Tula Tula Thabo

"You know this, too, that the rest of Southern Africa, your neighbouring countries, has also had the unavoidable obligation to carry much of the weight of the burden of the Zimbabwe crisis, in many ways.

You know that, among other things, various countries of our region host large numbers of economic migrants from Zimbabwe, who impose particular burdens on our countries.

Loyal to the concept and practice of African solidarity, none of our countries and governments has spoken publicly of this burden, fearful that we might incite the xenophobia to which all of us are opposed.

Nevertheless, the leaders of the people of Zimbabwe, including you, dear brother, need to bear in mind that the pain your country bears is a pain that is transferred to the masses of our people, who face their own challenges of poverty, unemployment and underdevelopment.

This particular burden is not carried by the countries of Western Europe and North America, which have benefited especially from the migration of skilled and professional Zimbabweans to the north

As you secure applause because of the insult against us that we are "cowards", you will have to consider the reality that our peoples have accepted into their countries very large numbers of Zimbabwean brothers and sisters in a spirit of human solidarity, prepared to sustain the resultant obligations. None of our countries displayed characteristics of cowardice when they did this.

All of us will find it strange and insulting that because we do not agree with you on a small matter, you choose to describe us in a manner that is most offensive in terms of African culture, and therefore offend our sense of dignity as Africans, across our borders.."

Thabo Mbeki, former South African president, failed international statesman and proper arsehole in a letter to the MDC

Ze Bill for ze solution is Beeg

The City of Cape Town spent at least R108-million on relief to victims of xenophobia, but so far has only been reimbursed R17-million by the provincial and national governments.

City chief financial officer Mike Richardson said the R91-million shortfall, which had to be siphoned from various council departments, would affect their budgets. (From the Cape Times)

Housing mayoral committee member Dan Plato said the money used for xenophobia relief measures were needed for other projects.

"We need to tell citizens out there that we can't afford to spend money like this." (Hahaha - Thanks for that Dan...)

With only three months left before the end of the 2007/08 financial year, the city is racing against the clock to spend its R4-billion capital budget, having only spent 32 percent by the end of February. (From the Star)

The City’s 2008/09 budget amounts to R22 792 million, represented by a Capital Budget of R3 888 million and an Operating Budget of R18 904 million. (City of Cape Town Budget)

"Ve are going to kill you because you don't vant to listen."

"We're going to kill you because you don't want to listen." (From IRINNews..)

"They are coming"... three words to turn your stomach. Zen Ven zey arrive zey break ze vindows.. rape ze woman unt kill de man...

Kwerekwere are not welcome back in the townships..."I know at least 20 people who went to be reintegrated and were raped or killed or attacked," Asad Abdullahi, a Somali leader in Cape Town's Blue Waters Security Site, told IRIN. "I've attended their funerals, and still have their documentation for asylum seeking."

South African Police Service wrote in response to allegations of 10 "xenophobia deaths": "We do not have any record of the existence of xenophobia in the Western Cape for that period. Be advised that several cases of crime however were reported." (Hahaha... or perhaps Bwhahahahahahahaha? Several cases of crime were reported... SAP... )

An SAP officer who had urinated on the tap where the kwerekwere bathe allegedly said that he was in his country and could do whatever he liked,

"If the police, who are supposed to protect you, say things like that, and you're still pressing me to go reintegrate, I ask you, who is going to protect me there?"

Aunesi Omari – who, in her five years in South Africa has seen her brother killed, her daughter raped, and her home taken away from her – seem to have fallen into passive desperation.

"Now they're talking about evicting us from the camp. I don't know which place I'm going to go. I'm looking everywhere for where I'm going to be safe. In South Africa I'm not safe, and in my country I'm not safe. Where can I go with five children? I really don't know what I'm going to do."

Schwartzers facing Eviction from ze Camps

Refugees and asylum seekers who remain at Blue Waters and Youngsfield face legal action if zey do not voluntarily leave the camps, said city spokesperson Pieter Cronje. (IOL)

Those at Youngsfield had until midnight on Tuesday night to apply for reintegration assistance. If they now refuse to leave, the SA National Defence Force - vich owns the land - may apply for an eviction order.

Cronje said the same applied to Blue Waters, but the deadline is Vriday at midnight. If people did not leave voluntarily "zen the city will take legal action to remove (them) from the site".

"There is no information, no pamphlets and no time agenda for repatriation". Ben Ilunga

At Youngsfield, Ali Mohammed and Siad Ndikumana from Burundi said they had not heard of this information and were still waiting to be repatriated.

"We can't understand this story. What is this formula between repatriation and reintegration?" said Mohammed.

400 Schwartzers want to go home....

"We are not discouraging camp residents to try reintegrating; rather, we ask that the government show sensitivity and understanding not force us to reintegrate when our people continue to be raped and murdered upon returning to the townships." The Joint Refugee Committee of the Western Cape open letter addressed to the provincial government, UN High Commissioner for Refugees and the SA Human Rights Commission.

The letter said there were about 280 refugees at Blue Waters camp and 140 refugees at Youngsfield camp waiting for interviews with UNHCR or International Organisation for Migration so they can be repatriated. (from IOL)

The government has urged all refugees in camps, including those who want to be repatriated back home, to go back to local communities as it closes the sites.

Congolese volunteer Ben Mutenga said they hoped there wouldn't be any forced removals.

"There is always a peaceful solution. Evictions are traumatising."

Schwartzers STARVING TO DEATH IN THE CAMP..

The food shortage at the Youngsfield ethnic cleansing camp in Wynberg is escalating, with leaders pleading for help to prevent women and children "starving to death".

More than 10 days ago, the govmunt closed the camp and cut food and electricity supplies to the more than 150 schwarzers who refused to move.

Mohammed, who has lived in schwarzers camps in Kenya and Mozambique, said life at Youngsfield was a nightmare.

"The children in the camp cry due to hunger, their health is no longer good food supplies are erratic and sometimes just trickle in we have women who are in dire need of baby milk for their children, but it is not coming through," he said.

He said a camp or safety site should take into account human rights, "but here it is like we are in jail", "I hoped to find peace here, but now I'm ready to go back home,"

Schwartzers not wanting to go home....

A group of 160 kwerekwere, including 37 children, have refused to leave the Youngsfield safety site which was closed on Friday.

The supply of food to the kwerekwere has been stopped and electricity cut off....

Now what happens now... No food...?

HSRC - Housing to blame

It's amazing that it's always something else.. Now the HSRC blames the housing situation...

Housing policy was identified as a trigger for the outbreak of xenophobic attacks, a report by the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) revealed on Wednesday. (News 24)

"The housing policy needs to be revisited urgently. Housing is a complex issue and is one of the issues that sparked xenophobic violence in various areas around country,"

"Immigrants should be regulated. They need to be introduced to customs, practice and sensitivities of the country. The local councillors need to be educated about migration and South Africa's role globally,"

said HSRC director Adrian Hadland

Schwartzers get out hand at immigration centre

Chaos erupted at the Nyanga Immigration Centre yesterday.....

Home Affairs spokesperson Siobhan McCarthy said it was unclear what sparked the incident, "but some clients waiting outside had thrown stones at security officers and at clients on the site"... (it was them....)

Several queuing men and women said they were beaten and pepper-sprayed by police.

