South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) online news has reported that 120 undocumented foreign nationals have been arrested at the Durban beachfront on New Year’s Day and the majority of them are said to be from Malawi.
SABC reports that the immigrants were arrested during South Africa’s Police Minister Bheki Cele’s walkabout in the area.
Cele is reported as saying the beachgoers seemed to have obeyed the city’s by-law that forbids drinking in public.
Police Minister Bheki Cele
“I think there are thousands and thousands of beachgoers here,” he is reported as saying. “The behaviour up to this point seems to be fine.
“The strategy of not allowing alcohol to come here has helped us a lot. For the first one and a half-hour session, we have arrested 121 undocumented people on this beach and counting.
“We just find then in big groups. You ask the papers and find no papers, no passport, nothing and most of them come from Malawi.”
Durban beachfront
The report said more than 2.1 million people have descended on beaches in the eThekwini metro to celebrate the start of the New Year.
Many say it has become their tradition to go to the beach each year on New Year’s Day.
In a related development, SABC reports that Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) special guests, attending an elective conference in Nasrec, Johannesburg mid December, expressed their support towards the idea of one and borderless Africa as suggested by the South Africa EFF leadership.
Kamata Banda
EFF Malawi coordinator Kamata Banda is quoted as saying the issue of African unity is a priority for them and that Africans are one and need to understand the importance of African unity.
“We are one people divided by the white monopoly capital.”
He further gave examples of how Africans from different countries relate to each other.
Julius Malema is also EFF member
“We need to build a brotherhood of Africans. Let us do away with borders.”
Banda says they are also fighting against gender-based violence in Malawi, saying the problem is so bad that police officers are perpetrators in these gender-based crimes.
The report says EFF has also lamented the scourge of corruption from their respective countries.
Namibia EFF national coordinator and member of Parliament, Kalimbo Lipumbu, says corruption is a serious issue in Namibia.
“The issue of corruption is really at the highest degree in Namibia. There is the issue of the Fishery, where two ministers have been arrested.”
He also mentioned millions that have disappeared from different departments, stating that these politicians must be made to account for these issues.
Namibia EFF will be represented in the incoming legislature with Lipumbu and his president being sworn in March 2020.
The special delegates were in Johannesburg to support EFF on their second National People’s Assembly held in Nasrec.