The chairperson of the Pretoria branch of the Red Cross has resigned in “disgust” at the branch’s failure to respond to the humanitarian crisis sparked by attacks on foreigners.
Gillian Elson said that the levels of dysfunction within the Red Cross are so extreme that a 20-foot container housing clothes donated by South Africans and intended for the victims of the 2004 Asian tsunami was lying “rotting and being eaten by rats” at the aid organisation’s Pretoria office.
Elson, who quit last Friday, has claimed ineptitude is rife at the Red Cross, which, she claims, is also suffering from “corruption and theft” that “appears acceptable to the organisation”.
Although Tshwane has not been hit by the xenophobic upheavals of the past fortnight, refugees have been streaming into the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in the city from as far afield as Cape Town and Port Elizabeth to seek shelter.
“When the refugees started coming in on Sunday and many more on Monday night, the Red Cross was nowhere to be seen. They were in absolute chaos,” said Elson.
After tendering her resignation she had attempted to mobilise volunteers on Monday night when she was told by a local newspaper of the burgeoning humanitarian crisis caused when close to 700 people converged on the city, she said.
The refugee contingent, which has since grown to more than 1 000 people, was bused from the UN office to a makeshift camp near Onderstepoort veterinary clinic, outside Pretoria. A camp in Acacia has since been set up.
“The Red Cross had absolutely no idea that this [influx] was happening, despite the fact that they should have been in close contact with the city’s disaster-management team and the medics,” said Elson.
She added that she has continued to coordinate efforts with ordinary volunteers because “everybody is calling me because they can’t get hold of the Red Cross”.
Elson said a local supermarket had offered daily donations of “between 20 and 30 crates of fresh food and vegetables” for the Red Cross to collect for the refugees, but was told there were no vehicles available.
“I eventually organised private cars and contacted the Islamic Institute to pick up the food. Organisations such as the Gift of the Givers really have been spot-on in how they handled the aid situation.”
Reacting, the Red Cross’s Gauteng provincial manager, Mbuso Mthembu, said: “We may not smell of perfume and I will admit that there are problems and challenges we face within the organisation, but we are doing what we can to help the refugees.”
Mthembu insisted the Red Cross had not been caught napping during the refugee influx into Pretoria earlier in the week. “We had placed most of our people in the East Rand because it appeared that was the hot spot, while Pretoria appeared to have the situation arrested.
“Some of our staff had been working around the clock and we felt that there was a lull in which some of them could take a break as well,” he said.
Mthembu added that staff and volunteers were recalled once the refugees started streaming in and that the organisation deployed 35 people to the Pretoria area daily.
He said the Red Cross had been busy distributing blankets on Monday night and could not hand out food, “because most of the refugees wanted halal food”.
On the container of clothes meant for Asia, Mthembu said he “cannot specifically know” what was in the containers, but “in many cases when we get donations, some clothes can’t be reused and they may be remnants meant for shredding”.