"There were too many of them who wanted to be helped, so they pushed and shoved," said police spokesperson Jannie Wentzel from Bishop Lavis. According to an inspector at the scene, no pepper spray was used, Wentzel said. (Ehe - eet wasn't us!)

An emotional asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo said: "They hit people. They hit people with sticks and they are not allowed to do that." Since arriving three months ago, he had visited Home Affairs once a week. (this kwerekwere is a bit late to the party!)

McCarthy said the crowding was not related to appeals by displaced foreigners staying in the safety camps. (It has something to do with the fact that the camps have been / are being closed)

Schwartzers get second dose of Murambatsvina as Tshwane Council razes camp

Hundreds of Schwartzers immigrants, displaced by xenophobic attacks which hit most parts of South Africa ’s Gauteng Province in May, are now living under sub-human conditions, after the host government razed their safety camps.

On Monday last week, the South African government dismantled the last remaining safety camp, Akasia, in the capital Pretoria, which housed more than 300 victims of the xenophobic violence, which rocked Gauteng and left more than 60 people, most of them foreign nationals, dead.

“I will stay here because there is nowhere else for me to go. I cannot just return to those people, who chased me away in such a violent manner,” said Benson Shoko, a Zimbabwean father of two, who comes from Masvingo.

“The camps have all closed and we are re-integrating these people back to their societies. There is no way they can remain in isolation forever,” said Tshwane Mayor, Gwen Ramogkapa..... Thanks Gwen... Perhaps you meant to say... "We have razed the camps, pulled down all infrastructure there was there, shoved the people into the open and either zey reingrate or zey vil die!"

Chaos expected as refugee camps close

The Harmony Park safety camp is to be closed on Friday and civil society groups say they expect "chaos and homelessness" to follow for asylum seekers, 250 of whom have not yet heard the results of their applications.

Provincial Disaster Management spokesperson Hildegard Fast says the government is committed to closing the camps as soon as possible, but is "working very carefully to understand what the options are" for unresolved cases.

According to a joint city and provincial government statement on Tuesday, 1 968 displaced people from other African countries remain in Western Cape camps.

In Cape Town, the Harmony Park camp is to close on Friday, Youngsfield next Friday and Blue Waters by the end of October.

"Sixty people who have said they want to be repatriated as well as vulnerable people who are young, old, disabled or sick will be accommodated at Blue Waters (until then)," the statement said.

The Treatment Action Campaign's (TAC) Scott Dunlop said: "There is confusion among people living in the camps who don't understand what their options are."

The repatriation process could take several weeks for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) to complete. Meanwhile, the foreigners would be sent back into South African communities they feared.

"This is unacceptable."

Dunlop expected "chaos and homelessness" and said civil society groups would monitor developments.

"The government's taking actions that result in people being homeless is unlawful."

But Fast said: "We understand what the legal framework is and we operate within it."

Fast said many asylum seekers had not made themselves available to receive their forms.

Of the 250 awaiting asylum decisions, Department of Home Affairs spokesperson Siobhan McCarthy said a team would return to Harmony Park to see if the applicants were there.

Meanwhile, the UNHCR in Geneva, Switzerland, has announced it is to investigate the response of its Pretoria office to the xenophobic crisis.

The UNHCR's decision follows a 24-page complaint sent to it on Monday by 15 civil society groups and two volunteers in Cape Town.

In a statement, the UNHCR said: "To ensure full objectivity and transparency, an inquiry will be conducted that will include a senior staff member designated by UNHCR's office of the inspector general, one person designated by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and one person designated by the Steering Committee for Humanitarian Response.

"We will expect a report on their inquiry in the next few weeks."

Yusuf Hassan, spokesperson for the UNHCR, confirmed the statement. The organisation would "wait for the committee's inquiry and its investigation", he said.

Fatima Hassan, of the Aids Law Project, said she was "very pleased" with this "groundbreaking" development. - Cape Times

Eight foreigners killed re-intergrating

Two of the Western Cape province's three refugee camps are to close by Friday, but reintegrated families say they have been attacked by locals and a volunteer at one of the camps says eight refugees have been killed since returning to communities.

Men and women waited at the entrance to the Harmony Park camp, near Strand, on Sunday to be transported to nearby communities. Many of the tents were empty, and some had been dismantled.

Two reintegrated women said their lives had been threatened on Friday night at the nearby Nomzamo settlement.

"About two in the morning, men came to the window and said we must give them our money or they would kill us. They said they knew we had been given money by the camp," said Eneresi Namakunde, who is from Zimbabwe.


Namakunde and her friend, Jessy Pamburai, said they escaped and slept on the street.

"Now we don't have anywhere to go. We don't have anything."

Camp spokesperson John Kisomezi said at least two families and two men had also returned.

"They had been beaten all over their bodies," he said.

Mercy Katuruza, from Zimbabwe, said: "We are scared, but there is nothing we can do."

Katuruza is to be reintegrated before Wednesday, but is worried about Thomas Sithole, an HIV-positive Mozambican for whom she has been caring.

In a nearly empty tent, Sithole lay in bed on Sunday at lunch. He appeared thin and sickly.

The department of home affairs has said he must return to Mozambique within 14 days, but doctors have told him he needs to stay and go on a course of anti-retrovirals, without which he will not survive.

"He cannot begin the ARVs now because they may not be available in Mozambique," Kataruza said.

"It's not safe for him to go."

Hildegarde Fast, head of the Western Cape Disaster Management Centre, said she could not comment specifically on Sithole's case, but he should speak to the camp co-ordinator.

Katuraza said camp authorities were aware of Sithole, but she did not trust that they could care for him.

"When we were packing our things, no one gave Thomas his food that day."

Fast said reintegration was a work in progress and that once the camps closed, the government would continue to create safe conditions for refugees.

"Facilitators have been deployed in communities people fled from. They are working with community leaders."

There had been successes, Fast said. Three reconciliation events had been held throughout the province. But Tracey Saunders, a volunteer, said she did not trust this explanation.

"Where are these facilitators? And what are they doing?"

Eight of the people from the Soetwater camp alone had been murdered since returning to communities, Saunders said.

She said the work the facilitators were doing needed to be made visible to refugees in the camps who feared for their lives. - Cape Times

Xenophobia crisis control costs city R100m

The cost of managing the xenophobic crisis that erupted in the city has soared to more than R100-million.

And to date the government has not reimbursed a single cent of the money, which means the city's safety and security department's spending has gone more than R50-million over its annual budget.

A report submitted to the council's portfolio committee on Monday by the city's director of budgets, Johan Steyl, indicated that the city had submitted its third claim of R25,8-million last month on the back of its first claim of R70,7-million in June, and another R5,6-million in August.

These are all claims for actual costs incurred.

Steyl said the city had followed its agreement with the provincial government on managing the crisis and related financial costs to the letter, which included that the submission of claims be made to this level of government, which would then forward them to the Treasury.

He said the city's disaster management centre had liaised with the provincial department on the reimbursement of its money, but to date had received no formal response.

The finance committee decided that the matter should be brought to the attention of the mayoral committee, with a view to it being discussed at its next meeting next week.

The city is incurring ongoing costs as it still accommodates just more than 2 000 refugees in three sites in the city, five months since the violence against foreign nationals broke out in the townships.

- Cape Argus

Wiped out in SA

A Somali mother and her three children were killed in their shop in Tambo village near Queenstown last week. This was barely a month after they decided to leave a Cape Town refugee camp and reintegrate themselves into the community.

