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Durban has no permanent solution for displaced people, writes Carlos Bruen The Mercury (Eye on Civil Society) 23 July 2008 By Carlos Bruen
Human rights continue to take a beating in South Africa, nearly two months after the wave of xenophobic violence killed dozens and displaced more than 60 000 immigrants.
Durban municipal authorities and the police, especially city manager Michael Sutcliffe, again embarrassed the city on national television last week, by refusing help to more than 170 desperate eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo refugees who had taken refuge on the city hall steps.
Several of the refugees were also badly beaten.
It is not American, German or, like me, Irish foreigners that have become the target of a frustrated society, however, rather Africans at the opposite end of society's apex.
As a Statistics South Africa report released last week shows, inequality continues to worsen, and the country has retreated on vital social indicators, ranking just 121 out of 177 countries on the 2007/08 UN human development index.
As DRC refugee Baruti Amisi noted in an Eye on Civil Society column published in May, the frustrations, disillusions and sufferings of South Africans were directed at the wrong people during the violence. It has not stopped. Blame and scapegoating continue as before.
The charges of criminality, of being parasitic on the state or of being excessively enterprising continue to be levelled at foreign nationals. The practice of ethnic scapegoating offers political utility for some, where a crisis is used to deflect blame away from social groups or institutions more culpable.
Ethnic cleansing This then is easily extended into programmes of ethnic cleansing, of removal whether through forced displacement, deportation or elimination.
South African intelligence agencies had long reported on xenophobic tensions, but President Thabo Mbeki denied receiving them.
The African Peer Review Mechanism also warned of the rising tendency of xenophobia, but Mbeki said it simply was not true. A damning survey by the SA Migration Project outlines how South Africa exhibits levels of intolerance and hostility to outsiders.
The state bears a great responsibility. Provincial KZN officials were brutal to immigrants in Cato Manor earlier this month.
And now Durban bureaucrats claim xenophobia is no longer an issue and have reneged on an earlier commitment at the height of the violence to provide shelter for the displaced.
Sutcliffe claims the city has done all it can, and anything else is not "within budget". But the R2 million already spent is far outweighed by the damage he continues to do in the run-up to 2010. Such action is fuelling rumours that Durban is not sufficiently hospitable to host World Cup tourists.
Sutcliffe claims migrants are being unco-operative by not choosing to either return to their country of citizenship or to the housing they rented before the violence. Given that the majority come from conflict zones, and that further xenophobic attacks are possible in Durban townships while services are still in short supply, it is questionable whether they have been given any real choice by the municipality.
They have been left with no choice but to live on the city streets or in parks.
Last month's report to the municipality's civilian oversight committee by metro police suggested establishing processing centres to deal with the growing number of homeless immigrants. The municipality's executive committee considers it this week.
However, some question how such centres will assist those who have been displaced, as opposed to merely being holding centres for transfer or deportation. Instead of receiving protection, safe shelter and having their basic needs met, the displaced have been met with continued evictions and forced removal. Community halls and churches have run out of food and money and can no longer offer shelter. Officials refuse to provide accommodation, healthcare or other basic services.
In Albert Park, more than 170 people are sheltering after a forced removal from the city hall on July 11 by metro police.
Warlords Most people at this camp are from the DRC, where more than four million were killed by ruthless warlords often co-operating with transnational corporations.
One man, Hulubatu, recalls how, on July 11, he and the rest of the men, women and children had no option but to sleep outside after they were dumped in the park by police.
There was no shelter in the park until later the next day, when a temporary marquee paid for by faith organisations was set up. However, the shelter in the park has no running water and, until last Tuesday, had no sanitation facilities.
This temporary set-up, insecure and without basic services, is considered illegal by the authorities. Those donating the facilities wish to remain anonymous, Hulubatu states, citing donor fear of repercussions.
Another DRC refugee, called Aziza, sees the marquee in Albert Park as her only option for now. She and the others cannot return to the DRC where their lives are threatened.
She says that they cannot return to houses in the communities where they lived before the violence either.
Last weekend, some university academics held a picnic with the refugees in a sunny Albert Park, bringing temporary smiles to the faces of people tired of this ordeal.
But temporary is also the nature of their shelter. People do not know when, but they are certain they will be removed soon.
Have officials already forgotten the values applauded and commitments made during the UN World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance in Durban in 2001? No doubt we will be deafened by similar hollow applause at the Durban Review Conference in 2009.
# Carlos Bruen is a visiting PhD scholar from University College Dublin, based at the UKZN Centre for Civil Society.
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