Global Posts

August 31, 2008, 13:15

Leaders of the refugees who were relocated to Harmony Park by the City of Cape Town have accused the city of deceiving them.
The leaders say the situation at the new safety camp is worse than the sites they have been occupying after they were displaced by the xenophobic attacks earlier this year.
The foreign nationals were relocated to Harmony Park as part of the City of Cape Town and the province’s campaign to close down most of the camps across the Cape Peninsula.
A DRC national, Uredi Michael, says most of the tents collapsed in last night’s strong winds. Michael says most people slept out in the rainy weather.
Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town says a meeting is currently underway with the Disaster Management Team to assess the extent of the damage done to the Harmony Park safety camp as well as across the Cape peninsula. The City’s spokesperson, Pieter Cronje, says they are working on restoring ‘humanity’ at Harmony Park.

COFFEEBUZZ NEWS

On Thursday, August 14th, we met at Red! The Cafe, in Steenberg Village.  We settled outside as we were ‘buzzy’ big group, it was lovely to soak up the sun and the Steenberg Village ambience.  Wendy, from Accountability, was a wonderful guest, giving us really valuable insight into effective bad debt management. Thank you, Wendy and Red!The Cafe!

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Summer Greens:

Summer Greens’ leader Hermann Mahoua has pointed out that it makes no sense for the government to move people to Harmony Park if they are sincerely trying to encourage them to reintegrate. Many of the displaced people who were removed from the hall and taken to the tented camp far from the city today have no choice but to leave their jobs in the northern suburbs behind. Others are choosing rather to struggle to reintegrate themselves without any government assistance (such as first month’s rent or compensation for losses suffered during the xenophobic attacks in May) while continuing to fear for their safety.

Contact Hermann Mahoua 082 366 7782

Silverstroom:

Buses that came to collect people from Silverstroom yesterday morning and transport them to Harmony Park left with no more than 10% of inhabitants on board, said leader Papi Mboko this afternoon. Around 80 people remain at the camp near Atlantis, adamant that they would rather walk to the border than return to the city that treated them so violently in May. For the last 24 hours, they have been without electricity or food as the government shut off services yesterday. Last night, refugee leaders who had to take a small child to hospital were accusing the UN of failing in its mandate to protect them.

Contact Papi Mboko 078 0544 321

Friday 29th August 11am

Three buses that arrived at Soetwater to transport refugees to Blue Waters were turned away by camp management this morning, but not before their appearance had caused panic amongst a section of residents who had not yet packed. The move wasn’t scheduled until tomorrow, and the new site at Blue Waters is far from ready to receive the +/- 500 displaced people. Soetwater leaders went to Blue Waters yesterday and saw ourselves that the tents are not yet up and there are no ablution facilities. This is of particular concern when Ramadan is so near. We feel it is unlikely that Disaster Management are going to be able to erect 300 tents by tomorrow, especially as another cold front and gale force winds are forecast.

We want to draw attention to the following:

1) There is a continuing lack of organisation and clear communication around the move that is causing unnecessary stress to our people (especially our wives and children) on top of their previous suffering.

2) The provincial government continues to emphasise that regular meetings are being held with the refugee leadership to keep them informed - this is simply not true.

Last week’s Constitutional Court ruling in Gauteng stresses that government and diplaced people should "engage with each other meaningfully" but the W Cape provincial government has shown itself to be reluctant to commit to meaningful dialogue. In three months, provincial officials have met only twice with the Joint Refugee Leadership Committee (JRLC), and both meetings were at the request of the JRLC. At these meetings, government did not engage with our reservations about their process, in order to find practicable solutions, but merely continued to repeat policy.

The provincial government met with the JRLC on Monday 25th August and promised to provide details of the move directly to leadership on Tuesday so we could prepare our people. They also promised to set up a weekly meeting with the JRLC. Despite repeated requests from our volunteer communications team, neither of these have been forthcoming.

When we first met with provincial officials on 30th July, Dr Fast promised to meet with us again in 2 weeks’ time. It took 3 and a half weeks, and sustained lobbying by our volunteer supporters to get a second meeting. We do not have the resources to send daily emails and phone constantly to try and extract information. They government has so far refused to provide transport for unwaged leaders to attend meetings - costs are substantial when you are coming to town from places as distant as Soetwater, Blue Waters, Silverstroom and Harmony Park. These things all point to a complete lack of respect for refugee leadership and a lack of commitment to working together to resolve this situation.