On the advice of government mediators Saida Mohamed and her children, aged 13, 10 and eight, left the Youngsfield refugee camp for what they hoped would be safer residence in the Eastern Cape. Mohamed's remaining family members, still in the Blue Waters refugee camp outside Muizenberg, now expect to be deported to Somalia, a country in the grip of civil war.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) visited the Somali community in Queenstown on Wednesday this week to compile a report on the incident.

Mohamed and her children, who had been in South Africa for almost three years, had a spaza shop in Khayelitsha Site C, which was looted and destroyed on May 23. Neighbours told her to leave the township. Told by government mediators that it was safe to leave, she decided that the Eastern Cape would be safer than Khayelitsha.

She opened her shop in Tambo village three weeks ago. Last Thursday evening a group of men entered the shop, locked the door and killed the family. Saida was stabbed 113 times and she and her 10-year-old daughter, Asha, were allegedly repeatedly raped.

A witness who found the bodies the next morning said all four family members had been stripped and mutilated. After they were killed the bodies were piled on top of one another.

The first members of the Mohamed family came to South Africa shortly after their family home was bombed in 1992. Mohamed's sister, Qarmar Musse, and her last remaining child, Zamzam Ibrahim, have been living in a tent for the past four months, first in Soetwater camp near Cape Point and now in Blue Waters. Both Ibrahim and her mother have been severely brutalised during the eight years they have been here as asylum seekers.

"Three men came into my shop and asked me for money. I gave them everything I had. They then told me to go into my room that was behind the shop. They said: 'When we're done with you, kwerekwere, you won't stay in this country anymore -- you will run back to your own country.' Then they took turns to rape me," Ibrahim said.

She said: "We don't blame your government. I just want to lie down and never wake up because my heart is so sore. I want to die, I truly do."

Ibrahim's mother's, Qarmar Musse's, face was battered against a security gate by people who robbed her shop and attacked her in Nelspruit a year ago. The sight in one of her eyes has been impaired. "We have lost six of the original 11 members of our family in South Africa," she said.

"I'm happy home affairs has rejected our application for refugee status. People are shooting one another in the streets in Somalia, but that's better."

Ibrahim's husband was shot and killed in 2005 in Khayelitsha when his shop was robbed. Nobody was arrested for the killing.

Her younger brother, Mugtar Ibrahim, owned a shop in Johannesburg's Alexandra township and has been missing since the xenophobic attacks occurred in Gauteng.

Said Ibrahim: "Do you know why us refugees are killed here? It's because South Africans want everything easy. You're jealous people who don't want to work hard. You want everything for nothing. We are very hard-working people."

The UNHCR has offered refugees R500 per family to leave the Western Cape camps and the government is insisting that all refugee camps will be closed by mid-October.

In the past two months nine Somali shopkeepers have been killed in Queenstown and East London alone.
Acting provincial police commissioner Nomalady Dlani told the Daily Dispatch that the motive for the killings is robbery, not xenophobia.

Meanwhile, Percy Zvomuya reports that the Gauteng government permanently closed the province's refugee camps this week, setting in motion an exodus of trucks piled with chairs, beds, blankets and other household items.

An ageing Mozambican-born man, a resident in South Africa since 1965, is now partially blind after he was injured in the xenophobic attacks in May. His South African wife, who lost a foot, says now she has to lead her husband around -- even to the toilet. "I don't have anywhere to go," she said. "My house in Holomisa, on the East Rand, was burnt and all my furniture was stolen."

Gauteng government spokesperson Simon Zwane said the authorities had "no indication that the people don't want to go back".

Camp inmates accepted a R500 stipend to help them with relocation. "If you take the money, you are basically saying you want to leave," Zwane said. - M&G

Police fire rubber bullets at asylum seekers

Mothers with children on their backs tried to run for cover, but fell to the ground, hundreds of others trying to get out the line of fire ended up piled on top of each other in the street, and screaming could be heard in between shots.

This was the situation at the department of home affairs' Nyanga Refugee Reception Centre on Monday, when hundreds of asylum seekers, who up to last week could be served at Barrack Street, arrived and added to a crowd of at least 400 which overpowered security guards.

Police dispersed the crowd by firing rubber bullets.

After about 10 minutes refugees tentatively walked back into the street in which a number of shoes were strewn and started trying to find the ones they had lost.

Some had bleeding legs where rubber bullets had hit.

But Home Affairs remained confident that Monday's situation was "just a teething problem" and the same would not happen on Tuesday.

As of Monday asylum seekers previously served at the Barrack Street offices were routed to the Nyanga centre and this had resulted in a bigger than usual crowd.

When the Cape Times arrived in Nyanga on Monday hundreds of refugees were crowded around the centre and more were standing in the street. Police officers were stationed at the entrance.

When the crowd kept surging forward despite repeated warnings to move back, officers fired rubber bullets.

As refugees tried to run away, some fell which caused groups of them to pile up in the middle of the street.

Children could be seen clinging to their parents and a number of women with toddlers tied to their backs fell as they tried to get away.

A mother landed on her back on, with her child was tied on and so struggled to get up.

Asked if they were hurt, she started crying and quickly walked away hugging her screaming child.

"There is a problem. It seems like no one wants us here. Where must we go? We're coming here and doing the right thing. No one tells us what's going on," Carlos Mambosasa of Zimbabwe said.

"I wanted to apply for a passport. I'm five months pregnant and I was so scared my baby would be hurt," Shamso Duali of Somalia said.

An hour later smaller queues and crowds kept reforming and officers moved them back. They told the refugees to "go home" and come back to the centre on Tuesday.

Bishop Lavis police spokesperson November Filander said no injuries were reported and no one was arrested. He said officers would monitor the situation.

Said Home Affairs spokesperson Siobhan McCarthy: "All applications for asylum are now being handled in Nyanga. The offices at Barrack Street had a problem with queues because the street's very narrow.

"The crowd was bigger than usual in Nyanga and security guards were overpowered. But it should ease off," she said. - Cape Times

Refugee camps to be dismantled end of September

Gauteng refugee camps will be dismantled end of September

Gauteng Social Development MEC, Kgaogelo Lekgoro, says the refugee camps that accommodate the victims of the xenophobic attacks will finally be dismantled at the end of the month.

This follows a Constitutional Court ruling that stopped the government's plan to dismantle the camps last month. Lekgoro says of the more than 20 000 refugees who were accommodated at six camps, only 2 000 are still living at the three remaining camps.

He says most of them are illegal immigrants who will finally be repatriated. Lekgoro says they are working together with Home Affairs to reintegrate those who have legal status in the country.

Meanwhile, Western Cape Minister of Community Safety, Patrick McKenzie, says Somali shop owners in Khayelitsha have been threatened if they don't close their business outlets. McKenzie is in receipt of a letter from the Zanokhanyo Retailers Association. The association is calling for the immediate closure of foreign owned businesses. McKenzie says threats by local business owners are xenophobic and a threat to peace. - SABC

Cape storms flatten refugee tents

Six tents that currently accommodate foreign nationals have been flattened by strong winds that lashed Harmony Park at Gordon's bay near Cape Town. There are more than 500 refugees still living on the safety sites.

There are no reports of injuries nor damage to structural buildings in the park. Refugees assisted by the City of Cape Town workers are trying to pitch the tents that were blown away.

