African National Congress (ANC) co-convenor in Gauteng, Panyaza Lesufi, says illegal immigrants should document themselves or leave South Africa in peace.
Lesufi said this during his address at the party’s two-day lekgotla in Johannesburg, ahead of the provincial elective conference.
PANYAZA LESUFI SENDS SCATHING WARNING TO ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
During his address, Lesufi condemned the fact that there are informal settlements that illegal immigrants dominate.
“It’s not Marry Me alone, there are many other similar ones, we can’t and I know it can create problems, comrades, we must be very firm now, we can’t have informal settlements where over 65% of its citizens are undocumented foreign citizens, in our own country. It must come to an end, we must be very firm on these things,” he said.
In addition, Lesufi said he has already written to President Cyril Ramaphosa and relevant ministers regarding the issue of undocumented foreigners.
“There is no country that can agree that you have people that you don’t know who they are, where they come from, where they sleep, what they do, and they are in our country doing as they wish – that period of honeymoon must come to an end…We must be very firm. ‘You document yourself or you leave us in peace’, and it has nothing to do with any characterisation of our character. Everyone knows about our Ubuntu, but our Ubuntu cannot be abused,” Panyaza Lesufi said.
GAUTENG HEALTH CONDEMNS THOSE BLOCKING ACCESS AT KALAFONG HOSPITAL
Panyaza Lesufi’s sentiments come just days after the Gauteng Department of Health condemned community members who had allegedly been obstructing patients from accessing Kalafong Tertiary Provincial Hospital in Atteridgeville, Tshwane, demanding that they produce their identity documentation at the gate.
In a video circulating on social media, a heavily pregnant Zimbabwean woman was also turned away by the individuals as she could not provide her identity documents.
HOME AFFAIRS DEPORTS CLOSE TO 50 000 ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS
Meanwhile, the Department of Home Affairs confirmed an increase in the number of illegal immigrants deported from South Africa, which is the highest in the last five years.
The number of deported illegal immigrants increased to 46 898 in the 2024/2025 financial year that ended on 31 March 2025.This number surged by 18% compared to the previous year’s 39 672.
Home Affairs said this is the highest number of deportations carried out in at least five years and is triple the number conducted in recent years.
The performance of South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs over the past year exceeds the number of deportations conducted by France (22 000) and Germany (20 000) combined over the same period.
The total number of deportations for the past five years are as follows:
- 2020/2021: 14 859
- 2021/2022: 20 093
- 2022/2023: 22 560
- 2023/2024: 39 672
- 2024/2025: 46 898
DO YOU SUPPORT PANYAZA LESUFI ON HIS PROPOSED FIRM STANCE AGAINST ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS?
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