At the IFP’s eThekwini manifesto launch in Durban on October 4, mayoral candidate Mkhuleko Hlengwa pledged to push for deporting “all illegal foreign immigrants” if the party wins on November 4. He conceded immigration is not a municipal power. The sentence carries its own disclaimer. “Whilst immigration is not a municipal competence” concedes the council cannot deport anyone; “nonetheless” carries the promise past it. Section 32 of the Immigration Act 13 of 2002 makes deportation national work, and the city’s July statement names Home Affairs “the competent authority”. A council can lobby and supply buses: Home Affairs paid the City of eThekwini R10.66 million for transport to Musina between January and August. The words name the group, then load it. SABC’s headline says “undocumented foreign nationals”. Hlengwa says “illegal foreign immigrants” and sets them beside “crime, human trafficking and drugs”. In March, district secretary Joshua Mazibuko removed conduct from the question: “Even if they were causing no issues”, being there is the issue. That is Essentialization, the fourth of Chapter 10’s six stages, with Threat Assessment already in the crime list. The power sits with the state, and on one street in March, with a party. Home Affairs detained and deported 37,942 people from January to August. The IFP’s eThekwini District posted its own photo of members closing a tuckshop at the KwaMashu Hostel. In May, News24 reported only 2 of nearly 460 foreign nationals processed in KwaZulu-Natal were undocumented. The people named in the pledge have no vote on November 4; the people hearing it do. None of the words quoted here are theirs.
