The Gauteng provincial government believes favourable conditions exist for the reintegration of people displaced by xenophobic violence, according to a report in the Gauteng News on Friday.
”Reintegration has already happened in a number of areas including Diepsloot, Tembisa, Thokoza, Alexandra, Mohlakeng, and the Gugulethu informal settlement.”
By contrast, humanitarian observers said security and preparing communities for the return of displaced foreigners had not been adequately addressed.
According to the newsletter, the government was working with all the affected communities to create conducive conditions for foreign nationals to safely return to their homes in their respective communities.
Communities where reintegration had already taken place were displaying ”warmth and neighbourliness” to the foreign nationals.
Gauteng provincial government spokesperson Thabo Masebe said many councillors, community workers and politicians were working towards creating a culture of tolerance in the province.
”It’s the kind of work that we will see going on for the next few months,” he said.
Police were monitoring areas affected by the violence, which left over 60 dead during May. Mass meetings and house-to-house visits were being held to engender an understanding of everyone living ”side by side” in South Africa.
Business people had come to shelters to offer employment for skilled workers. Having secured an income, it made it easier for them to return to their own accommodation, which appeared to have been mostly in rented quarters.
”They should be allowed to return to their houses so that they can return to their lives,” said Masebe.
He said an attack on a foreign national in Gauteng’s Ekurhuleni earlier this week, was attributed by police to ”mob justice”, not to xenophobia.
According to a report in the Star, Francisco Nobunga’s attackers insulted him before he was killed. Four people were arrested in connection with his death.
”The nationality of the person was not why the person was attacked,” he said, adding that the government did not condone this.
Fears of more violence
But Loren Landau, director of the Wits Forced Migration studies programme, says the government was not keeping its commitments made during the violence.
He said councillors had been asked to prepare communities for their return, but there hadn’t been strong leadership from the province or central government.
The reintegration programmes were mostly being carried out in a small-scale, ad hoc way.
He said people needed to know the communities and understand the tensions and explain what it meant to live in a democracy and a multi-ethnic society.
”I would have liked to have seen that message coming through much stronger,” said Landau.
He said none of the fundamental issues had been addressed and there were fears that there could be a fresh outbreak of violence.
At the time of the attacks some of the people interviewed accused the foreigners of taking their jobs and abusing housing allocations.
South African Council of Churches secretary general Eddie Makue said the country and churches had failed victims of xenophobia. He said security was the biggest concern for displaced people in shelters wanting to live independent lives again.
”It’s like saying to an abused woman, ‘go back to your husband’,” said Makue.
”They have been treated ashamedly by their community … people do fear and there is some justification in that.”
He said the recent attack underlined this fear.
Home Affairs department spokesperson Cleo Mosana said another 37 people taken from the Glenanda shelter in Johannesburg to the Lindela repatriation centre near Krugersdorp, had had their documents verified and were free to leave the centre.
Earlier this week almost 900 people were taken to the centre when they didn’t take up the chance to register at the camp.
Over 400 people found to have documentation allowing them to stay legally in the country were allowed to leave the centre.
They are considered to be ”on their own” after leaving the shelter.
People not having the relevant documentation were expected to be deported. – Sapa