Harmony Park is one of three safety sites that have not been closed by the Western Cape disaster management. The others are Blue waters near Strandfontein as well as Youngfield Military base at Ottery. Some of the refugees that have been moved from 11 community halls during the week, have been relocated to the Harmony site.

Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town's Disaster Response Teams have been providing relief to people at informal settlements which have been affected by the rough weather conditions in the Western Cape Province.

Two frontal systems that passed through the province resulted in widespread rain which caused localised flooding and power disruptions across the Cape Peninsula.

The City's Disaster Management spokesperson, Wilfred Solomons-Johannes, says hot meals and blankets are being provided to flood victims at Phola Park, Klipfontein Mission Station as well as Never-Never, an informal settlement in Phillipi. He says mop up operations are currently underway following the heavy rains and winds. - SABC

Xenophobia: 'SA govt to blame'

Johannesburg - Experts on Wednesday slammed what they called South Africa's lack of a migration policy on Africans, saying it was a major reason for recent xenophobic violence.

"There is a gross negligence on the part of officials to manage migration and understand other Africans. There is a need for a humane and sensible migration policy in South Africa," said Ann Bernstein of the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE), an independent policy research body.

A "proper and coherent" policy on migration should recognise the "inevitability" of African immigrants in South Africa, she said in a roundtable discussion on migration.

"We have to face the challenge (of migrants) in South Africa instead of panicking about them," she said.

More than 60 people were killed across the country in xenophobia attacks in May, which began in Johannesburg.

Negative perceptions about immigrants must be taken seriously by policy makers, she said.

According to a 2006 CDE survey on migration in Johannesburg, around 14% of the city's 3.9 million population, or about 550 000, are foreigners.

Sixty percent of foreigners, most of whom "make a positive contribution" to the South African economy, experience negative treatment in Johannesburg, the study said.

Education on migrants

South African officials should deal with migration in ways that give citizens "confidence on the positive contribution" of migrants to the nation's development, the study said.

Mamphela Ramphele, a former co-chair of the Global Commission on International Migration, said South Africa was not "conducting itself in a proper human rights manner," adding that it needed to learn from other countries such as Canada and Australia on migration management.

She said a government policy should also include the education of citizens on immigration in all its ramifications: who immigrants are, their situation and what has driven them out of their country.

"Government should do much to educate South Africans about other Africans," she said.

"There is complete disconnectedness between various government departments... Home Affairs department officials treat our African migrants as a nuisance and without respect," she added.

Philip Martin, a professor of economics at the University of California, said that there was a need for reliable data on migration in South Africa to allow for proper government planning, citing Costa Rica and Malaysia as some countries with good policy on migration. - AFP

Zimbabweans' Shacks set alight, cops fire rubber bullets

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse around 50 people after two shacks belonging to Zimbabwean immigrants were burnt in the North West Province, authorities said on Saturday.

The incident erupted after a Lesotho man stabbed a Zimbabwean in a tavern on Friday night, causing a fight to break out, said police captain Adele Myburgh.

Two shacks in the Bokfontein area were then set alight, she said. Police responded and found a "chaotic" scene involving some 50 people, said Myburgh. Police then fired rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Earlier reports said the incident appeared to be a "xenophobic" attack.

However, authorities were no longer considering it an anti-immigrant attack since they had determined it started after the incident between the Lesotho man and the Zimbabwean, Myburgh said.

A wave of violence that broke out in May saw foreigners being driven out of townships, mainly in Johannesburg, where residents accuse immigrants of taking jobs and blame them for high crime rates.

More than 60 people were killed in those attacks. - News24

Should I stay or should I go....

Well "Go" according to the Gauteng government....

"Really, they have been given enough time ... and it was extended for a few days. We think that is enough time to arrange alternative accommodation," spokesperson Thabo Masebe said on Tuesday.

Themba Masebe having a heart!

Reintegrate or return home

Johannesburg - The African migrants who have poured into the city known in Zulu as the Place of Gold over the past decade face an agonising choice in the coming week.

They must reintegrate into the townships and squatter camps they fled in mid-May when their South African neighbours began attacking them - or return home to the poverty and/or conflict they left behind in their countries of origin.

The two-week orgy of xenophobic violence that swept South Africa in May, leaving at least 62 people dead and hundreds injured, marked one of the darkest hours in the country's 14-year democracy.

Tens of thousands of Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, Malawians, Congolese, Nigerians and other Africans scooped up their children and ran from mobs with little more than the clothes on their back.

Many were so traumatised by the violence they had witnessed or experienced they rushed to board buses and trains out of South Africa.

The rest, close to 40 000 at one point, piled into police stations, churches and community halls, from where most were later bundled off to government-run camps.

Shelters being shut down

Now, barely three months later, the government is shutting down the shelters, leaving around 7 000 people facing an uncertain future. In Gauteng province, where most of the violence took place in and around Johannesburg, six camps holding around 3 000 people are due to close by August 15.

Refugees in the Western Cape have a few extra weeks to plot their next move, with authorities there saying they hope to empty over 40 shelters by September 3.

For 21-year-old Fortune, from Zimbabwe, removal from Rand Airport refugee camp in east Johannesburg means the end of his protection from youths who have vowed to finish off "amakwerekwere" (foreigners).

"It is difficult for me to go back (to nearby Primrose squatter camp)," says the lanky security guard, who hopped the border illegally into South Africa to escape Zimbabwean Robert Mugabe's disastrous policies.

Returning to Zimbabwe in the absence of a change in government is not an option, says Fortune. Going back to Primrose is nearly as unpalatable. "They will kill me," he says.

Dramatic a scenario as that may sound, it's not unrealistic. In Ramaphosa squatter camp, where the sadly iconic image of Mozambique's Ernesto Nhamuave burning to death was captured, another Mozambican who returned home recently to his South African wife was dragged from his shack and hacked to death.

Poor-on-poor violence

Analysts say the unbridled influx of migrants from poorer countries into Africa's biggest economy since the end of apartheid, including an estimated between one and three million Zimbabweans, is causing a "poor-on-poor violence" tussle over scarce resources.

One in four in South Africa is officially jobless, with unions putting the real figure at closer to 40%. South Africans accuse undocumented foreigners of aggravating their plight by working for less pay.

While most agree that the refugee shelters should not become a permanent fixture, activists accuse the government of not doing enough to pave the way for the reintegration of migrants or to prepare them for their return.

"People are really confused. They don't know where to go," says Partson Madzimure, a Zimbabwean-trained psychology lecturer who organises free classes for kids and adults at Rand Airport.

But the government has to tread carefully to avoid being perceived as doing more for the migrants than needy locals.

Allegations that foreigners leapfrogged South Africans on the waiting list for government housing was what ignited the violence in Alexandra township, north of Johannesburg, on May 11.

Reintegration

"We're encouraging people to reintegrate themselves," Russell McGregor, the Gauteng government's media liaison officer said.

Where migrants were unwelcome, in places like Ramaphosa, "the political leadership and the councils will try to integrate them into other areas," he said.

Meanwhile, migrants who return to the scene of May's crime have their own set of resentments to contend with.

Domingo Mawai, a Mozambican-born father of four, is back selling fruit and vegetables through a mesh screen in a tiny street-side stall in Alexandra.

Every day, he sees the people who used the cover provided by the xenophobic violence to make off with R8 000 worth of stock, his fridge, TV, DVD player, blankets and stove.

