Government hopes to re-integrate the victims of the xenophobic attacks into South African communities over the next few months, but it has no immediate strategy to deal with the thousands of people displaced by the violence.
A Zimbabwean businessman, Chester Gumbo, told the Mail & Guardian on Thursday that he and other Zimbabwean expatriates living in South Africa were planning to organise buses to repatriate as many as 60 000 Zimbabweans wanting to go home.
Gumbo claimed to have garnered money from Zimbabwean and South African business people, individuals and organisations for 1 000 buses. He declined to give details.
Some immigrants have reportedly already left by bus for Mozambique. More than 500 would-be returnees, mainly women and children, are camping in a large hall at Park Station in Johannesburg, apparently without the means to buy train or bus tickets.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), which assists returning refugees and deportees on the Zimbabwe side of the Beitbridge border post, said the cross-border movement was still overwhelmed by desperate Zimbabweans trying to get into South Africa.
The IOM’s Jacob Matikane said Zimbabweans could still find refuge in Limpopo, where no xenophobic attacks had been reported.
The Zimbabwean embassy in Pretoria said this week it would help anyone who wished to return home.
”It doesn’t matter which political party you support at a time like this, we will help whoever needs it,” said high commissioner Simon Khaya Moyo. He did not give details of the support the Zimbabwean government plans to provide but that the high commission is engaging with South Africa’s departments of foreign affairs and home affairs.
The Mozambican and Malawian embassies said they had urgent meetings with South African officials on Wednesday to assess assistance for their nationals.
Home affairs director general Mavuso Msimang revealed that the government is identifying buildings and other sites where displaced people can be housed temporarily. ”Government will be joining the initiatives to provide the requirements like shelter, blankets, food and so on,” Msimang said.
On Sunday President Thabo Mbeki announced the establishment of a panel to investigate the long-term approaches to xenophobia in South Africa. But while its terms of reference are being drafted, the estimated 26 000 foreigners stranded in makeshift shelters, churches or in the open have been left to the municipalities where the attacks occur.
”There is no structured plan at the moment,” George Masanabo of the counter-xenophobia unit at the department of home affairs says. ”Ultimately the idea is to integrate the displaced people back into society, but we want to wait until the situation has calmed down.”
He said the government would facilitate programmes in the affected communities to raise awareness about xenophobia and its effects. The government believed this is the only way foreigners can safely return to their communities.
”We need buy-in from these communities. We need to get the commitment from them that these people will be protected. Communities who are upset about service delivery must understand that targeting foreign nationals is not an answer,” said Masanabo. He said the government will take its cue from the communities and ”test the water” before bringing foreigners back.
He said that after a wave of xenophobic violence in the Eastern Cape, victimised Somalis had been reabsorbed into the community through integration programmes that addressed the perceived causes of conflict.
”In the Eastern Cape the issue was businesses; people said the Somalis were undercutting them. We established common business practices by asking the Somalis about where they gained access to cheaper items.
”It was, however, slightly easier than it will be here, where the issues are different.”
Masanabo said his department of home affairs is looking at the possibility of starting reintegration in Atteridgeville, where foreigners were attacked in March.
The government and civil society agree that refugee camps will not be used to house the displaced people because it would further marginalise foreigners.
Msimang said the refugee camp option is not being considered.
Loren Landau, director of the forced migration programme at Wits University, said: ”To establish refugee camps sends a message that the mob was right, that these people should be confined. Temporary shelters are fine; foreigners are part of South African society and should not be kept apart.”
Landau said foreigners have been refused access to emergency shelters in Johannesburg, where officials are saying they will only help South Africans because the shelters are funded by the South African government.
Msimang also said a moratorium has been placed on the targeting of undocumented foreigners for arrest and deportation. ”We will not take advantage of this opportunity to deal with people who may be undocumented,” he said.
Asked to comment on the Zimbabwean businessmen’s alleged plans to bus thousands of Zimbabweans back to their home country, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) secretary Tendai Biti said: ”There were efforts by a lot of parties to help, including civil society.
”We would like everyone to go home and vote [in Zimbabwe’s presidential run-off election], but we don’t have the resources to send them.