Durban bears real cost of xenophobia

 

THE MERCURY A man in the Point area arms himself as foreigners prepare to defend themselves. FILE PHOTO: Jacques Naude

Durban - The true cost of the xenophobic violence that has gripped Durban emerged at a council meeting on Tuesday when officials asked the city’s executive committee to approve R25 million to care for the thousands of displaced foreigners.
Tozi Mthethwa, head of communications at the eThekwini Municipality, told the executive committee that the KwaZulu-Natal province would fund R15m of the costs with the balance - R10m - coming out of the city’s coffers.
The funding would provide the shelters with water and sanitation, electricity, waste removal, health services, transport and staff costs.
According to a report presented to Exco on Tuesday, R5.4m had already been spent housing about 5 376 foreigners, who were being kept at three tented camps around Durban.
The report said the number of foreigners at the shelters in Isipingo, Chatsworth and Phoenix were fluctuating because people who had not been affected by the violence were flocking there because of the free food and clothing.
Since the start of the attacks, at least 2 082 foreigners had been repatriated to their home countries. Hundreds of others had begun moving back to the communities.
Musa Gumede, deputy city manager, said that because of the dwindling numbers at the Phoenix shelter, officials expected to shut it down by Wednesday and would move the remaining people to either Isipingo or Chatsworth.
Authorities were, however still on alert, as South Africans and foreign nationals had armed themselves with petrol bombs, firearms and machetes, the report said.
“Of concern is the fact that a number of foreign nationals have military experience, particularly among the Democratic Republic of Congo nationals housed at the Isipingo temporary shelter. Intelligence indicates an increasingly negative sentiment among foreign immigrants towards the SAPS, resulting in willingness to attack service members,” the report said.
The police said there had been no attacks on foreigners in recent days. They were, however, monitoring hot spots, including Pietermaritzburg.
Mthethwa said the challenge the city now faced in the wake of the cessation in violence was to integrate foreigners back into their communities.
The city planned to run talks between the foreigners and their communities, with the help of councillors and the government.
Mayor James Nxumalo said that while the numbers were going down, they were concerned by the number of people arriving at the shelters who had not been affected by the xenophobic attacks.
He said people were coming from as far as Ladysmith and Eshowe in the hope of being repatriated.
He said the attacks had dented South Africa’s international reputation.
Councillor Heinz de Boer said the city’s response to the xenophobic violence in which shelters “took a while” to be set up showed it was ill prepared to handle a disaster. He suggested it set up a disaster fund.
City Treasurer, Krish Kumar, said a disaster fund did not make sense because it might result in rates going up.
He said funding for such incidents was derived from the city’s savings.
Daily News