Johannesburg - As World Refugee Day was being celebrated on Wednesday, the National Freedom Party (NFP) called for the government to set strict regulations on how refugees operate in the country and restrict their movement, saying that South Africa was full of criminals, not refugees.
NFP spokesperson Sabelo Sigudu said that refugees and asylum seekers were "masterminds of crime" in South Africa but were given "first-class treatment" and some operated businesses illegally without even paying taxes.
"It is an open secret that many foreigners are in South Africa to sell drugs mostly to our vulnerable youth and teenagers, for example in South Africa we never heard of Nyaope, Whoonga, Mercedes and all these sorts of dangerous drugs before the arrival of foreigners," Sigudu said.
"As we mark World Refugee Day today, we want to state that, the time has come for the government of South Africa to protect its citizens. We won’t be surprised to learn that foreigners are behind many of the cash-in-transit heists which have gotten unruly."
Sigudu said that the party's stance on refugees was not "controversial" and they were prepared to defend it in court. He added that the NFP does not hate refugees but will not tolerate and accept the crimes they were allegedly committing since "no one is brave enough to raise these issues."