South African women married to Nigerians, yesterday, threatened to
stage mass protest in Johannesburg to stop discrimination against them,
their husbands and children.
Mrs Lindelwa Uche, the chairperson of
the United Nigerian Wives in South Africa, UNWISA, made this known in
an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria during the launch of the
association, Sunday, in Johannesburg.
Uche said that South African society did not take their marriage to Nigerians as serious relationships.
She said: "Our society does not take our marriages serious, they see
our marriages as relations of convenience and perceive us as evil to the
society.
"All of us are South Africans married to Nigerians
living in South Africa, we decided to come together to fight against
stigmatisation, discrimination, and humiliation, against our families by
government departments and agency and the officials of the government,
the community and our-in-laws."
The chairperson said an earlier
protest march by the members of the association had not generated any
response from the Home affairs office.
"We protested against
discrimination from home affairs officials in March this year, and since
after that protest we have not received any response from the
government. We felt before we embark on any further action we should
come together and form an association registered by law.
"After
the official launch of our association, our next action will be more
than just a protest march to the city of Johannesburg home affairs
office. It is going to be a protest where we will strip on the street of
Johannesburg, so that people and government will know that there is an
existing body and that we are not happy with the way our non South
Africans husband and children are being treated.
"We also plan to
carry our protest to Nigeria, we know that some South Africans also have
businesses in Nigeria, if it is necessary we will take actions that
will stop South Africa businesses operating in Nigeria. Indeed we are
ready to go that far.
"We have been quiet for so long but we
cannot can’t take it anymore, for the sake of the future of our
children, we have to put an end to this discrimination."
She said
there was need for them to collectively tackle the issue of some
Nigerians residing in South Africa being unfairly separated from their
families due to pending residence permit that eventually lead to
deportations.
"If we don’t stand up as daughters of the soil and
fight discrimination against our marriages who will? If we don’t stand
up and fight for the rights of our husbands when they are being violated
and treated shabbily by officials of the government and citizens alike
who will?.
"If we don’t stand up for our children when they are
being called derogatory names like "Small lee kwere-kwere" or turning
their native names upside down deliberately by our community in the
name of making them feel like aliens, outcast, and unwelcome, or even
when their Nigerian aunties and uncles call them bastards, then their
future is in jeopardy.
"If we don’t stand up when our countrymen
and women, officials and in-law address us as paper wives, gold diggers,
stupid and opportunist, who will do that for us?" Uche queried.
She said the notion that all Nigerians are criminals must be corrected.
"We are in a country of law and order, if anyone is found guilty let the law take its course, we are not saying Nigerians are
good or bad, even in the South African society, there are criminals and
indeed there is no country in the world that does not have criminals,"
Uche said.
Ikechkwu Anyene, President of the Nigeria Union in
South Africa (NUSA), said the association is a good initiative by the
women who are suffering discrimination and humiliation because they are
married to Nigerians.
"We at the NUSA have been working with them
even before the association was registered as a body, we were with them
when they carried a protest match to the home affairs office in
Johannesburg,
"we will continue to support them to achieve their
goal which is to put an end to discrimination by the government
officials and their brothers and sisters towards them for being married
to Nigerians.
"The initiative is also to unite Nigeria and South
Africa and indeed the whole of Africa, to see each other as brothers
and sisters and to ensure that we stand by one another," Anyene said.
He,
however, advised the body to carry along all South Africans married to
Nigerians irrespective of their tribe and geo-political zone and the
tribe of their husbands.
