Operation Dudula Arrests: Justice Partially Served, But the Fight for Equal Protection Continues

MEDIA STATEMENT

MONDAY, 11 AUGUST 2025

Kopanang Africa welcomes the recent arrests of 3 Operation Dudula (OD) members but demands SAPS protect all people who live in South Africa  equally.

The recent arrests of 3 Operation Dudula members in Soweto by the South African Police Service is a welcome, if overdue, development in the fight against criminalised acts of  vigilantism. At the same time, it exposes much deeper failures in how our police force protects all residents of this country.

A necessary crackdown on lawlessness

Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia applauds SAPS for finally acting against Operation Dudula’s criminal activities. For weeks now OD and other xenophobic groups have been engaging in clearly criminal behaviour by illegally taking the law into their own hands in checking and  blocking people from accessing public healthcare facilities on the basis of their nationalities and their documentation status. They have been doing so without any legal consequence and so these arrests finally send a partial message that such vigilantism has no place in our constitutional democracy. The rule of law applies to everyone – including those who cloak their illegal activities in the language of citizen concern and patriotism.

For too long, Operation Dudula has, without any fear of consequence, terrorised migrants and foreign nationals while claiming to be “law-abiding citizens” who are acting in the interests of who they determine are “South African citizens”. The reality is starkly different. Their methods – which include violent and illegal evictions, constant harassment and intimidation of informal traders, social media disinformation, and targeted threats of violence/harm to those organisations assisting migrants as well as migrant and other whistleblowers – are criminal acts that directly violate and undermine the very laws they claim they seek to uphold. Vigilante groups like Operation Dudula and March on March, along with the political parties that support them, are fundamentally opposed to human rights, equality, and social justice for all.

The uncomfortable truth about police protection

The arrests also reveal a troubling double standard. They are the exception – in most cases where OD and other similar organisations engage in their illegal and criminal activities, SAPS either stands by or actively works with them. At the same time, documented migrants who contribute to our economy through their skills, labour and taxes are regularly harassed, detained, solicited for bribes and denied the protection of their basic (and Constitutionally enshrined) human rights.

Too often, when migrants report crimes or seek police assistance, they face indifference, harassment, victimisation, demands for bribes and generally outright hostility from SAPS members. These systematic failures embolden vigilante groups like OD and help perpetuate the dangerous myth that the lives and rights of some human beings in our country matter less than other human beings simply because they come from a different country. This is the face of xenophobia in South Africa. It is a form of racial profiling as it is predominantly Black African working class people and the most vulnerable that are targeted.

The Constitution guarantees equal protection under the law for all who live and work in South Africa. There is no debate here and there are no other made-up Constitutional provisions and laws (which OD falsely asserts) that deny such protection. We cannot allow equality under the law to be a hollow promise for some while being a lived reality for a privileged few, otherwise we risk quickly becoming a country of vigilantes where bullies and thugs  – whether civilian or wearing a uniform – reign supreme.

Exposing the vigilante myth

These recent arrests will hopefully go some way in demolishing Operation Dudula’s carefully constructed image of a “law abiding” group acting in the interests of ordinary South Africans. They are neither law-abiding or protectors of such interests – they are vigilantes who, for once,  are faced with some consequences for their actions.

OD’s incredibly dismal showing as a registered political party in the 2024 elections – in which they did not win a single seat – proved what many have known since OD started; that they represent a small but vocal minority, not the will of the majority of ordinary South Africans. OD’s consistent inability to mobilise meaningful popular support confirms their marginal status in a society in which the majority still holds onto the promise of equality and justice for all.

What should come next?

These arrests are clearly not going to solve the ongoing crisis. While they represent temporary justice served, they must become the foundation for justice guaranteed, for everyone without exception. As such, Kopanang Africa demands concrete action from the government and police, which includes:

Equal enforcement of the law: While enforcing the relevant laws equally, SAPS must attend to and protect the legal rights of all residents regardless of nationality, migrant status and/or documentation status. More specifically, xenophobic crimes and incitement of hate/violence must be investigated thoroughly and perpetrators held accountable consistently.

Political leadership requires all leading politicians and political parties to condemn vigilantism unequivocally. There can be no dog-whistle politics or tacit encouragement of groups that take the law into their own hands.

Addressing root causes means the government must tackle unemployment and service delivery failures through legal, inclusive policies – not by scapegoating migrants who often fill critical economic roles.

The South Africa we’re fighting for

This country’s strength lies in its diversity and societal as well as legal commitment to equality and justice for all. KAAX stands with all who live and work in South Africa, regardless of nationality, race, ethnicity, gender or sexuality .

We refuse to go back to the apartheid era and accept a society where legal protection and the upholding of one’s basic human rights is dependent on a dompass (ID document/passport), speaking a specific language, the colour of one’s skin etc. It is this kind of society that South Africans fought against for centuries, where some residents’ human dignity is ripped apart and who live in fear, while others operate above the law with impunity. The rule of law means nothing if it doesn’t protect everyone, especially the most vulnerable.

Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia fights for a South Africa where constitutional rights are not negotiable and where justice truly is blind to nationality.

Contact for Media Inquiries

Mike Ndlovu
media@kaax.org.za
+27 68 552 2510