The deadline for the closure of temporary refugee shelters is fast approaching, government spokesperson Themba Maseko said in Pretoria on
Thursday.
Briefing the media after a Cabinet meeting, Maseko said the process for deportation would ”kick in” at the end of the month.
”The issue of deportation will only kick in and apply to those displacees who were here in the country illegally,” he said.
However, a number of these people who did have legal documentation would either need to move back into their former communities or find alternative accommodation.
”Government once again calls on communities, community organisations, religious formations and civil society in general to work with displacees to ensure their reintegration into communities,” he said.
The anti-immigrant violence killed more than 60 people and wounded over 600 in May.
Attacks broke out in Alexandra in Johannesburg on May 11 and spread across the country, targeting immigrants including Zimbabweans and Mozambicans, whom locals blamed for taking their jobs.
Police arrested about 1 433 people and tens of thousands were displaced. – Sapa