Xolani Zuma Accuses Government Of Protecting Illegal Immigrants

SA First Forum Acting CEO and defense attorney Xolani Zuma has sharply criticized state authorities, arguing that the urgent interdict brought against the March and March movement is a deliberate attempt to silence public dissent while ignoring what he characterizes as the true crisis: systemic illegal immigration. Reporting live from outside the Durban High Court on Friday, 30 October 2026, eNCA journalist Nokwazi Qumbisa detailed the mounting political and legal tensions surrounding the court proceedings.

Addressing broadcast media gathered on the pavement, Zuma asserted that executive leadership and law enforcement agencies are misdirecting state resources by targeting civic organizers instead of fixing broken border governance. Representing both SA First Forum and the March and March movement alongside founder Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, Zuma maintained that ordinary South Africans are being penalized for exposing administrative breakdowns at the Department of Home Affairs, unmonitored informal markets, and persistent street-level insecurity across KwaZulu-Natal.

Zuma argued that the state’s reliance on court interdicts under Uniform Rule 6(12) reflects an executive strategy designed to create a chilling effect among grassroots activists. He insisted that the government’s high-stakes legal action, backed by heavy South African Police Service (SAPS) deployments and military presence under Operation Prosper, seeks to protect failed policies rather than address the root causes of community outrage. According to Zuma, taking citizens to court for demanding immigration enforcement does nothing to resolve unlawful entry, foreign labor exploitation, or township market collapse.

Reporting from the scene, eNCA’s Nokwazi Qumbisa highlighted the tense atmosphere outside the courtroom, where hundreds of March and March supporters, civic groups, and political allies assembled in a show of defiance. Qumbisa noted that while state legal teams argued inside that interim restrictions were required to prevent violent clashes and safeguard public infrastructure—such as the Home Affairs Refugee Reception Centre on Che Guevara Road—demonstrators outside maintained that the interdict suppresses constitutionally protected public assembly.

Qumbisa observed that the legal battle between SAPS management and movement leadership has become a major flashpoint ahead of the 4 November local government elections. Zuma’s public rebuffs reinforce the movement’s stance that no court order or state pressure will deter civil society from demanding national border security, local economic protection, and statutory accountability from elected officials.

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