Johannesburg - The leader of Operation Dudula, Dan Radebe, has cleared the air regarding the movement’s relationship with Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini and the Soweto Parliament.
Last year in July, in a joint media briefing, the leader of the Soweto Parliament announced his separation from Operation Dudula following unexplained differences in political issues affecting both organisations.
At the height of their relationship, the two community-based organisations worked well together until differences in how to tackle the issue of illegal immigrants strained relations, resulting in the split between the two.
It was agreed that Dlamini would focus his energies on the programmes run by the Soweto Parliament while Operation Dudula focused on its mandate, which includes mass deportations of illegal immigrants and the removal of undocumented foreign nationals from job opportunities.
On Sunday, Operation Dudula held its consultative conference, with some of the members from six provinces attending and resolving for the party to contest the upcoming general election in 2024.
On Tuesday, the movement called a press conference in which it laid out its plans to take their issues to Parliament as a fully-fledged political party.
“Those people (the Soweto Parliament) are South Africans. So we do not need a special relationship with them. We regard them as South Africans. I am a Sowetan, and if Soweto Parliament talks about issues that are affecting me, I will listen to them as a Sowetan, especially with issues such as water and electricity."
“They are doing their programme, and we are doing our own programme, and we do not have a problem with that. We believe that no one should have a problem with our programmes,” he said.
Radebe said Operation Dudula will continue doing what they have been doing, which is demanding that the government enforce the laws of the country when it comes to the immigration issue.
“We will stick to our mandate and what the people have mandated us to do. We do not look into other parties operations. We are not mandated by them,” he said.
The Star