"One of them came to the shop recently to ask forgiveneness," he notes. Nobody, as yet, has offered to return his property. - Sapa-dpa

Beaten up for coming back

Congolese lawyer, Chris Kwigomba, lived through the recent spate of xenophobic attacks and believed the situation would calm down and that life would return to normal.

The feeling of confidence was heightened by an announcement by the municipality that it was safe for foreigners to return to their former abodes because the threat of violence was over.

Councillors in areas such as Cato Crest and Mariannhill said their communities would welcome back victims of xenophobia.

Last week, Kwigomba decided to go back to his flat in Umbilo and return to his managerial job at a local food outlet. But as soon as he was spotted in the building, all hell broke loose.

"Someone started screaming 'ikwerekwere' (a derogatory name for 'foreigner') and the next thing there were angry people beating me up with hard objects for no reason," he said.

"I became unconscious and woke up in King Edward VIII Hospital with a head injury and bruises."

Like so many refugees, Kwigomba is between a rock and a hard place. He claims it is not safe to live in the local community and he cannot go back to the Congo because he fears he will lose his life.

"Those who fled the Congo are looked upon as traitors. Whichever way you look at it, it would seem we are doomed."

'most of the foreign members of our community have been returning to their homes safely'

He said all the refugees were asking for was a safe place to stay.

Mariannhill councillor, Pearl Luthuli, and her Cato Crest counterpart, Gloria Borman, paint a different picture.

Luthuli said she had not heard of any returning refugees who were assaulted.

"If it did happen, it would have been done by an individual and not a group of people because we have been addressing this issue and people don't seem to have a problem with them returning. I would say that it is safe for them to come back," she said.

"As far as I know, most of the foreign members of our community have been returning to their homes safely." - Daily News

SA to close refugee camps

South Africa is to close camps set up around Johannesburg and Cape Town for thousands of foreigners displaced in May's anti-immigrant attacks, officials said on Friday.

Six camps in Gauteng Province, which includes economic capital Johannesburg, housing about 3 000 foreigners, are to be formally closed on August 15, with the remainder due to shut over the following weeks.

There are about 4 200 people camped in 45 sites across Western Cape Province in the southeast.

"We would like everybody to be fully reintegrated by September 3," the local director of a disaster management centre in Western Cape, Hildegarde Fast, told AFP.

But that deadline may be shifted in certain camps "because we understand that there might be some very difficult cases: people who do not want to be reintegrated but cannot be repatriated because they come from conflict zones," she said.

Fear of fresh attacks lingers

Some 16 000 immigrants have already left the camps of the province and a "majority" have been returned home or to alternative zones, she added.

But the fear of becoming targets of fresh attacks lingers.

Since victims of xenophobic attacks began to return to their homes in Western Cape, five foreigners have been killed and seven others injured, the weekly Mail and Guardian reported.

The police confimed the killing on Tuesday of only one immigrant.

"It is very difficult sometimes to separate what is simply a robbery and what is something specifically motivated by xenophobia," Fast said.

The newspaper also reported cases of racketeers offering immigrants protection.

Foreigners, notably Zimbabweans and Mozambicans, were targeted in May during the wave of the anti-immigrant attacks in which at least 62 were killed and tens of thousands were displaced.

- News24

Two Veeks!!!

All six shelters accommodating foreign nationals displaced by the xenophobic attacks of May will be closed within two weeks, the Gauteng provincial government said on Thursday...

Make up or Get out!

Police remove unregistered foreigners from camp

Unregistered foreign nationals to be removed from Glenanda camp by riot police

Riot police have entered the Glenanda temporary shelter, south of Johannesburg, to remove foreign nationals who refused to register with home affairs.

The deadline for displaced foreigners to apply for temporary documents allowing them to stay in the country for six months expired last night. Only half of the almost 2000 residents co-operated with the department.

Meanwhile, the business community in the vicinity of the Home Affairs' offices at the Borchards Quarry industrial area in Cape Town says the disruptive behaviour of refugees has had a negative impact on their operations.

This is after the displaced migrants, following the recent xenophobic attacks, came in large numbers to the offices to apply for exemption certificates. - SABC

'The police cannot protect us'

The Western Cape government is "sending refugees to their deaths" by encouraging them to return to the townships where they had been originally living, the Joint Refugee Committee of the Western Cape has claimed in a letter to Premier Ebrahim Rasool.

And the committee is angry because it says it was promised a meeting with Rasool and Patrick Chauke, chairperson of Parliament's portfolio committee on Home Affairs, before July 10, but the meeting has not happened yet - apparently because of political upheavals in the ruling ANC and the likely ousting of Rasool as premier.

But Rasool has denied the committee's charge, saying today that more than 15 000 refugees had been reintegrated "successfully and peacefully" and that some local communities had taken special security measures to ensure the safety of those returning.

The committee's warning was made in an open letter to Rasool, released on Monday.

It comes as the provincial government says its Wednesday deadline to reintegrate about 5 000 refugees remains but it will continue to keep refugee centres operational until September 3.

In its open letter, the refugee committee said Rasool had an-nounced to the media on July 3 that all the "safety camps" would be closed by Wednesday and all government-funded humanitarian aid to refugees would cease.

"What you have not announced are the details of your plan for the much trumpeted goal of 'reintegration' and how you propose to guarantee the security of refugees returning to the townships."

It claimed that, nationally, two Somalis had been murdered on their return to their communities. They named Mohamed Nor Adow, who, it said, had been shot in Retreat on July 3. A second man, Hussein Mohamed, died in Mabopane, Pretoria North on June 28.

"By encouraging people to return to the townships, Mr Premier, you are sending people to their deaths."

The Cape Argus has not yet verified the claims of the two deaths.

In response, Rasool told the Cape Argus on Monday: "While one can understand that there will naturally be fear of returning to communities where people have experienced attacks, the truth of the matter is that from almost 20 000 foreign nationals displaced, the last count was that we were now at 4 800. That shows that over 15 000 people have been reintegrated successfully and peacefully.

"We have, in some of the communities - like Khayelitsha and Masiphumelele - taken very specific safety precautions.

"We have one reported attack that I know of, but on investigation it appeared more like a Friday night robbery than an attack," Rasool said.

But the refugee committee said in its letter that it had provided proof of why it believed reintegration wasn't safe and it wanted the government to explain why it believed otherwise.

It listed several families who had attempted to "reintegrate" into Lower Crossroads and Gugulethu but who had been attacked again and forced to return to the Blue Waters refugee camp.

"The police cannot protect us, even if there were enough of them and they were all committed to doing so."

The committee asked why the leadership of the refugee communities had not been consulted about the "alleged reintegration plan" or about any other matter affecting the refugees during the past two months.

The committee asked Rasool to explain "exactly how you envisage reintegration happening, which non-government organisations and government departments you are working with to implement the plan, who will be in charge and when we can see a copy of it".

"Most importantly, how are you going to guarantee the security of returning refugees?" the committee asked.

There are still about 4 769 displaced immigrants, from an estimated 20 000 who fled their homes when xenophobic violence broke out in May.

Dr Elnien Steyn of the province's Disaster Risk Management team said the deadline for reintegration remains Wednesday.

She said the government was optimistic that the deadline would be met, "depending on how the week goes".

Steyn said yesterday that although there was no new deadline, Disaster Management centres would remain fully operational.

She said they had envisaged keeping the centres open until September 3 which was the "cut-off" date.

