The March and March Movement may be new to the streets of Gauteng, but its message is not.
In recent years, a succession of groups framed as civic organisations have walked through the streets of Johannesburg and Pretoria with similar claims and accusations. From Operation Dudula most recently to Put South Africans First, the Fiyela Movement, the All Truck Drivers Foundation and other groups before them. The names change, the leaders change and the slogans are repackaged, but the message remains familiar.
On Wednesday, the group's narrative as they marched through Johannesburg - which didn't follow the route that was agreed upon earlier with the Johannesburg Metro Police Department - repeated the same script: undocumented migrants cast as criminals, foreign nationals blamed for drugs and crime and the legal status of migrants treated less as a real distinction and more as a convenient cover for hostility toward anyone not from South Africa.
Walters Nkan, a 50-year-old migrant from Cameroon who has lived in South Africa for 12 years, was the first to face that hostility on Wednesday when he was beaten and struck over the head with a knobkierrie by masked men who were part of the group led by Ngizwe Mchunu and Nkosikhona "Phakelumthakathi" Ndabandaba.
Keep up with the latest headlines on WhatsApp | LinkedIn
Nkan, who was wearing a Springbok supporters jersey and visiting his sister at the place where she worked in Braamfontein, was accosted by a group of men who accused him of being a foreigner. "We knew they were protesting today, but we didn't know they were coming there," a visibly stunned Nkan said after he was struck and bleeding from the head.
"They were just shouting 'you're a foreigner, foreigner, foreigner.' Then they started beating me. They don't care about you or what you are saying. They just attack you if they know you're not from here," Nkan said later.
The group grew in numbers as they made their way from Mary Fitzgerald Square in Newtown and slowly snaked through Braamfontein, where it paused for a while as those in the front - shirtless and with traditional Zulu weapons - were deciding on the route to follow to and through Hillbrow.
Following in tow were March and March Movement supporters and people from political parties, including ActionSA and the MK Party, as well as other groups such as Operation Dudula and the Fiyela movement. A number of men walking in the front with Mchunu, Ndabandaba, and other shirtless men could be seen with firearms on their hips. One man briefly pulled his firearm in Braamfontein and pointed it toward a building.
Superintendent Xolani Fihla, spokesperson for the Johannesburg Metro Police Department, acknowledged that the original, planned route was not followed but told Our City News that "unpredictable factors, such as the size of the crowd, spontaneous obstructions, or safety bottlenecks, can sometimes cause the lead group to divert".
"As the police and local agencies, we generally prioritise public safety over strict route enforcement. If a crowd begins to move in a different direction, officers often pivot to managing traffic and preventing conflict rather than attempting to force a large, moving mass of people back onto a specific street, which can sometimes escalate tension," he said.
Fihla also added that the law "strictly prohibits the possession" of weapons during a protest or march. "The challenge for law enforcement is the safe confiscation of these items in a high-tension environment," he said.
The group made its way through Hillbrow without any further incidents, except for the regular taunting and intimidation of onlookers from side streets and apartment blocks. They made their way down Twist Street, past the Wanderers taxi rank towards the Ethiopian Quarter on Rahima Moosa Street in Jeppe, where most of the shops were already shuttered.
Another person here was accosted and struck by some in the group before they carried on moving back towards Marshalltown again and making their way to the Gauteng Legislature. Once the group arrived at the legislature, they were joined by other prominent people such as the leader of the March and March Movement, Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba.
Gauteng Premier Panyaza Lesufi was there to meet the group and to receive their memorandum. He was later booed by the group as he thanked them. Mchunu and Ndabandaba then led a large group of people away from the legislature and through Marshalltown.
The irony of the crowd moving down Marshall Street towards Jeppestown was palpable as they were one street from where the City recently held a successful activation to promote and endorse inner-city communal life. The group carried on until they reached Gilfillan Park on the corners of Jules Street and Gus Street in Jeppestown before they dispersed.
Sign up for free AllAfrica Newsletters
Get the latest in African news delivered straight to your inbox
Some of the group said they were planning to gather again on Thursday morning and return to Hillbrow.
Professor Loren Landau, co-director of the Wits-Oxford Mobility Governance Lab (MGL), said he still believed it was a minority of South Africans who were willing to turn their issues with migration into protest or vigilantism, but the recent action by groups such as March and March showed the danger of allowing scapegoating and collective action to go unchecked.
"What I can say is that when we look at unemployment rates and crime rates at a national level, they do not correspond closely to immigrant presence. The rural Eastern Cape and Northern Cape have almost no jobs but also almost no immigrants," he said.
"Of course, immigrants commit crimes, but no more so than anyone else. Most of what they're arrested for has to do with immigration offenses," he added, noting that anyone living and working in South Africa was contributing to the country through various taxes such as income tax and VAT.
