By Odwa Bafana Mkentane
Various interfaith groups, including the Cape Town Ulama Board, Muslim Judicial Council, South African Council of Churches, and Western Cape Council of Churches, gathered at St George’s Cathedral in Cape Town to discuss how they could assist the immigrants who are camping outside the Epping Home Affairs amid the illegal immigration protests that are announced to take place every Thursday.
This meeting comes after anti-illegal immigrant groups, March and March and others, held a mass march in many parts of the country, including in Cape Town, on Monday, calling for the expulsion of illegal immigrants. On Monday evening founder of the March and March group Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma announced that the group will have a march every Thursday till the immigrants are repatriated to their countries.
Ruth Jonas, deputy chairperson of the Western Cape Provincial Council of Churches, has urged South African citizens to refrain from violent actions.
“Our discussion here today is how can we step in so that people can be saved, so that people could still be fed, so that people’s human dignity could be given back to them, that people are not violently treated, but be treated with respect. Those are human beings; we are all human beings, and we need to be treated with respect. We urge today our fellow South African brothers and sisters to treat our African brothers and sisters who are at the centres or those who are undocumented with respect so that at the end of the day they will feel that they have been fairly treated and that they are called brothers and sisters,” she said.
Photo: VOCfm