Thousands of displaced immigrants have been living in municipal halls, churches, mosques and at five "safety" sites: Soetwater, Silwerstroom, Blue Waters, Youngsfield Military Base and the Chrysalis Academy in Tokai.

Prosper Tafa, a spokesperson at Blue Waters, said things were peaceful at the camp.

- Cape Argus

'Xenophobia now in churches'

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 Mercury

Tod zu Vavi und Malema!

A slogan of the Hitler youth, "We were born to die for Germany." was put above entrances to their camps (and the sign "we were born to die" was placed at army training centers.)

At fourteen boys were told:

You may all have to die for Hitler before you are twenty. But is that not a wonderful privilege? What greater and more glorious mission can a German boy have than to die for the saviour of germany? And now raise your hands and repeat after me the oath that will indeed make you Hitler soldiers, ready to lay down your lives for him"

Songs of the Hitler Youth carried the double message as in:

Triumphant we will beat the French.
and die brave heroes.

Hitler: The Patholgy of Evil. - George Victor

"Mama, do not cry. I know that I must die for Hitler!"

Hitler Youth Werner Gerhard, Zeitz. Died 30 June 1932

“We will kill and die for Jacob Zuma”, ANC Youth League leader Julius Malema told a Youth Day rally... 16 June 2008

“Jacob Zuma is one of us, and he is one of our leaders, for him, we are prepared to lay our lives and to shoot and kill...” - Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi 21 June 2008

Tutu: Beware of Holocaust mentality

The impulse behind South Africa's recent xenophobic attacks was the same as that which led to the Holocaust, archbishop Desmond Tutu said on Friday.

Human beings were very good at finding scapegoats, he told a World Refugee Day media conference in Cape Town.

"And when things are not going right, you look for scapegoats. And the easiest targets for scapegoating are those who are different.

"Hitler did that, I mean that is how the Holocaust happened. Hitler said the economic woes of Germany in the 1930s were... because of this group.

"And that is why actually we've got to be very, very, careful with this sort of thing breaking out."

It could become "one of the most awful things", he said.

Tutu also made a plea for the xenophobia refugees who have been housed in temporary camps in Gauteng and the Western Cape.

They ought not to be treated as objects, having things done and decisions taken for them.

That disempowered them, he said.

Instead they should be involved in planning, and asked what they wanted.

"I would just hope very much that all of us who are involved in trying to find a solution would not behave in a way that disempowers or even depersonalises and turns them into statistics," he said. - Sapa

Und now let us blame ze Zoul

The premier of the Western Cape, EB Rasool has some pimple cream for the heart patient. "At least he won't die looking like shit"

"Xenophobia, racism, sexism, in fact all fundamentalism, all acts of intolerance belong to one family and if you are to deal with one member of the family, you have got to be consistent in dealing with all members of that family," he said at the University of the Witwatersrand.

"If you are not consistent with the sister, you cannot hope to deal with the brother," Rasool said. (so which of this family of acts of intolerance have we successfully dealt with EB?)

"If you don't deal with sexism, you can't hope to deal with xenophobia. So you need to be able to know how to deal with the family, (which clearly we don't)" he said.

South Africans had to recognise that the nation probably still had a "damaged soul". (Allah u Akbah.... let's talk about the "soul" for a minute and make sure that you and I understand each other. This nation with it's recent history of protecting human rights abusers in Zimbabwe and Myanmar... you speak of our soul. It is the soul of the dark sith lord! Damaged my arse. You choose who you are!)



"Maybe in our smugness, we have overlooked major [problems] in society," he said. (Ya I live in Pinelands and don't have to drive past squatters on the way to work. As they say - "Out of sight out of mind")

It was this smugness which could have blinded people to their lack of co-existence.

"We have got to pierce deeper into the problem if we are to deal with it better," he said.

Monsieur - Do you have ROOM for MORE?

Whether there is room for more amakwerekwere in our fair land is open for debate.

University of South Africa vice-chancellor Barney Pityana believes that securing the country's borders would not work in keeping foreigners out.

He said that what was needed was a system of migration which facilitated the immigration of people at the right places.

"After all, South Africa, with 45-million or 46-million people is not over-populated," he said. (visited any of the hundreds of shack-cities which dot our fair land recently Barney?)

"I think it is not impossible for this country to absorb, in an orderly fashion, more people to come to South Africa." (Amazing that he does not manage to substantiate even one of his statements... double negative notwithstanding!)

and then we have....

The chairperson of the FDC, Graça Machel who said that one of the root causes of the violence was the influx of foreigners into South African cities coupled with the migration of South Africans from the countryside to cities. Add the recent increases in food prices to this enormous pressure on urban infrastructure and you get an explosive mixture: "The poorest South African suburbs no longer have the capacity to absorb more people. It's no longer possible to live there," she said.

Machel blamed the situation on the development models that governments have adopted.

Und zen ze number vent up by 200!

The number of people displaced by xenophobic violence in Cape Town has risen to 8 271, Western Cape Disaster Management said on Tuesday.

The city confirmed that the total had risen by 200 in the past two days, according to a statement.

The number was 14 000 - then it went down to 8 071 and now 200 of them have come back?

ANC's Rose Sonto - Enough to make a Nazi blush

ANC MP Rose "Hitler" Sonto, also the head of the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) in the Western Cape, this week repeated unsubstantiated allegations that foreigners are buying government- subsidised houses and forcing South Africans to live in shacks.

Speaking at the Human Settlement Summit in Cape Town on February 29th, Sonto (Hitler) accused foreign nationals of owning "three-quarters" of RDP houses in Du Noon. Hitler (Sonto) also mentioned several other townships, Phillipi, Samora Machel and Delft, from which foreigners were later chased away.

In his speech Hitler (Sonto) accused "non-South African nationals" of "taking over". "With no apology, I must say, in what many would regard as being xenophobic, when laying bare the dangerous problem that is creeping into our democracy … many houses in various localities are owned by foreign nationals whose refugee status is unknown to us as citizens of this country," he said.

"They buy these houses to stay in them or to rent them out to needy South Africans," Hitler said.

He used Du Noon as an example of how "foreigners are taking over". "Three-quarters of Du Noon is owned by non-South Africans. Phillipi is another area -- Samora, Delft and many others are areas where government delivery is turned into misery for those who are supposed to be recipients.

"What this means is that government resources -- that were meant to restore dignity to our people and rid the country of slums and informal settlements -- go next door and as citizens we are at the mercy of foreigners.

"It might be undermined now, but later our democracy will suffer serious setbacks as we will become foreigners in our own country in the not-too-distant future. If we keep on hiding the truth behind xenophobia as we do, we will wake up one day being slaves of other people in our own country," Hitler said.

Rose (Hitler) really knows a business opportunity when it presents itself. First you engage in a little rabble rousing... then set the rabble on the amakwerekwere.... then have the cheek to charge them R13000 per person to return - and an R200 a month "protection money"! Haai sies - a nazi can only blush and feel inadequate when they see your tactics and the way that you hope to profit from the misery you have caused. All together now - "Sieg Rose Sieg Rose!!!"

Und if yu don't Reintegrate ve vill DEPORT YU!

The government has sent mediators to speak with community leaders in hopes of allowing immigrants to be reintegrated into the areas in South Africa where they lived previously.

But many of those displaced have said they cannot return because they fear more violence, and government spokesperson Themba Maseko has acknowledged that reintegration may not work in all cases.

