Last Friday, a stampede at the Marabastad Refugee Reception Office in Pretoria left 14 Zimbabwean nationals injured. Four sustained more serious injuries and paramedics had to rush them to hospital.
Hundreds of thousands of Zimbabweans in South Africa face a constant battle to secure documentation in the face of bureaucratic indifference, incompetence and corruption, as well as harassment by the police – many of them in search of a bribe.
“The Department regrets the incident and will embark on further investigations to determine the conditions which led to the stampede with a view to ensuring there is no recurrence of such an incident in our offices,” Manusha Pillia, Home Affairs spokesperson told The Zimbabwean from Pretoria.
Congestion characterizes the Marabastad centre following the closure of the Crown Mines Refugee Reception Centre in Johannesburg last month. – Chris Ncube
Post published in: Africa News