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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.<\/span><\/p>\n 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\u2019s leadership.<\/span><\/p>\n The tracker, updated in real time with city data, allows residents to monitor Tshwane\u2019s progress via ActionSA\u2019s website. <\/span><\/p>\n It tracks key performance areas, including financial stability, infrastructure, economic revitalisation, safety and cleanliness, governance, and customer care.<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis issue of the housing crisis and informal settlements is what drove me to finally enter politics, rather than run away from my country,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n 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. <\/span><\/p>\n People come from across the country, hoping to find better access to housing, healthcare, education, and other basic services. <\/span><\/p>\n However, as these areas grow, so do the challenges. <\/span><\/p>\n Many of the settlements are overcrowded, and tensions sometimes boil over, especially toward foreign nationals. <\/span><\/p>\n This puts even more pressure on already stretched municipal services, making it harder to meet the needs of everyone living there.<\/span><\/p>\n Mashaba, however, criticised the normalisation of informal settlements.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe 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,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe must be true to ourselves. For as long as we are prepared to accommodate undocumented foreigners, we will never resolve the housing crisis,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n 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.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOur 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,\u201d Mashaba said.<\/span><\/p>\n He added that informal settlements contribute to overpopulation and place unsustainable pressure on local services like healthcare, education, and sanitation.<\/span><\/p>\n Mashaba also criticised South Africa\u2019s 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.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf 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\u2019t blame the judges; they\u2019re just following the Constitution,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the preamble of the Constitution, it says South Africa belongs to all who live in it. That\u2019s fine – but our laws must also protect the rights of South African citizens first,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Mashaba reiterated ActionSA\u2019s stance on undocumented immigration.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe are unapologetic: undocumented, illegal foreigners are not welcome in South Africa,\u201d he said. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis country was built on the backs of migrants. We welcome legal immigration, but people must come here legally and respect our laws.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n He said the state of South Africa\u2019s economy and healthcare system cannot sustain the current situation.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSouth 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,\u201d Mashaba said.<\/span><\/p>\n He added that the country must choose between legality and chaos.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf we\u2019re prepared to promote chaos, this country will pay a price.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n simon.majadibodu@iol.co.za<\/span><\/p>\n Politics<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":247165,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[8099,1967,6613,7389,9820,588,14662,16251],"class_list":["post-247164","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-politics","tag-crisis","tag-fight","tag-foreigners","tag-housing","tag-mashaba","tag-sas","tag-undermine","tag-undocumented"],"yoast_head":"\n