Maseko has also said the government was working to identify all the displaced living in camps, adding that those in the country illegally could eventually face deportation.

Moving those displaced to a third country has been ruled out for now, while the government also was not considering compensation for those who had their property damaged, Maseko said this week.

White areas don't ask for a return fee of R13,000

Refugees wishing to return to Du Noon are allegedly being held to ransom by taxi bosses who say they must pay a R13 000 "protection fee" if they want to go back.

In addition, they would have to fork out R200 a month as a contribution to community welfare generally.

This emerged following a recent meeting of representatives of the Du Noon Taxi Association (DTA), the SA Civic Organisation (Sanco) and the Premier's office.

Questioned on the matter this week, Du Noon Sanco chairperson Thandiswa Stokwe said Somalian refugees who wanted to re-open businesses in the area would be expected to contribute to the upkeep of old age homes and buy school uniforms and pay school fees for orphaned and vulnerable children in the community.

She admitted that the refugees had not been consulted.

A prominent community leader, who attended the closed meeting but refused to be named, said taxi bosses had proposed that returning refugee business owners each pay a once-off R13 000 "protection fee" and then contribute R200 per month to Sanco.

Stokwe disputed the allegations, and said community leaders had demanded a satellite police station to guarantee the safety of refugees.

But Du Noon taxi boss and DTA spokesperson Terrence Mhlangatshoba did not deny the proposed protection fee, saying only that the issue had yet to be finalised.

Du Noon was the first township in the province to have xenophobic attacks last month, which then spread rapidly. - West Cape News

We want to be in White Areas?

About 200 people, most of them displaced foreigners, were on Thursday afternoon still occupying the concourse of the Cape Town civic centre.

The refugees, who were at one stage sleeping on the pavement outside the city centre police station, want to be accommodated in civic halls in "white areas".

(Does this country really have to be held hostage by racist immigrants like these? Anything else you need while you settle in? What you want to do in a shelter in a white area now? What is there for you?)

Reintegrate or Reintegrate

The government was aware that there were a number of Somalis who were refusing reintegration and who wanted to be evacuated to Europe.

"We are in consultation with the UNHCR, who have indicated that they have no plans to evacuate anybody from South Africa." said government communications head Themba Maseko

"Therefore, reintegration is supported by the international agencies." (oh really?!)

"So the Somalis are going to have to be part of the process of reintegration because these shelters are not going to be a permanent feature of South African society. So they're going to have to agree to reintegration," he said.

However, the process of reintegration should not be "romanticised".

"It's not going to be easy. It's going to require a lot of hard work, a lot of dialogue between the [parties concerned] ... and the issue of security will be one of the major issues." (blah blah blah...)

"But ultimately, we believe that with enough work being put into this, and especially looking at the model implemented in the Western Cape ... we think that, in fact, an environment will be created for communities to say 'we want to welcome the foreign nationals back to our communities'." (more blah blah blah - but not as convincing as the first lot)

Maseko also made it clear that no compensation for the victims was being considered at this stage.

SS - Soetwater Standoff

Tension ran high at Soetwater on Tuesday night where about 3,500 people displaced by xenophobic attacks are housed in the city's largest safety site.

Thirteen buses ordered by the province to evacuate the camp stood empty as conflicts between authorities and refugees erupted inside the site.

Armed Metro Police had accompanied nearly 20 Bambanani volunteers sent to dismantle vacant and broken tents.

Misinterpreting this as forced removal, Somalians, Zimbabweans and Congolese again threatened to drown themselves in the ocean.

Women with babies strapped to their backs and shouting men ran towards the ocean, but no one went into the water... - Cape Times

Und ve hav a PLAN

"We have a plan in place to start moving you out of the untenable situation of the present mega-sites into community halls with a view to returning you to localities."

"There were originally about 20 000 affected people. We're down to just over 14 000 now," Petersen said.

"The UNHCR has provided us with the planning tools and our aim is to reduce the numbers as quickly as we can. Everybody should understand that the government has a plan," Petersen said.

Teams of mediators had worked flat out to get displaced victims into their communities and would deal with Khayelitsha today, she said.

Amazing - it's all about the numbers and the "impression" we are creating! How long are the mediators going to be there? What about tomorrow, next week, maybe next month when the xenophobic perpetrators get home from prison.... it will come back.... The plan only deals with getting the illegal immigrants back home, it does not deal with what caused them to flee now does it? In only treating the symptoms instead of the root causes the government has only set the stage for more tears.

Where there is fire... there is Patricia de Lille....

"(Today) there were about 50 people sitting (on) rocks (at Soetwater) and it was coming to high tide... and they were talking about people taking a walk into the sea," said De Lille.... Ja help spread that rumour why don't you Patricia... let's see what it ends up costing the state.

R100 000 rumour in Soetwater.. was it good for you?

The Somali refugee shelter in Soetwater is being closely monitored, following the rumour at the weekend that four people from the shelter ran into the sea and drowned, police said on Monday.

Western Cape spokesperson Superintendent Andre Traut said police received reports at about 10:00 on Sunday that four people had drowned.

"After a search operation in which 35 police officers were deployed, some in a helicopter, and the National Sea Rescue Institute members, the reports proved to be false when nobody was found."

Also taking part in the search were the metro ambulance service, metro rescue workers and members of their disaster management team.

(Does no one know how to conduct a roll call anymore? 35 policemen, a helicopter (at over R5000/hr) the metro ambulance service, metro rescue workers and members of their disaster management team. None of this was really required... All that was needed was one person with a clip board with a koki pen and the names of all those who should be present to establish if anyone were really missing. 50 odd people running around like headless chickens and not one brain to share amongst the lot of them. Shame.)

After about R100 000 in costs and hours spent by staff who were on duty and by volunteers, it was discovered that the false rumour had been spread by Somalis in the camp.

Man returns - Finds he is STILL NOT WELCOME

"They had a metal pipe and hit me in the face. They called me amakwerekwere (foreigners) and said I must go home."

"I never expected to find myself in this situation," the well-spoken man said on Friday. "I just want to re-start my life but I'm so afraid of being victimised now. I don't want to go home in a box."

Some immigrants and refugees chased out of Cape Town's townships during last month's violence are back home, trying to start their businesses again with no equipment, goods or money.

Others have returned with a few goods to make enough money to go back to their home countries. Charles Kofi, 26, from Ghana, is one of the foreigners who plans to stay and re-open his business.

"I'm here on a study permit and I want to complete my studies, so now I have to start over because they stole everything," said Kofi, who has been in the country for four years and did a six-month travel and tourism course in Claremont.

His cellphone repair shop was also looted and Kofi has already started replacing what was stolen and damaged in his container.

More than 50 cellphones, cellphone accessories and about R5 000 in cash and airtime was stolen.

"I came here because of financial problems and because I wanted to study. I started the repair shop because I did a technician course in Ghana and I needed to make money for my studies. Now I have nothing but I can't go home with nothing, so I'm going to try to get a loan and start again."

He said that, before his shop was looted, he lived peacefully with the rest of the community.

"I live here with these people and I don't have a problem with them - only now with this xenophobia thing.

Chris Rock - Black / African / Kwerekwere Humour?

Chris Rock is in South Africa for his sold-out "No Apologies" tour.

Addressing journalists on Monday, Rock said the recent xenophobic attacks on foreigners were a problem of poverty and not black on black violence...