Please call Soetwater leaders Kennedy Buswa (DRC) 076 674 7331 or Asad Abdullahi (Somalia) 073 461 8201 for comment.

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Helen Zille

27 August 2008

Text of speech by Cape Town mayor to full council meeting August 27 2008

Speaker, I would like to welcome all Councillors, City officials, and members of the public.

During the recess and over the past few weeks there have been a number of important developments affecting this council which I will mention before we proceed with today’s agenda.

Firstly, we have seen a steady decrease in the number of people seeking shelter in the wake of May’s xenophobic violence.

The total number of people staying in community halls, private properties, mosques, churches and safe sites has dropped from 20 000 to 3200. Of these, about 2 200 are in the five safe sites, 100 in private venues, and 900 in community halls.

Following an agreement between the City and Province, this week we have started the process of closing the Silwerstroom site, where only 108 people remain, and the Soetwater site, where 600 people remain.

We have given the people staying in these sites the option of either being assisted with reintegration, returning to their country of origin, or moving to Blue Waters or Harmony Park. Youngsfield will remain open but will not receive additional people.

The City and Province have also agreed that by the end of the month all community halls will be closed.

Again, we will offer those affected a choice between reintegration, returning to their country of origin or going to Blue Waters or Harmony Park.

We have requested several hundred additional family tents from the UN to equip the remaining sites and provide more privacy for the people staying there.

And the Provincial Government is continuing its reintegration programme, with the City’s support where necessary.

The full details of this process will be given at a media briefing at 13h00 this afternoon in the Civic Centre.

In consolidating shelter for displaced foreign nationals we are guided by last week’s interim ruling of the Constitutional Court on the obligations of the Gauteng Government regarding displaced people.

The Court ruled that government has the right to consolidate safe sites and to take down individual shelters if these individual shelters have been evacuated.

In terms of the ruling, nobody can be forcefully moved from their shelter, unless for the consolidation of a camp or to be taken to a repatriation facility.

And the Court found that displaced people have to co-operate with government officials for "all administrative purposes", and may not canvas or recruit extra people to the shelters.

We understand that the representatives of displaced people and the government have been ordered to seek a way to assist the remaining displaced people with a view to closing the camps by September 30.

In this regard it comes as no surprise that the Treatment Action Campaign has dropped its case against the City of Cape Town and Provincial Government over the safe sites.

They never had a case to begin with, and it is disingenuous for them to claim that their change of heart resulted from the Provincial Government’s publication of norms and standards relating to safe sites. The TAC was party to the formulation of these standards from the word go, and knew they were coming.

The City has reserved its right to pursue costs against the TAC for their groundless court action, which has wasted ratepayers’ money.

…

See full text at

http://www.politicsweb.co.za/politicsweb/view/politicsweb/en/page72308?oid=101466&sn=Marketingweb%20detail

Hi all,

Sorry for radio silence - been stuck offline for days, aaargh, great timing.

Latest news is that, after spending the whole afternoon in the camp yesterday discussing the move with groups adamantly objecting to it (i.e. the Ethiopians, the Somalians, and the Congolese women) trying to dispassionately lay out their options in light of the Constitutional Court judgement, and explaining how civil society can only carry on fighting for them in the courts if they go, the Somali leader Shekh Abdullahi called me last night to say they had changed their minds and decided to move. I think the final point I made about how the govt would probably be happy if the strong (=difficult) Soetwater people stayed behind so they could wash their hands of them might have hit home.

Hopefully, the Ethiopians will follow their brother Somalians, but getting a UN rep in there would seal it - they don’t trust any govt rep after all the broken promises, but if the UN tell them processing will only happen in Blue Waters, they will go. The Congolese women are very sharp, they can see the long view, and they know the govt probably won’t deliver as promised and they’ve probably got months and months more of this. They’re exhausted already and were only prepared to go through the upheaval of moving their kids if it was to Youngsfield, which at least is more central, not to Blue Waters which doesn’t have a school etc. But they won’t stay alone, so… fingers crossed.

