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Pregnant refugee ‘kicked repeatedly’
11 July 2008, 08:24
By Yusuf Moolla
A pregnant Congolese woman was allegedly beaten by a guard at the Durban City Hall on Thursday while protesting for accommodation after she was kicked out of a hostel.
Salima Abbasi was among more than 100 refugees, primarily from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who positioned themselves at the city hall, demanding funding and accommodation from the municipality.
Abbasi was allegedly hit repeatedly, and was later taken to hospital.
Congolese Luunda Asende captured some of the scuffle between Abbasi and the security guard on his cellphone.
Asende said that the guard, whose name is known to The Mercury, had hit Abbasi in the face.
“The guard also kicked her repeatedly in the stomach. She was (taken) to hospital because she was wounded badly.”
Refugee spokesperson Hulubatu Akyamba, from the DRC, said that the refugees had been taken to a Dr Yusuf Dadoo (Broad) Street building last week, and were told by the municipality that they were to be accommodated there for a month. “But on Monday, we were told that the municipality would stop paying and we would have to pay ourselves, but we have no money,” he said.
Scared
Akyamba said they would stay on the city hall steps for the night because they had nowhere else to go.
“They (the municipality) tell us that the xenophobia crisis is over, but we are still scared for our lives. As we stand here, locals continue to taunt and threaten us.”
Akyamba said they could not go to the police because their complaints would not be filed.
The eThekwini disaster management head, Lungisa Manzi, said there was no crisis, and that the municipality did not have the capacity to deal with the refugees.
Municipal manager Michael Sutcliffe said it was not the city’s responsibility to cater for the group.
“There are more than a million poor people in the city. We cannot prioritise a few,” he said.
Sutcliffe added that he had not seen the video, but it would be investigated.
yusuf.moolla@inl.co.za
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eThekwini evicts xenophobia victims
8 July 2008, 13:41
By Mpume Madlala
Ethekwini’s disaster management unit on Monday evicted more than 40 displaced victims of xenophobia from the old SPCA site, where they were temporarily seeking refuge.
Lungisa Manzi, of the city’s disaster management unit, said the refugees were not the municipality’s responsibility.
“The reason we found them this site was because they were camping outside the city hall verandas, which are really not equipped to house people. They knew from the beginning that this was only temporary,” he said.
Manzi said the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) for refugees had offered to pay for three days at a shelter where the displaced people would stay, during which time they would find alternative accommodation for themselves.
“All those who do find such will be assisted by the MCC with rent. From then onwards they will be on their own. In Durban there is no refugee camp, and there are no plans by government to have one. But no xenophobic incidents that have been reported to us, so we believe they are in no danger. Now is the time for them to re-integrate back into society,” Manzi said.
Amsi Iwilondja, speaking for all the refugees at this site, said they did not know what they were going to do.
“It is hard for us to just go back to people who assaulted us for being who we are. How sure can we be that it will not happen again?
“We have already been threatened by construction workers working here on this site. They pointed their hammers and spades at us, saying we should go back to our countries. There is no violence now, because we have not gone back,” Iwilondja said.
He added that they were saddened by the way they were being treated.
“If the government can care for animals, why can’t they care for us? We are human beings not in this situation by choice, but by circumstance.”
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‘Xenophobia now in churches’
1 July 2008, 08:30
By Colleen Dardagan
A second Durban church has washed its hands of a group of refugees left homeless after xenophobic attacks in the city last month, saying it has had enough of their “filthy and dishonest ways”.
A representative of the Greyville Methodist Church, which had housed about 40 Congolese refugees since the violence broke out nearly five weeks ago, Cecil van den Bergh, said enough was enough.
“They have refused to clean up after themselves. The place has become a filthy mess. My staff have been intimidated and threatened. And now we have caught them stealing food and blankets meant for our own pavement people. We were left with no option but to tell them to leave.”
A spokesperson for the refugees, Bibimba Mufaume, denied the allegations levelled at the group.
“These are all Christians. Other people are coming here at night and stealing. This xenophobia is now even in the churches,” he said.
The move by the Greyville church followed the decision of the Glenwood Community Church to offload more than 100 refugees at the Durban City Hall last week, saying it no longer had the resources to care for them. The group is now being housed at a shelter in Dr Yusuf Dadoo (Broad) Street at a cost of R20 a night.
Aslam Khan, a United Nations official, said the problems experienced by the various religious organisations had arisen because the local authorities had refused to take responsibility for the refugees.
Responsibility
“The city promised the group sent to the city hall last week that they would be accommodated in the shelter for only five nights and then a solution would have been found.
“That time has now passed and still no plan of action is evident. The government needs to take responsibility for these people – someone has to do something soon,” he said.
Khan also expressed concern over the women and children who had been locked out of the Greyville church.
“There are small children here and they need to be taken care of,” he said.
Van den Bergh was not about to compromise.
“We took these people in gladly. We pooled our limited resources to assist, only to be treated in this way. To be honest, we feel abused,” he said.
Sharm Maharaj, the municipal official in charge of the matter, said solutions were being sought.
“This is a national and provincial issue. The city is trying to assist where we can, but this matter is beginning to cost serious money. Soon we are going to find ourselves in trouble.”
Maharaj confirmed that those locked out of the Greyville mission on Monday would also be accommodated at the Dr Yusuf Dadoo Street shelter until a suitable site could be found for temporary accommodation.
“The Burt Taylor sports ground, suggested last week, has been shelved. We also looked at the old SPCA site as an option, but that is also unsuitable.
“A meeting will be held today with provincial and disaster management representatives when we hope to come up with a solution,” he said.