Government’s Weak Response to Anti-Immigrant Marches: Why Is the ANC So Determined to Keep Illegal Immigrants in South Africa While South African Citizens Come Second?

In late April 2026, thousands of furious South Africans took to the streets in Pretoria and Johannesburg under the banner of the civic movement March and March. Led by activist Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, the protesters delivered a blunt and unmistakable message to the Union Buildings and the Gauteng Legislature: deport the illegal immigrants or face civil war. They are not playing games. South African citizens are done watching their country being overrun while they are pushed to the back of the queue in their own land.

The government’s response has been pathetic, evasive and downright insulting. Acting Government Spokesperson Nomonde Mnukwa told citizens to “uphold the Constitution” and report concerns to the police instead of taking matters into their own hands. Deputy Minister Nonceba Mhlauli admitted the concerns were “legitimate” but immediately warned against “prejudice or hatred”. Foreign Minister Ronald Lamola was on the phone to Nigeria and Ghana reassuring them that violence is “un-South African”. President Ramaphosa, in his Freedom Day speech, once again lectured his own people not to let frustration “breed prejudices” toward fellow Africans.

This is the same government that has allowed millions of undocumented foreigners to flood into South Africa while doing almost nothing to secure the borders or prioritise its own citizens. The question that screams for an answer is this: Why is the ANC so determined to keep illegal immigrants in the country while South African citizens are forced to come second in jobs, housing, hospitals, schools and every other public service?

The answer is not complicated. It is a deliberate choice. The ANC’s ideological obsession with pan-African solidarity, combined with political convenience and elite interests, has created a situation where illegal immigration is tolerated and even protected. Undocumented migrants provide cheap labour for certain businesses, votes in some areas, and a convenient distraction from the government’s own failures. Meanwhile, millions of South Africans rot in unemployment queues, wait years for RDP houses, and watch their children squeezed out of overcrowded schools and hospitals.

Official figures put the undocumented migrant population at around two million, with the total foreign-born population close to 2.4 million in a country of 62 million. That is not a small number. It is a massive additional burden on already broken systems. Township schools are overflowing. Hospital queues are endless. Construction sites and small businesses are dominated by people who entered the country illegally. And the government’s response? Diplomatic phone calls, lectures about “social cohesion”, and warnings against “xenophobia”.

This is not leadership. This is betrayal.

Loving life means putting your own people first in their own country. It means secure borders that actually work. It means enforcing immigration laws without apology. It means making sure South African citizens get priority access to jobs, housing, education and healthcare. None of that is hatred. It is basic national self-respect.

The March and March protesters are not extremists. They are ordinary South Africans who have had enough. They are giving voice to what millions feel every single day: their government cares more about protecting illegal immigrants and avoiding international criticism than about protecting the future of its own citizens. When protesters warn that continued failure to act could lead to civil war, the government should listen instead of rushing to reassure foreign governments.

The real threat to social cohesion is not citizens marching and demanding change. The real threat is a government that treats its own people as second-class citizens in their own land while bending over backwards to accommodate those who entered unlawfully. The ANC has spent years failing to secure the borders, failing to deport illegal entrants, and failing to put South Africans first. Now they act surprised when frustration boils over.

The upcoming local government elections will make this issue even more explosive. Citizens are tired of empty promises and moral lectures while their opportunities disappear and their neighbourhoods change without their consent. Peaceful protest is how democracy works. The government’s refusal to enforce its own laws and protect its own people is what creates the danger.

A government that truly loved life and cared about its citizens would immediately do the following: seal the porous borders, fast-track deportations of those here illegally, crack down on businesses exploiting undocumented labour, and implement clear priority systems for South Africans in public services and jobs. Instead we get soft words, diplomatic reassurances and deflection.

South Africa cannot absorb unlimited illegal migration while failing to house, employ and educate its own population. The loving life position is simple and non-negotiable: South Africa belongs first and foremost to South Africans. We celebrate every productive citizen who builds, works and creates value. We reject any policy or ideology that puts foreigners ahead of our own people in their own country.

The marches and the stark warning of civil war are a wake-up call the ANC ignores at its peril. Citizens will not stay silent while their country is transformed around them without their consent. The time has come for the government to stop protecting illegal immigrants and start protecting the future of South African citizens.

Anything less is not just bad policy. It is a complete failure of leadership and a direct betrayal of the people who built this country and continue to sustain it every single day.

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