I only pray now that it is better on the other side, or I will feel we have betrayed them by stating that it is probably better to go - (I never said it was ‘good’ to go, but that it is definitely a bad idea to stay because we can’t legally fight their corner from Soetwater). They want to be sorted out asap, and perhaps if they stayed and forced a very public confrontation on the issues, things might be more quickly addressed than if they move - but the danger to their families is too great a risk. Silverstroom will be the test case. I spoke to leader Papi last night, and he says they will walk to Namibia before they will come back to Cape Town. I couldn’t sleep for thinking of them.

Cheers all,

Sam

eMzantsi Carnival project manager
Harlequin Foundation
creating a common culture through carnival

Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:09 PM

Subject: Soetwater Refugees - Request

Dear Premier Brown,

Attached is a letter from the Far South Peninsula Community.

A signed copy has been faxed to your office.

Please acknowledge receipt

Simon Liell-Cock

By Hanti Otto

Kennedy Gihana, a Burundi refugee who lost all but one family member to genocide, on Tuesday raised his right hand in the Pretoria High Court where he was admitted as an attorney, taking the oath to serve the Republic of South Africa.
After ten years of hardship and hungry nights, Gihana can now stand up for the downtrodden, something he could not do when his Tutsi blood was literally a death sentence.
"I believe it’s better to face obstacles and injustices, than to deny it. From today, I can practice as an attorney and fight for others. I feel like I am flying," he said.
His last obstacle was when the Law Society of the Northern Provinces wanted to oppose his admission as an attorney, because he was not a citizen of the country nor did he have permanent residency.
Gihana and the law firm where he did his clerkship, Friedland and Hart, were prepared to fight this in court, arguing that he had legal refugee status.
"Then the miracle happened. On August 13 2008 home affairs granted me permanent resident status. I collapsed in the office," he said.
Gihana, 36, was born in Burundi to a Rwandan mother and Tutsi father. He went to school in Uganda. When he finished matric in 1993, he returned home.
"Then the war broke out, there was chaos. They killed my dad, my aunts.
"My mother managed to flee to Rwanda with my younger sister and baby brother. Mother and sister were murdered. My brother ended up in an orphanage," Gihana recalled.
Even when the "formally acknowledged" genocide was over, the murders and mayhem still continued, he said.
"Young men were forced to join the army. Tutsis were still being killed. I couldn’t get my brother out of Rwanda. I had to flee for my life," he said.
In 1998, he started on his journey to South Africa, travelling through several countries over three months, often on foot.
"There were many Samaritans en route who gave me a lift or food," Gihana said.
On June 11 1998, he legally crossed Beitbridge, taking a bus to Johannesburg.
He slept on the pavement under boxes, until he met two other Burundians one day and made room for him in the flat they shared with five others.
One loaned him R100 to register for a security guard’s course.
"For 12 hours at night I would open and close a boom, earning R1 800 a month.
"After paying my rent, I saved R100 per month until I had enough to register for the first of 56 law modules at Unisa.
"I was determined to study, even if it took me 40 years," Gihana said.
In 2000, he phoned Felix Fundi, the first counsellor at the Rwandan embassy.
Being a former refugee himself, Fundi gave Gihana work as a security guard at the embassy, enabling him to earn R2 500 per month.
He continued his studies at the University of Pretoria, working at night, attending class by day, surviving on the food Esperance Kagubare, a Rwandan at the embassy, brought him.
Gihana also became involved with Amnesty International.
"Countries were being destroyed. I wanted the world to realise what was happening," he said.
During Gihana’s third year as a law student, Fundi left the embassy and he was jobless again.
"I got a job at the university’s library. I secretly slept there. In the mornings I would wash up at a residency or at auntie Esperance’s."
Three months later, the then dean of the Law Faculty, Professor Eduard Kleyn, gave Gihana a job as student assistant.
"All the money went towards my tuition. I still owe the university R50 000," he laughed.
After completing his studies, he did his clerkship, saying the firm became his family. In 2006, the firm also bought him a ticket to visit his brother, now 14, in Rwanda.
"So many people have helped me to reach this big day. When I woke up this morning, I couldn’t breath. Years of battle have come to an end," he said.

• This article was originally published on page 1 of The Pretoria News on August 27, 2008