For as long as South Africa continues to accommodate undocumented foreigners, the country will not be able to resolve its housing crisis, ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said on Tuesday.

Mashaba made the remarks during a media briefing in Pretoria, where the party launched its performance tracker for the City of Tshwane under Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya’s leadership.

The tracker, updated in real time with city data, allows residents to monitor Tshwane’s progress via ActionSA’s website. 

It tracks key performance areas, including financial stability, infrastructure, economic revitalisation, safety and cleanliness, governance, and customer care.

Speaking at the media briefing, Mashaba said that the growing number of informal settlements, often driven by undocumented migration, was one of the key issues that led him into politics.

“This issue of the housing crisis and informal settlements is what drove me to finally enter politics, rather than run away from my country,” he said.

The issue of informal settlements has been ongoing for years in Gauteng, especially in metros like the City of Joburg and the City of Tshwane. 

People come from across the country, hoping to find better access to housing, healthcare, education, and other basic services. 

However, as these areas grow, so do the challenges. 

Many of the settlements are overcrowded, and tensions sometimes boil over, especially toward foreign nationals. 

This puts even more pressure on already stretched municipal services, making it harder to meet the needs of everyone living there.

Mashaba, however, criticised the normalisation of informal settlements.

“We developed a new terminology to make them sound acceptable; we call them informal settlements. But these are actually squatter camps, where people live without dignity for 15 to 20 years,” he said.

Mashaba, who served as mayor of City of Joburg from 2016 to 2019, said that the issue of undocumented foreigners must be addressed urgently if the country wants to tackle its housing backlog.

“We must be true to ourselves. For as long as we are prepared to accommodate undocumented foreigners, we will never resolve the housing crisis,” he said.

He claimed that migrants entering South Africa from countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India, end up in informal settlements, including in Alexandra, Mamelodi, and Hammanskraal.

“Our poor people are the biggest casualties of this lawlessness that our own government, and institutions like the South African Human Rights Commission, are allowed to continue,” Mashaba said.

He added that informal settlements contribute to overpopulation and place unsustainable pressure on local services like healthcare, education, and sanitation.

Mashaba also criticised South Africa’s constitutional framework, especially the Bill of Rights, which requires basic services to be provided to all who live in the country, regardless of documentation status.

“If you go to our clinics, our schools, and our hospitals, you find undocumented individuals. And when you raise this, the Bill of Rights says no. You can’t blame the judges; they’re just following the Constitution,” he said.

“If you look at the preamble of the Constitution, it says South Africa belongs to all who live in it. That’s fine – but our laws must also protect the rights of South African citizens first,” he said.

Mashaba reiterated ActionSA’s stance on undocumented immigration.

“We are unapologetic: undocumented, illegal foreigners are not welcome in South Africa,” he said. 

“This country was built on the backs of migrants. We welcome legal immigration, but people must come here legally and respect our laws.”

He said the state of South Africa’s economy and healthcare system cannot sustain the current situation.

“South Africa cannot afford to provide healthcare to our own people, let alone the eight billion people of the world. If anyone expects that, then ActionSA will stand firmly against it,” Mashaba said.

He added that the country must choose between legality and chaos.

“If we’re prepared to promote chaos, this country will pay a price.”

simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za

IOL Politics

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