Aliens are arrested and imprisoned without consideration for their rights, reports Marion Edmunds
RAPHAEL MAVUDZI was not the first visitor to South Africa from north of the border to fail to have his papers in order. Nor was he the first to be arrested for that failure, under the Aliens Control Act, and thrown into the dismal holding cells of the Sea Point police station.
But unlike the six men packed into the tiny cell with him, waiting for the police to take some action, Mavudzi, a respected sculptor from Zimbabwe, knew he had the right to a lawyer. And a series of phone calls from friend to friend brought Cape Town attorney Gary Eisenberg to his cell.
Mavudzi, who had been invited to South Africa in April by the Bartel Arts Trust in Durban, had been in police custody for two days by the time Eisenberg got to him, following a tip-off from a friend.
“The conditions were appalling and unhygenic,” said Mavudzi at the weekend, just before he flew home.
“The blankets were wet with pee and there was garbage on the floor … we had to beg them for a broom to sweep it up.
“The police did not treat us with dignity. The food was awful – there were no washing facilities. We had to buy our own drinks.”
By the time Eisenberg had got Mavudzi out of the cell, the rest of the men in the cell had signed themselves up as his clients. Until they had met Mavudzi, none had known they were entitled to legal counsel, or that they could challenge the law under which they were held on its lack of constitutionality. Nobody had read them their rights.
“I went to the cells and saw a bunch of people in little cages,” Eisenberg said.
“Some of the people I spoke to had valid holiday permits, but had been arrested on suspicion of working or hawking illegally. Home Affairs did not interview the people they were holding in the cells and it is clear from what I saw they do not assess each case on its own merits.”
Mavudzi said negotiations between Eisenberg and the Barrack Street Home Affairs Department had been slow because they had not been able to raise anybody on Friday. Most senior officials were at a party to bid farewell to a senior director, who was leaving to set up a private immigration consultancy.
Between cellphone calls to Home Affairs officials, Eisenberg started chatting to Mavudzi about his artwork and soon they were swopping notes on cubism, Picasso and the influence of African art on European artists.
Eisenberg offered to provide a R1900 deposit to Home Affairs to release Mavudzi – the deposit is supposed to be refunded once Mavudzi crosses the border – and helped Mavudzi buy his airticket to Harare.
He also gave Mavudzi cash, which Eisenberg said he needed because he could not return to his wife and son empty-handed.
In exchange, Mavudzi sold Eisenberg a sculpture, and left a number behind for Eisenberg to sell for him through tourist shops. The sculptures fetch between R15000 and R30 000.
Mavudzi came to South Africa six months ago, invited by art gallery curators to conduct stone sculpture workshops with victims of the KwaZulu-Natal war as part of a rehabilitation therapy. He displayed two sculptures at the Zimbabwe National Gallery in 1993 and 1994. The acting exhibition director, Rose West, said the works were original and differed from curio-type sculptures. The sculptures had been called The Bomb-blast Victim and The Sleep-walker.
Mavudzi was to have done a further workshop at the South African National Gallery in Cape Town this week. But officials had refused to give him a work permit because he was an artist. He had to travel instead on a holiday visa.
“It’s very difficult to come to South Africa from Zimbabawe. I do rehabilitative work with young people of all races and art to me has no boundaries,” he said.
“It’s not because I want to leave my country that I’m here, but because I want to expand my knowledge and share my experience with all people.”
Eisenberg organised the release of the rest of the other detainees on condition that they would see themselves out of the country by train.
He said this week that he will make it a habit to check on the holding cells from time to time.
His anger is not directed at the Home Affairs officials, but at the law that prompts and governs their actions, which he says is unconstitutional.
“The Constitution says nobody can be detained after arrest for longer than 48 hours, but the Act allows Home Affairs to detain immigrants indefinitely without them being formally charged,” he adds.
“Home Affairs officials say they persist in following this rule because it is practice although they know about the constitutional provisions.
“Their loyalty is to the carrying out of the law, but since the law itself is rotten, this leads to all kinds of irregularities.”
Said Home Affairs officials: “We went out of our way to treat him in a fair and reasonable manner.”
Police said they treat “all detainees well”.