/ 15 August 2008

Displaced ‘not govt’s responsibility’

Talk to home affairs, it’s their responsibility, Gauteng government spokesperson Thabo Masebe told the Mail & Guardian. Talk to Gauteng, said home affairs spokesperson Cleo Mosana.

Confusion reigned this week over the future of immigrants displaced by xenophobic violence after the provincial government confirmed that the six temporary shelters established for the fugitives in the Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni areas are to be closed this Friday.

Masebe told a media briefing on Wednesday there was a contingency plan for the refugees, but refused to give details. ”We’ll brief you on Friday. Then we’ll tell you exactly what’s happening,” he said.

Pamphlets were distributed to inhabitants of the Corlett Gardens camp in Johannesburg informing refugees that the shelter would close on Friday. The pamphlet also suggests that favourable conditions exist in the province for displaced people to safely return to their homes.

Masebe told the media that since the closure was announced the number of displaced foreigners in the camps had fallen sharply to 1 500. About 19 000 had already been reintegrated into their former communities.

But foreigners at the Corlett Gardens camp do not believe it is safe for them to go back. Dingane Moyo (26), a Zimbabwean who has lived in the camp since June, said he found out about the closure only on Wednesday morning. He insisted it would be dangerous to return to the townships.

”We don’t know the plans of the government except that they want us to go back to where we used to live. The problem with going back is that we’re scared,” said Moyo.

His compatriot, Mlungisi Chuma (28), said: ”After hearing about the closure, we started organising accommodation in town and some say they will go back to Alexandra [township]. Most of us will end up going back to the townships.”

Masebe dismissed the possibility of providing housing for foreign nationals, as this had been one of the catalysts for the xenophobic attacks. ”Anyway, we can’t build houses for people who don’t have legal status. We don’t have a policy which allows that to happen.”

This week, a bid by the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa (Cormsa) to halt the closures failed in the Pretoria High Court. Cormsa urgently took the matter on appeal to the Constitutional Court.

Dosso Ndessomin of the Coordinating Body for Refugees, an NGO, said no proper arrangements had been made for the reintegration of the fugitives. ”There is a threat in sending these people to the communities. Anything can happen,” he said.

”We did not want this to happen. The government was close to agreeing to extend the deadline but Cormsa messed things up [by going to court]. Civil society is now split.”

Mosana said it was not the government’s responsibility to determine where the people should go.