An application to have foreigners moved from the Johannesburg city centre has been postponed indefinitely in the High Court in Johannesburg on Friday.
The application was originally lodged by the group Pitje Chambers, which said the foreigners were loitering around the Central Methodist Mission in Johannesburg (CMM) posing health and safety risks, Eye Witness News reported.
In a 10-minute address to the packed court, George Bizos, representing the CMM, said a meeting on Thursday night resolved that foreigners sleeping on the pavement outside the place of worship would be moved to alternative accommodation as a matter of urgency.
Bizos said representatives from both national and provincial government also agreed that steps would be taken to ease the congestion at the church, where more than 2 000 foreigners, mainly Zimbabweans, were taking refuge.
Thirty portable toilets, put up at the facility several weeks ago, were also removed on Friday morning, reported EWN.
Business owners who operated close to the church said they were losing clients because the toilets were posing a health risk.
The Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA) on Friday said that it sought social cooperation for the refugee crisis.
The Reverend Vuyani Nyobole, general secretary of the MCSA, said the task of caring for the numbers of refugees from Zimbabwe — estimated to be three million throughout South Africa — cannot be the function of any one denomination.
”The Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church [Bishop Ivan Abrahams] appeals, therefore, to the Methodist Church in general, to all other Christian denominations, faith communities, businesses and civil society in general to combine every effort to provide the most dignified and humanitarian solutions for the settlement and ultimate resettlement of all refugees,” he said.
A special delegation of MCSA leaders paid a pastoral and solidarity visit to the CMM in Johannesburg earlier this week.
The church is filled to capacity in providing care and shelter for Zimbabwean refugees. In addition, a further estimated 2 000 refugees live on and around the premises of CMM.
Nyobole said the delegation would seek a meeting with the provincial government in Gauteng and the President’s office to enquire about the implementation of an intergovernmental mechanism for the effective settlement and resettlement of Zimbabwean refugees.
”A balance would need to be found in seeking provision for these rights while remembering that we must also provide for the millions of South African nationals whose constitutional rights to health, social security, education and safety are yet to be adequately met after 14 years of democratic government,” said Abrahams.
Abrahams paid tribute to and affirmed the caring work carried out by Bishop Paul Verryn, resident minister of CMM, as well as to organisations helping out at the church. — Sapa