News24 | March and March threatens court action over Durban refugee camp, relocation deadline

Members of March and March previously embarked on a cleanup campaign on Charlotte Maxeke Street in Durban.

Anelisa Kubheka/News24

• Anti-immigration group March and March is preparing legal action over the Che Guevara Road occupation in Durban by refugees.
• More than 300 refugees who had been living outside Home Affairs’ Refugee Reception Centre for more than three months are expected to be relocated to the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng.
• The group has threatened to approach the courts if the government failed to honour its commitment to relocate the refugees. 

The March and March movement has instructed lawyers to prepare court papers if the KwaZulu-Natal government failed to relocate hundreds of refugees who had been occupying parts of Che Guevara Road in Durban for months.

The move comes despite confirmation by Premier Thami Ntuli that the group was expected to be relocated to Lindela Repatriation Centre in Gauteng on Tuesday.

READ: amaBhungane | March and March and the shadow of 2021

March and March spokesperson Sandile Dube said the movement would approach the courts if the government failed to honour its commitment to remove the refugees from the pavement and a portion of the road.

More than 300 people had been camping outside the Department of Home Affairs’ Refugee Reception Centre for more than three months.

Ntuli, who visited the refugee camp on Friday, said the relocation, which had initially been expected to take place later next week, had been brought forward following discussions with Home Affairs and other government departments.

He confirmed that the refugees would be leaving for the Lindela Repatriation Centre in Krugersdorp, Gauteng, on Tuesday.

He said the remaining work involved logistical arrangements, including transport to Lindela, and finalising the verification of the refugees’ documentation.

Home Affairs had been conducting verification, and only a small number of families still needed to be processed.

The department was expected to provide a final report on the verification process before the transport arrangements could be concluded.

READ | State cannot assign police protection to refugees on Durban’s Che Guevara Road – Kubayi

The relocation follows more than 14 weeks of uncertainty for the refugees, who had been living in difficult conditions outside the Home Affairs offices.

Against this backdrop, March and March said it had given the municipality and government an opportunity to resolve the matter without litigation.

“The forum holds a considered view that litigation must always be a last resort, particularly when dealing with government,” Dube said.

The SA First Forum is the movement’s legal arm.

Dube continued:

However, it cannot be disputed that the trust deficit between the state and citizens is anomalously high, thus requiring a more radical approach to hold government accountable.

The movement conducted a cleanup campaign at Che Guevara Road on 3 September, saying hundreds of foreign nationals had been unlawfully occupying the pavement and part of the road in contravention of municipal bylaws.

It approached eThekwini Municipality the following day, calling for urgent action.

According to the movement, the municipality was given seven days to address the matter, but it had not received a formal response by Saturday, apart from a commitment from the City Manager’s office to provide a response.

Dube said the movement had now met with its attorneys and counsel and had instructed them to prepare court papers.

“The forum met with its attorneys and counsel on Saturday. Counsel has been briefed to prepare the application papers should the municipality not respond within the 14 days stipulated in the letter of 4 September 2026,” he said.

The movement said it had also been advised that the refugees would be relocated from Che Guevara Road to Lindela between Monday and Tuesday.

Dube said March and March’s attorneys had consequently been instructed to file the application on Thursday should the government renege on its commitment.

The movement also accused eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba of engaging with leaders of the refugees during his visit to the area, while allegedly failing to engage with March and March representatives.

The Che Guevara Road dispute forms part of a broader campaign by the SA First Forum, established by March and March to identify public interest matters that it believes require legal intervention.

The forum said it had 21 legal practitioners who were prepared to approach the courts on matters affecting communities.

It was also calling for amendments to several pieces of legislation, and among the issues it had identified were immigration enforcement, Road Accident Fund claims, homelessness, and the treatment of asylum seekers.

The forum was calling for amendments to the Road Accident Fund Act, arguing that eligibility should be restricted to South Africans and permanent residents, while excluding refugees and asylum seekers.

It cited Department of Transport figures, which it said showed that the Road Accident Fund received claims totalling about R23.3 billion from foreign nationals over the past five financial years.

READ | March and March launches NGO, aims to ‘become like AfriForum’

The forum has also raised broader concerns about immigration enforcement, and cited the extradition of six Nigerian nationals from South Africa to the United States on 11 September to face prosecution for serious crimes.

It argued that the case highlighted weaknesses in South Africa’s border control and enforcement of immigration laws.

The forum is separately studying recent judgments involving immigration detention and asylum seekers and was considering applying to be admitted as amicus curiae (friend of the court) in proceedings that dealt with whether a person detained under the Immigration Act, and who expressed an intention to seek asylum, should be released pending their application.

Dube said the broader objective of the forum was to use the law to hold the government accountable and ensure that citizens could access justice.