Civil society organisations are mobilising to ensure there is no repeat of the large-scale xenophobic violence which scarred South Africa in 2008.
The flurry of activity by the organisations this week contradicted police spokesperson Zweli Mnisi’s assurances that reports of attacks on foreigners in parts of the Western Cape and Gauteng this week were not necessarily xenophobic.
Mnisi told the Mail & Guardian that attacks on foreign nationals were “just [acts of] criminality”. He added that “today it’s called xenophobia, tomorrow it could be called racism or sexism”.
The Humanitarian Assistance Network of South Africa (HANSA) met on Wednesday to finalise the coordination of civil society’s response in the event of concerted attacks on foreign nationals.
HANSA was established after the 2008 xenophobic violence to coordinate future humanitarian assistance efforts by civil society organisations and plans to launch an “anti-xenophobic action” (AXA) hotline on July 16.
The national toll-free hotline is to be staffed by multilingual foreign nationals, and would be operational 24 hours a day, seven days a week, according to HANSA spokesperson Warren Viljoen.
However, Viljoen was reluctant to release the 0800 number to the public before all operational matters had been finalised.
Early-warning system
Viljoen said that the AXA hotline would act as an early-warning system. “Where possible, information from callers will be verified by our ground support staff, before we forward information to police at a national and regional level, as well as relevant humanitarian and civil society organisations on the ground.”
Six staff members and four vehicles are available in Gauteng to verify reports of xenophobia, but the unit might be split to provide capacity in the Western Cape.
“We intend to have a turn-around time of between two- and six hours from when we receive a call, verify it, to when we forward it to police and civil society organisations,” Viljoen said.
The hotline and ground support initiative was funded by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees.
Meanwhile, Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR) also convened a meeting with eight legal organisations on Wednesday, including the Legal Resources Centre, Legal Aid SA and Probono.org, to plan the immediate roll-out of legal services to foreign nationals in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal.
Kaajal Ramjathan-Keogh, head of the LHR’s refugee and migrant rights programme, told the Mail & Guardian that the meeting had finalised a roster of legal personnel to be deployed at short notice. Legal personnel would be available to assist foreign nationals to open cases of harassment and intimidation with the police, and to monitor the progress of cases through the judicial system.
LHR was also equipped to provide foreign nationals with advice on asylum and immigration law, and has offered its services to the ustice department.
Ramjathan-Keogh also revealed that the protection working group (PWG), a collaboration between United Nations agencies, non-governmental organisations and civil society, had been working on a comprehensive contingency plan over the past 18 months.
“In the event of large-scale human displacement, the plan can be activated at a moment’s notice,” she said.
Contigency plan
Oxfam country director for South Africa, Innocent Nkata, confirmed that a multi-organisational contingency plan was in place.
“Our hope is that any xenophobic violence can be contained, but in the event of an escalation, we are equipped to support the public health needs of up to 10 000 displaced people,” Nkata said.
While Oxfam was focussed on the provision of basic sanitation, other organisations are primed to contribute in their areas of expertise.
Nkata said that civil society has learned from its shortcomings before, during and after the xenophobic attacks of 2008.
“There was limited coordination by civil society organisations amongst themselves, and between themselves and government. But through networks such as HANSA and the PWG, we are working together to share information, coordinate our actions, and avoid duplicating our efforts.”
In addition to HANSA and the PWG, the South African Council of Churches (SACC) has convened three meetings at its Khotso House headquarters in Johannesburg since Tuesday last week to discuss threats of xenophobia.
The meetings have swelled from 15 organisations to more than 100 organisations since last week, says SACC general secretary Eddie Makue.
“The SACC has been mandated to assist in combining the efforts of these organisations, all of whom have been alert to the issue of xenophobia in South Africa for a long time,” Makue said.