Cape Town - Residents of Kwanokuthula in Plettenberg Bay on Thursday handed over a petition to Bitou Municipality mayor Dave Swart over concerns about the impact of illegal foreign nationals in their community.
About one hundred residents marched along the N2 to the municipality’s office in Plettenberg Bay to hand over the petition.
The peaceful march followed notices on social media platforms last week calling for a “total shutdown”.
Residents accused foreign nationals of contributing to a drug scourge in their community and taking their jobs.
A meeting was held with the community on Wednesday in an attempt to calm the volatile situation.
“There are 69 shops in Kwanokuthula that are owned by foreigners. It was agreed in the meeting that foreigners will reduce the number of shops to give south African nationals the opportunity to open and trade,” said one resident.
Authorities were on high alert on Thursday and urged motorists travelling between Plettenberg Bay and Knysna to be vigilant.
Organisers of the march said they were “fed up” watching the community suffer.
Community activist Vuyokazi Kitsi said the march was a success and they were able to raise their concerns.
“Residents managed to demonstrate how they feel and our petition was well received. The leadership is not naive to the fact that some of the points in our petition won't be implemented immediately and they will need time.
“Leadership will be in constant consultation with all relevant stakeholders,” she said.
Kitsi added they were not xenophobic, but were working as a collective to resolve their concerns.
“When foreigners first came to our community we embraced them. But we later realised that there were concerns and that is what we are trying to engage on.
“If we were xenophobic we would not allow foreigners to engage with us, and we would not need a movement as a vehicle to push that agenda.
But we are responsible citizens of this town and we are busy engaging our community. We know that the problem needs a collective approach, and we say to those who are illegal they must go back to their countries,” she said.
The petition was received and signed by Swart.
“I’ve received the petition from residents of Kwanokuthula where they want the municipality to assist in addressing various issues.
“Some of the issues are not municipal competencies, but we can certainly assist.”
South African Communist Party (SACP) district secretary Langa Langa said they were in full support of any move that sought to combat crime.
“We believe that South Africa is a constitutional democracy and has processes that promote every citizen's right and therefore any crime, regardless of who commits it, whether foreign or South African, must be combated and defeated. The party supports the move by the Kwanokuthula community and all the law enforcement agencies for their united effort in fighting crime in this community,“ he said.
Cape Times