Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula appears to be ”deliberately misinterpreting” legislation in order to avoid the government’s legal obligation to set up camps for refugees from Zimbabwe, says the Democratic Alliance.
”The DA will be asking the minister whether she thinks that 6 000 to 10 000 people a day crossing the border [into South Africa] could be considered a ‘mass influx’,” DA home affairs spokesperson Mark Lowe said in a statement on Tuesday.
He said the 1998 Refugees Act prescribed that in the event of a mass influx of refugees, ”the minister may, after consultation with the UNHCR [United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees] representative and the premier of the province concerned, designate areas, centres or places for the temporary reception and accommodation of asylum seekers or refugees”.
Mapisa-Nqakula had recently rejected a DA suggestion that refugee camps be put up to house and feed the growing influx of Zimbabwean refugees.
At the time, her spokesperson, Cleo Mosana, had said refugees should be integrated into society in terms of the Act.
”The fact that the Act says nothing of the sort is a fair indictment of Ms Mosana’s capabilities with regard to her job,” Lowe said.
To date, the government had not produced any official figures of people entering the country, legally or illegally, even though sources the DA spoke to put the number between 6 000 to 10 000.
”In addition I call on the minister to tune into Sky News, which is running a news clip on the Zimbabwean refugee crisis in this country.
”There she will see the thousands of people coming across the border, both legally and illegally, who are desperate and without relief because the South African government refuses to acknowledge their presence or the catastrophe occurring in their country.
”The minister appears to be deliberately misinterpreting the Act in order to avoid government’s legal obligation to set up refugee camps,” he said. — Sapa