Operation Dudula leader Dan Radebe says the community-based civil organisation is eyeing no less than 50% at the ballot box in the upcoming national general elections.
This comes after the movement known for agitating for mass deportation of illegal foreign nationals held its consultative conference at the Joburg City Hall on Sunday.
Speaking to The Star following a press briefing held at the Reef Hotel in Joburg, Radebe said the mandate to register the movement as a political party stemmed from the conference’s resolutions which felt it was time for the organisation to contest next year’s elections.
“Today’s media briefing was about communicating the resolutions of our recent consultative conference. We are communicating these resolutions to the general public that we have resolved to contest the upcoming elections.
“The reason why members took this resolution is because of the lack of appetite by the current government to implement the country’s laws and enforce them. Remember Operation Dudula is not rewriting the country’s laws but the main thing is enforcement of these laws,” he said.
Isaac Lesole said the recent conference was convened by the NEC of the movement which comprised at least six provinces whose members unanimously mandated the NEC to go ahead and register the movement as a political party.
“The process is already under way to register with the IEC. We are happy because we received the mandate from the provinces. The confidence that we got now has informed us that it is about time we started the process.”
Radebe said the movement would continue standing up for the country’s laws to be respected and not change its position over allegations of xenophobia.
“Our enemies will not speak nicely about us, but that will not stop us from being visible in our communities and calling for mass deportation of illegal foreigners as they are the root cause of our problems. We will continue to visit businesses and establishments that continue to employ foreigners in spite of there being a big unemployment rate among South Africans,” Radebe said.
In spite of an oversupply of new political parties popping up before the elections, Radebe said he was not concerned about the stiff competition.
“We are not all too concerned about forming coalitions with other like-minded parties. Ours is to work towards getting at least 50% in the elections. We will cross the bridge of forming coalitions when we get to it, but for now the task is to contest the elections and campaign across all the provinces,” he said.