SA to address Zim displacement

An estimated 3 000 foreigners, most of them Zimbabweans, fled their homes last November, after they were attacked and had their shacks destroyed by locals in an informal settlement outside De Doorns, about 150km from Cape Town. As in most xenophobic cases, the locals accused the Zimbabweans, many of whom worked as farm labourers, of stealing their jobs.

The locals also claimed that Zimbabweans were preferred ahead of them by local farmers, in the grape/wine-producing area because the immigrants accepted very low wages and were not paid for overtime, despite them working seven days a week and during holidays.

The farmers, it was added, also told the Zimbabwean workers that they did not have the right to fair labour practices, the minimum wage and social benefits like Unemployment Insurance Fund (UIF). Mdladlana this week said that the question of Zimbabweans continuing to flock to South Africa undocumented posed a security risk to the neighbouring country. It is a matter of serious concern to us as South African leaders and we cannot just sit and watch, said Mdladlana on Wednesday. That is why I am going to invite my Zimbabwean counterpart for a meeting, which I hope will map the best way for us to resolve the issue regarding both new Zimbabwean arrivals and those displaced at De Doorns, who will not live in those safety camps indefinitely.

Admitting that Zimbabweans are still suffering the effects of an economic meltdown that has hounded their country for the past decade, Mdladlana said that the South African government still found it difficult to assist them due to lack of documentation for most of them. They have these economic problems, but even if you want to give them their Unemployment Insurance Fund, what must Zimbabweans bring to make a claim if they have no form of documentation, when South Africans should bring their identity documents. That is a government-to-government issue and together we should resolve it, said Mdladlana.

He however, did not give any date for his meeting, which he said would be held soon. He added that he recently met leaders of the refugee rights group, People Against Suffering Suppression Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP) in Cape Town. The group wants the government to investigate claims that politicians were involved in last year’s attacks on foreigners in the area.