City of Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba was unapologetic on Thursday about his views on foreigners.

Speaking at a Democratic Alliance (DA) press briefing on developments in its four metros, Mashaba said under his leadership, the City will never build houses for foreign nationals.

"Right now, if anyone expects me, when I build houses, [to provide] free accommodation, I can assure you, preference is going to be given to South Africans who have been on the waiting lists," he said.

Mashaba said he would not give his limited resources to build free houses for foreigners.

"I don't run the city of the world. It's official, its unapologetic, not a cent of the money will be used to build houses for the world."

The City has come under fire recently for evicting people from hijacked buildings.

The Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Seri) accused Mashaba and the city of acting in contravention of two court orders, which compelled it to provide temporary accommodation to evictees, Huffington Post reported.

Seri plans to approach the courts against Mashaba.

Responding to Seri, Mashaba said he lived in a constitutional democracy and Seri should do what they want.

"I am not refusing to build houses for anybody - give me the money," he said.

He added that he was sitting with a housing backlog of about 300 000 units with families who have been on housing lists for at least 10 years.

When journalists asked DA leader Mmusi Maimane to respond to Mashaba's statements, he said the country needed to deal with legalities of all people in the country.

"Its about effective border control at one level, at another level it's about how cities deal with globalisation."

Maimane said the country was experiencing stress in different departments due to migration.