has joined the chorus of those calling for government intervention and for it to join the broader civic movement behind protest marches against illegal and undocumented immigrants.
Gade said failure to act swiftly by the government would put the country in turmoil.
He said continuously ignoring this issue was tantamount to authorising the country’s demise, with service delivery to indigent citizens being placed under severe strain.
SA’s financial and other resources are stretched in accommodating undocumented immigrants accessing services, which are meant to benefit mostly locals.
It is home to about 2.4-million migrants, just less than 4% of the population, according to official figures.
Most come from neighbouring countries such as Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Mozambique, which have a history of providing migrant labour to their wealthy neighbour.
While many are in the country legally, many others remain illegal and undocumented, infuriating a number of civil movements and communities, especially in the wake of allegations related to drug dealing and other serious crimes.
Fed-up communities have since led a number of protests against illegal immigrants in many areas of the country.
In recent years, the rise of anti-migrant groups such as March and March and Operation Dudula, have gained notoriety for their demands that foreign nationals be removed from the country.
In KuGompo City, in 2026 alone, a number of protest marches have taken place, some led by the state, while others were led by communities, including traditional leaders.
While most were peaceful, some had elements of intimidation and violence.
In some areas, physical attacks against foreign nationals have been recorded.
Condemning recent attacks on foreigners, President Cyril Ramaphosa used his address recently on Freedom Day — which marks SA’s first democratic elections in 1994 — to also remind citizens of the country’s debt to other nations on the continent in supporting their struggle against apartheid.
Last week, hundreds took to the streets of Pretoria in a protest organised by March and March, heading towards the Union Buildings, the official seat of the government.
Their cry was the alleged “influx of illegal immigrants”, which they said politicians were not doing anything about.
Gade, in a statement at the weekend, seemed to agree with them, saying the stance needed to change before it was too late.
“The current impulse between South Africans and foreigners is eating at the belly of who we are and what we stand for.
“Continuously ignoring this impulse is tantamount to be authorising our demise through a back door as political leadership across all political formations.”
Gade said the continued presence of undocumented immigrants in SA had long-term unintended consequences.
“Either by default or by design, we have reached a stage wherein genuine citizenry must live in fear.
“The already ‘overheating’ public services are demonstrating exhaustion and are in a state of collapse because ordinarily they were not designed to service faceless people whose identity isn’t aligned to the financial and resource distribution policies we are currently using.
“So flooding public health, education and other social services with undocumented immigrants is a serious risk, in fact authorisation of our demise, because the state’s incapability is visible to anyone now,” he said.
“The second risk is flooding the township and local economies with undocumented immigrants, that is a platform for syndicates and well-organised crime ... with serious allegations of drug trafficking.
“The third risk is that the private security sector in the country is becoming more active and more armed than the state security, which ultimately will result in dysfunctional law enforcement agencies if not attended to with urgency.
“My observation may be wrong, but this phenomenon has created elitist beneficiaries within us as political leadership, hence the resistance to address it.
“Our political inward factional looking and political incapacity to handle our own problems has resulted in political ignorance and rendering us irrelevant politically.
“Our problem is not about law enforcement, our problem is our inability to read the signs of the moment and act accordingly with urgency and agility.
“There’s nothing wrong in redefining what must be done under the circumstances ... rather than witnessing an unguided revolution which can be hijacked and be redirected to another detour.
“By extension, we look like we are mourning, but let’s not mourn, let’s mobilise ourselves, get out of pride and sit with the civic movements at the helm of these protests against foreign immigrants.
“Concede where we were wrong, guide them where they are out of line, mitigate on the potential contentions that could arise in the discourse,” Gade said.
“Let us not insult people because of whatever irritations we have.
“We might equally have failed them in one way or another.
“Rather lets work with them. They usually say great problems always provide a platform for great solutions.”
Daily Dispatch