Operation Dudula urged to work within law

ACTIONSA leader Herman Mashaba has offered brotherly advice to Operation Dudula to rethink its approach to undocumented immigrants, saying that its tactics are dangerous.

- SIMON MAJADIBODU

Mashaba said he recently held a "productive" meeting with the group's leaders to discuss immigration.

"I think their cause is justified. The only concern I have, and I stress this with them, is the manner in which they approach it," he said in a sit-down interview with IOL News in Johannesburg this week.

"Please, one day, imagine you are in government. Are you going to allow people to break the law just because they are unhappy with the government in a democratic space?"

Mashaba said while ActionSA shares some concerns about undocumented immigrants, he criticised the group's methods.

"It's a very, very dangerous precedent you are setting, so please reconsider. What they are fighting for is justified, but ActionSA wants to take the momentum through legal channels. We don't want to take the law into our own hands," he said.