De Doorns calm after attacks
19 November 2009, 11:14
By Luvuyo Mjekula
As calm returned to the small town of De Doorns after scenes of violence in the past few days, authorities were looking to move the thousands of displaced Zimbabwean refugees back into the area they were violently evicted from.
De Doorns mayor Charles Ntsomi told the Cape Times last night that "we are considering reintegrating the refugees back into the community as soon as possible".
Police were already working around the clock gathering intelligence to detect threats in De Doorns. Community development workers were also doing rounds speaking to residents.
Ntsomi said that after meetings attended by the Human Rights Commission, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees as well as leaders of the refugees and the De Doorns community yesterday, it was agreed that the refugees remain on the sports ground where three marquees had been erected by yesterday, until reintegration.
The Red Cross was providing the refugees with relief including blankets and two meals a day, while Doctors without Borders were helping the sick. Yesterday morning, there were concerns of a TB outbreak after some of the refugees reported that they had lost their medication in their homes when they were evicted.
The next step, said the mayor, would be to "normalise" the situation. A delegation led by the Human Rights Commission, which had intervened in the crisis, would go to the residents to try to convince them to welcome back the refugees.
Ntsomi said the police had reported that "the situation is calm but not to the point of reintegration yet".
Zimbabwean refugees were staying on a sports ground
after violence erupted on Saturday and escalated on Tuesday.
This was after South African workers said labour brokers
and farmers were hiring the Zimbabweans because they
would work for less than the R60 legal daily minimum wage. Yesterday police visibility was still high.
Ntsomi said the Department of Labour would investigate
the matter while Home Affairs would also conduct checks on the refugees.
luvuyo.mjekula@inl.co.za
As calm returned to the small town of De Doorns after scenes of violence in the past few days, authorities were looking to move the thousands of displaced Zimbabwean refugees back into the area they were violently evicted from.
De Doorns mayor Charles Ntsomi told the Cape Times last night that "we are considering reintegrating the refugees back into the community as soon as possible".
Police were already working around the clock gathering intelligence to detect threats in De Doorns. Community development workers were also doing rounds speaking to residents.
Ntsomi said that after meetings attended by the Human Rights Commission, the UN High Commissioner for Refugees as well as leaders of the refugees and the De Doorns community yesterday, it was agreed that the refugees remain on the sports ground where three marquees had been erected by yesterday, until reintegration.
The Red Cross was providing the refugees with relief including blankets and two meals a day, while Doctors without Borders were helping the sick. Yesterday morning, there were concerns of a TB outbreak after some of the refugees reported that they had lost their medication in their homes when they were evicted.
The next step, said the mayor, would be to "normalise" the situation. A delegation led by the Human Rights Commission, which had intervened in the crisis, would go to the residents to try to convince them to welcome back the refugees.
Ntsomi said the police had reported that "the situation is calm but not to the point of reintegration yet".
Zimbabwean refugees were staying on a sports ground
after violence erupted on Saturday and escalated on Tuesday.
This was after South African workers said labour brokers
and farmers were hiring the Zimbabweans because they
would work for less than the R60 legal daily minimum wage. Yesterday police visibility was still high.
Ntsomi said the Department of Labour would investigate
the matter while Home Affairs would also conduct checks on the refugees.
luvuyo.mjekula@inl.co.za
- This article was originally published on page 1 of The Cape Times on November 19, 2009
Pretoria
