Nhlanhla Lux Tells Foreign Nationals To Fight Back Against South Africans — Soweto Erupts

Controversial Operation Dudula founder Nhlanhla Lux Dlamini stood before a gathering of Ethiopian and Pakistani traders in Soweto on Tuesday, delivering a message that left the township stunned: stop fearing South Africans, and hit back when threatened. The remarks, captured on video that began circulating rapidly across social media platforms, ignited fury from one end of Gauteng to the other before nightfall.

Dlamini reportedly urged Ethiopian and Pakistani nationals operating businesses in the area to defend themselves physically against any South African who confronted or attacked them. He insisted these traders held legitimate licences, paid their levies, and deserved to conduct commerce without harassment. “Do not be scared,” he told the crowd, according to witnesses present at the meeting. “If they come for you, fight.” The statement drew immediate condemnation from community leaders across Soweto, who described his words as deliberately inflammatory and dangerous.

Soweto Community Policing Forum chairperson Daniel Mokoena confirmed to this publication that SAPS members from Orlando and Meadowlands stations received complaints within hours of the footage spreading online. “We are monitoring the situation closely,” Mokoena stated. “Any individual inciting violence between groups will face the full consequence of the law.” The South African Police Service had not issued a formal charge sheet against Dlamini by the time of publication.

Dlamini built his public profile spearheading Operation Dudula marches through Johannesburg townships beginning in 2021, pushing foreign-owned spaza shops to produce valid documentation. His campaign won enormous popular support among unemployed youth but drew sharp criticism from human rights organisations who accused the movement of xenophobic targeting. The irony of Dlamini now instructing foreign nationals to resist South Africans was not lost on longtime observers of his trajectory.

One Ethiopian trader, who requested anonymity, clutched a laminated business licence as reporters approached him outside his Orlando East shop on Wednesday morning. Tears gathered in his eyes before he turned away without speaking — a man caught between gratitude for unexpected protection and terror at the storm it might unleash around him.

What happens inside Soweto’s spaza corridors tonight — and tomorrow, and the week that follows — remains entirely uncertain. Residents are asking one question nobody in authority has yet answered: when the violence comes, whose side will the law actually stand on.