From Daily Maverick · Mondli Makhanya · · 3m
Anti-immigrant mob fuels attack on South Africa's constitution
Xenophobic activists are using immigration anger to undermine constitutional democracy and judicial independence, echoing tactics from the Zuma era.
In brief
Xenophobic activists are using immigration anger to undermine constitutional democracy and judicial independence, echoing tactics from the Zuma era. Anti-immigration activists are attacking South Africa's Constitution and judiciary as a way to reject constitutional protections for asylum seekers and foreign nationals…
Mobs enforce immigration policy
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Armed gangs led by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and Phakel'umthakathi Ndabandaba have taken to the streets enforcing immigration policy while the state struggles to respond.
Campaign targets all foreign nationals
Since setting a June thirtieth deadline for undocumented migrants to leave, the mobs have conducted indiscriminate hunts, targeting anyone they label kwerekwere or grigamba.
Court ruling triggers mob response
The Department of Home Affairs issued a circular implementing a Constitutional Court directive that asylum seekers cannot be turned away regardless of how they entered the country.
Mobs attack judiciary and Home Affairs
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Armed mobs turned on Home Affairs and the judiciary, accusing them of allowing South Africa to be overwhelmed by foreign nationals and ignoring the public voice.
Ngobese-Zuma questions democracy itself
March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma asked why judges should exist in a democracy, saying courts tell citizens what the law is and they must accept it.
“What is the use of democracy if the judges are there? Why don't the judges just run our lives?”
Ngobese-Zuma understands the law
Ngobese-Zuma is an extremely intelligent person who fully understands the rule of law but ignores it, knowing her followers do not understand it as well as she does.
What judges actually do
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The Constitutional Court serves the Constitution as a non-porous border against rights violations. Judges interpret laws and compel compliance from government, private sector and individuals.
Judiciary hostility echoes Zuma era
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Hostility towards judges fuelled by political leaders and populist activists is rising. Jacob Zuma's rise was marked by revulsion for judges after Judge Hilary Squires found a mutually beneficial symbiosis between Zuma and corrupt businessman Schabir Shaik.
Constitution blamed for national ills
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Anti-immigration activists argue the Constitution is responsible for South Africa's problems, including high crime, low morality and outsiders taking jobs, hospital beds and school desks.
State failure removed from equation
The argument ignores state failure: corrupt Home Affairs officials, inadequate border safeguarding, police not protecting neighbourhoods and authorities allowing building hijackings and unregulated spaza shops.
From elite project to populist movement
During the Zuma years, rejecting constitutionality was an elite State Capture project that gained little traction beyond loyal cadres. Now populism fuelled by citizen frustration gives anti-constitutionalists far more ammunition.
Constitutional project under sustained attack
A dangerous sentiment is spreading that the Constitution and judiciary upholding it are a luxury. Anti-immigration activists are driving this, using rejection of the preamble that South Africa belongs to all who live in it as their rallying point.
“South Africa belongs to all who live in it”
The main idea
Anti-immigration activists are attacking South Africa's Constitution and judiciary as a way to reject constitutional protections for asylum seekers and foreign nationals.