That's funny!! Tell that to a kwerekwere and see if your still smiling or breathing, I'm sure having your skin boil or a claw-hammer in your skull is a poverty thing... or that there was anything else going on at the point other than Black-on-Black Violence.

Chris Rock - You're a funny Guy! - I don't think anyone will laugh at this one. Let me stand closer to you - do you smell like a makwerekwere - 'cause from where I stand you sure look like one! and come to think of it act like one too - you take our hard earned money out of our poverty stricken brothers and country for a laugh?

How many children in these concentration camps, are victims of crime? Rape & Sexual Assault? Camp Violence? Chris?

Hey what's on your Ipod? Try This... Poverty displaces 35,000 people in a week - Not Violence!

Re-integration - The government chooses not to listen....

Ze camps are closing in 2 months time... Re-integrate or go...

The Gauteng government will audit the camps on Monday to find out who is there, and to inform people of the two-month time limit, and that they should work with the authorities to make reintegration happen.

What does re-integration entail? Taking transport back to the area from where the refugee has been chased from. What happens if there is someone living in the person's "former house"? What happens when the person's shack has been burnt down? How does a person re-integrate when there is nothing left? Forced reconciliation is not going to work. For a start the perpetrators of the violence are all behind bars. What kind of reaction is there going to be when these people get out...

Somalians who reopened their shops in Zwelihle on Monday after a week's absence were shocked when they were greeted by handwritten notes in Xhosa on Tuesday morning warning them to leave the township by 12:00 on Wednesday or be killed..

With the birth of our new twins - in African we named them Crisis

“We’re asking you to recognise that there is a crisis between us and the people electing the government ... The authorities must protect us because we are under threat.” (2004)

“Then we came to South Africa and the situation was better -- except that the people have always hated us.”

“I’m being treated like shit in this country. My countrymen are born tradesmen and we’re not allowed to make a living here because we are hated and the authorities have allowed this wound to fester.

Foreigners get it all for FREE

Residents in the southern part of the city were furious on Wednesday over a temporary safety shelter for foreigners that had been erected overnight on their doorsteps and were threatening to burn it down.

"Violence is the only answer."

"No one wants them here."

"Take them away," about 60 residents from among other places, Glenanda North, Haddon and Oakdene, shouted at workers and government officials and waved banners while singing war songs. (Mashini Wam? ed.)

About 380 tents from the United Nations (UN) were set up. An Eskom generator, which would provide electricity to the foreigners, was also erected in the middle of the camp.

Residents said the field was usually occupied by homeless people who had set up their own shelters here and in Oakdene.

Metro police officers apparently regularly chased these people away and even burnt down some of their shelters, a resident of Hadden, Daniel Rabe said.

"They chase away our people but then with the biggest smile they set up shelters for the foreigners," he said crossly.

Residents raged against the government over its silence on the decision to erect a shelter in the middle of a neighbourhood.

They were also furious over the fact that the government provided electricity and decent amenities "within 24 hours" to the foreigners, while South African citizens had to wait "days and weeks".

"We South Africans are suffering."

"There are so many of our people who go to sleep hungry and without a roof over their heads."

"Now foreigners get everything for mahala," said another Hadden resident Louise Human.

Fernando Balthazar, also of Hadden, said their neighbourhood had always been quiet but that residents now feared crime.

"It's going to get ugly, I tell you."

Illegal Immigrants don't want re-integration

Some displaced foreigners staying at Soetwater near Kommetjie in the Western Cape say it could take up to 30 years for it to be safe for them to live in the areas they fled from because they fear locals' hatred is still too strong. (and for the next 30 years you suggest what?!)

Israel Abate, representing the Ethiopians at Soetwater, said they no longer trusted South Africans.
"It's not the first time South Africans have mistreated our brothers and sisters from other countries," Abate said. "We are forced off buses and trains. There is discrimination and hatred.

"We've lost trust, friendship and love for South Africa and South Africans. We've even lost the courage to start afresh."

MEANWHILE...

Western Cape provincial premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Wednesday there were "many agendas" at work among displaced people. He appealed to people "to remain calm, reasonable and co-operative".

"We are encouraged by the progress in several communities across the province where re-integration has happened," he said. "We appeal to our communities and to foreigners who have been displaced to work together with the province's mediators so re-integration can take place." (The Premier just does NOT want to listen to what the refugees are saying... He only really cares about the "message" the camps send out. If the immigrants get killed when they returned so be it! It's not like he is going to be anywhere nearby.)

No place in South Africa for Racist Refugees

Racist Refugees at the Blue Waters safety site in Strandfontein have banned all black policemen from entering their camp after an officer allegedly waved a firearm in front of a mother and her baby on Monday morning. The refugees shut out provincial and city authorities, refused aid and apparently threatened to burn down the camp if UN representatives were not brought in to speak to them on Monday. (Who are these people that they think that they can "ban" policemen from anywhere in the country - and that based on the color of their skin! )

The 166 refugees at the camp, including children, have since gone on a hunger strike and are now refusing to deal with any South African authorities after being "ignored" for the past 10 days. (A classic case of the tail wagging the dog... and a shining example of why this country does not need these people)

2010

We can’t wait to Meet you.. Beat you

Compassion.....? Not much here!

And still they keep on coming...

On average 95,000 Zimbabweans enter South Africa compared to the 80,000 who are leaving.

Many of those coming in said they didn't know about the attacks against foreigners because they did not have television.

"The movement of people in and out of the country is as in previous months," said Border Control Operations Co-ordinating Committee co-ordinator Michael Malindi.

In Harper, a township of Musina, a group of Zimbabwean men sleep in the bush and work for R10 a day. Some have been here for a few weeks, but most are new arrivals, hoping to earn enough for the passage to Johannesburg where they will look for better work.

But despite official figures suggesting otherwise, police at the border believe the number of people crossing into South Africa had declined.

"There is a decrease in the number of those entering through the border line and it has been there before the xenophobic attacks," said Senior Superintendent Lindela Mashigo.

This included all non-nationals, not only Zimbabweans.

And zen zere was War!?

Immigrant leaders in South Africa said on Monday that thousands of refugees frustrated at miserable living conditions were on the point of retaliating against a wave of xenophobic attacks.

"The tension is there, already, for a war," Deo Kabemba Bin Ngulu, a refugee leader from the Democratic Republic of Congo, told reporters.

Human rights groups have condemned the conditions in the tented refugee camps set up to house the displaced, with freezing temperatures at night and the threat of disease.

"They are terrorised, they are traumatised ... and some of them (can) resort to violence because they think, now, everywhere is violence," said Somali businessman Hoosein Omar.

Hundreds of mostly Somali traders marched to parliament in Cape Town on Monday to protest against the anti-immigrant attacks.

"We are African. We are from this soil. I am not a foreigner ... and this soil is Africa," Abdul Kadir Karakoos, a Somali leader in Cape Town, told reporters. (No it's not - this soil is the Republic of South Africa... how confused!)

The international medical humanitarian group Doctors Without Borders, said facilities for displaced refugees were inadequate.

"After living in unacceptable conditions for up to three weeks, the people displaced are now being relocated by the South African government, without proper access to information about their rights and options, to sites that are unprepared and insecure," the group said in a statement.

"They say they are being treated like animals." (It doesn't say what kind of animals though?)

The violence, which has shattered South Africa's image as a welcoming home for asylum seekers, is being stoked by soaring food and fuel prices and competition for jobs and housing.