There is a shoe of immigrants in a part of the city in Pietermaritzburg, which people have named Somalia as 80% of the businesses in this part of the capital of KwaZulu-Natal are owned by immigrants.
The area with the most immigrants is in the upper part of Mgungundlovu, on Pietertmaritz street, between Pine Street and West Street. This was revealed by the Deputy Mayor, Mr. Mxolisi Mkhize, during a discussion about the city’s pollution.
Mkhize pointed out that 80% of the people living in this part of the city are immigrants.
“It’s hard to accept that. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that, but I’m saying let me make it clear so we’ll all know what’s going on.”
Mkhize said most of the businesses are in areas that are not authorized to be businesses.
“You find immigrants running businesses in areas that are approved for residential use, but they are not authorized to run businesses.”
Mkhize said that the situation in this part of the city made people angry with the council officials.
“People believe that we don’t care, we let immigrants do what they want.”
Ms. Nokwethemba Khumalo, who conducted research on pollution in the city of Pietermaritzburg, said that the people she spoke to during the research, felt that the municipality was lax in expelling immigrants.
“People are expressing their displeasure with foreigners who are in the country illegally, and they suggest that they want them to be expelled. People are looking to the municipality to be the one to take up the issue. Unfortunately, people do not understand that this is the work of different agencies, including the Ministry of Home Affairs.”
Ms. Khumalo said that the owners of the buildings where the immigrants live cannot be found.
Those who were part of the discussion said that the city’s pollution is driving away businessmen and government departments.
They said that some government departments were eventually forced to have offices in Durban due to the lack of infrastructure in Pietermaritzburg.
They complained that it seems that the municipality has no strategy to fix the city’s pollution problem.