A Mother’s Crusade to Rid South Africa of African ImmigrantsOn a Saturday in May, Ms. Khoza joined a group of about 50 people who marched down a residential street near her neighborhood. Their goal was to raid a home they said had been overrun by illegal Congolese immigrants.
The mob used bolt cutters to break through the driveway gate. They banged on the doors and jostled the burglar bars on the windows. The house was dark and seemed empty.
A few minutes later, the mob breached the front door. Teary-eyed children emerged from a dark corridor, hustling out of the house, shivering.
“We are sorry,” some of them squealed.
Their mother, Sandra, an immigrant from the Democratic Republic of Congo, shuffled out in shock as she cradled her youngest child in a blanket, a two-week-old baby. Tall with her hair braided in cornrows, Sandra’s eyes welled with tears as she confronted the angry crowd.
Ms. Khoza has been watching with envy clips of U.S. immigration agents raiding American streets to capture and deport illegal immigrants under the Trump administration.
“The government here should be doing exactly what Trump is doing,” she said, “so that South Africa can have order and South Africans are put first.”
Ms. Khoza said the defense of her own children went hand-in-hand with her effort to rid South Africa of immigrants. Last year, she explained to her eldest daughter, Owethu, that foreign nationals were taking over their country.
“I am a victim,” Owethu, 17, said in an interview, adding that she sees her mother and others like her as being on a noble pursuit.
https://archive.is/TrUMO