Image Source: YFM
Local – Foreign nationals continue to live in fear of renewed violence outside the Home Affairs office on Che Guevara Road in Durban, where hundreds of Congolese refugees have been sleeping for months after being displaced from their homes and businesses.
Around 400 documented refugees, along with an unknown number without papers, say they were attacked last week and now fear another confrontation as the anti-migrant group March and March plans to return to the area.
Activist Kafuti Muyumba, who has been living among the group, said police carrying weapons rather than cleaning equipment during last week’s visit is what sparked fears of an organised attack rather than a genuine clean-up campaign.
He said the group has had no choice but to rely on police for protection while waiting to see whether March and March follows through on its threat to return.
“The only thing that you’re supposed to carry is a broom and plastic things that you’re supposed to collect those things that you’re going to clean. So that’s why we’ve been asking police and the government to come really and engage and assist us because people have been afraid,” Muyumba said.
Deteriorating Conditions
Conditions on the ground have deteriorated badly, with two people having died and children going without food for days at a time. Muyumba said some days children in the camp go from morning until evening without eating, and that some residents have even asked aid organisations to stop bringing food in the hope of forcing the group to leave.
He described one of the men who died as having received treatment for tuberculosis, forced to take his medication on an empty stomach. The man had previously owned his own salon before it was looted and he was chased out, leaving him with nowhere to go but the pavement outside Home Affairs.
“The condition is not sustainable, to be honest with you, and as we have already lost two of our brothers here, it was yesterday because of the condition that we are living in, and you can just imagine, and then even the way of eating, sometimes there’s no food that we are receiving here,” Muyumba said.
Nowhere Else to Go
The group has repeatedly rejected claims that they are refusing to leave voluntarily, insisting they have nowhere else to go after losing their homes, businesses and income. Muyumba said the refugees don’t own the properties they used to live in and can’t afford to return to renting without an income.
Some in the group cannot return to their countries of origin because of ongoing conflict there, he added, and the government has been slow to help despite promising shelter when it first verified the group’s documentation.
“We continue to sleep here on the pavement because we have nowhere to go in the community where they ask us we should go back into those houses we used to pay,” Muyumba said.
The group isn’t asking for permanent housing, only a safe temporary space where they can regroup before returning to normal life, Muyumba said. Police have offered little practical assistance despite the mounting threats, and he has personally received messages threatening his life in recent days.
The refugees are calling on churches, human rights organisations and the South African Council of Churches for temporary shelter and food.
Muyumba said the group would welcome relocation to another country if the South African government cannot assist them, as they no longer feel safe anywhere in the country regardless of their documentation status.
