Mass deportation still Gayton McKenzie party's top priority

The Patriotic Alliance (PA) is not backing down on the call for mass deportation of illegal immigrants, despite them being featured in the Government of National Unity (GNU).

The PA's deputy president Kenny Kunene told the media on Thursday in Johannesburg, that the deportation was their top priority.

"The PA is not doing anything out of the ordinary. Our call for mass deportation is born out of the provisions of the Constitution. So we want it to be implemented.

"The Constitution does not say you must legalise the illegal immigrants, there is nothing in the Constitution," he said.

"Mabahambe" Kunene said they were going to continue with the illegal and undocumented immigrants deportation call because the country is on its knees in terms of employment.

Crime, jobs and safety are some of the reasons that Kunene mentioned to be a problem made by the undocumented foreign nationals.

"Any other leader that is opposed to our view wants to deprive South Africans of jobs. They want to keep them out of the country's economy, they want to keep them from participating in the local economy," he said.

He claimed that township businesses, including spaza shops, have been taken over by the illegal foreign nationals.

"Our townships (businesses) have been taken over by the Pakistanis, Bangladeshi, Somalians and Ethiopians. We have also heard that in Ekurhuleni, South Africans who opened tuck shops were killed by these illegal thugs.

"A message was sent (to local business owners) that the spaza shop businesses belong to the foreign nationals. As the PA, we don't agree to that, these people must be taken out of the townships," he said.

Kunene maintained that the tuck shops that were run by South Africans back then should return to them.