Mayor Xaba has zero ubuntu for refugees and disregards Umbilo ratepayers, says business association

The Umbilo Business Association (UBA) has slated government’s “inhumane” attitude to several hundred refugees camped on a Durban street and lack of political will to address the plight of business owners along Che Guevara Road.

For 13 weeks, about 400 documented refugees and asylum seekers who fled their homes following violence, evictions and intimidation in the run up to the anti-migrant protest have lived on the busy Umbilo Road outside the department of Home Affairs refugee office.

Unlike thousands who sought refuge first in Sherwood Park when the intimidation and violence against documented and illegal migrants broke out in May ― who were then moved to the Durban Drive-in repatriation site and eventually sent to the Lindela repatriation centre ― no one has offered the group outside the refugee centre proper accommodation.

The displaced families, mainly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda, who live in the temporary, makeshift camp have been living under difficult conditions with a few mobile toilets.

They were forced to leave their homes, work and school following lawlessness by members of anti-migrant body March and March, Operation Dudula and the Amabhinca Nation, who have conducted protests and “clean-up” campaigns during the first wave of the protest action which had June 30 as the deadline to repatriate foreigners.

The anti-migrant organisations say they were forced to take civil action after government failure to police foreign nationals living and working in South Africa.

This week’s announcement by March and March of a second wave of anti-migrant action and a September 30 deadline has left the refugees uncertain about their safety.

But Umbilo businesses say the continued presence of the refugees has impacted business owners including a security company, a car battery business and a tyre franchise.

Ian Campbell-Gillies of the UBA said the presence of the refugees has a social and economic impact on the businesses.

“They conduct themselves in a reasonable manner and while they have toilets, not all of them use the facilities. There have been instances of sexual conduct and of course some of them conduct repair businesses on the street. This has a huge social impact in the area.

“In addition there has been a huge business fallout because the businesses have recorded a direct impact on dwindling sales. They have lost customers who don’t want to traverse the congested street or can’t find parking because of the masses of people milling around.”

Campbell-Gillies said eThekwini mayor and his government have shown “zero Ubuntu” in the three months since the municipality brought the refugees to the area.

He said they contacted the municipality on July 10 regarding possible solutions to the crisis and “there has been no response”.

We left our homes which we rented, ate proper food and paying jobs to live on the streets because of the uncertainty. We trusted the government’s promise of providing us with temporary accommodation until the issue with organisations like March and March and MK Party were sorted out.—  Raphael Bahebwa, a bishop and the leader of the Congolese Solidarity Campaign

The UBA has proposed the refugees, together with a large contingent of homeless people who sleep nearby at the King Dinizulu Park, should be rehoused at the drive-in site as was the case with the foreign nationals moved from Sherwood Park in June.

“We want the same thing to happen immediately. This would provide a more suitable environment because it can set up the marquee, provide sanitation and allow humanitarian organisations to feed them and tend to their clothing and personal hygiene needs there.

“The inhumanity displayed by the government by just abandoning these refugees here without any consideration for them as well as the ratepayers of this area is simply unbelievable.”

Raphael Bahebwa, a bishop and the leader of the Congolese Solidarity Campaign, said many took to their current location in May after being moved from the Durban Central police station to the Diakonia Centre for verification processes.

According to home affairs, about 457 foreign nationals were verified and only two individuals were found to be without valid documentation and detained, while five others had expired permits that were being renewed.

“We left our homes which we rented, ate proper food and had paying jobs to live on the streets because of the uncertainty. We trusted the government’s promise of providing us with temporary accommodation until the issue with organisations like March and March and MK Party were sorted out.

“But they have dumped us here and now we don’t trust them anymore. Now we hear about this proposal to be moved together with the homeless, but that is not fair. We are here with our documents and our families ― we have had jobs for years and homes. We are not the same as the homeless.”

He said he is aware of the new September 30 deadline, which has heightened their tensions and left them in limbo.

Bahebwa said aid organisations including Gift of the Givers and local churches have occasionally provided assistance, but supplies are insufficient.

Last month Siyafana Sonke ― a collective of 160 organisations against xenophobia and Afrophobia ― condemned eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba’s comments in a podcast where he alleged displaced refugees were demanding “free housing”, to the detriment of South Africans.

“The Siyafana Sonke campaign will not let these dishonest comments go unchallenged. The comments have been widely spread on social media by the anti-migrant movements, and mayor Xaba is actively feeding into a scapegoating narrative which deflects blame for South Africa’s societal ills onto the refugee and migrant community. We are under an obligation to place the truth before the public.

“Xaba has been comprehensively informed of the displaced refugee community’s circumstances from the first moments of their displacement on May 19. He has had numerous meetings with the refugees and with activists advocating for the refugees.”

They said he is aware the refugees always ask for “temporary, emergency accommodation” and home affairs is simply ignoring them, hoping they will disappear and cease being an election-year inconvenience.

Siyafana Sonke told the Sunday Times it has suggested, in its various submissions to the government and eThekwini municipal authorities, the Durban Drive-in site as an option to provide temporary shelter for the documented refugees forced to live on Che Guevara Road.

“This is one of the options among others that were suggested, however, it has not been followed up on. This has resulted in the Che Guevara business district becoming a refugee encampment as these refugees have nowhere else to go, given that they have been chased away from areas and homes that they were previously living in.

“Moving the refugees to the Durban Drive-in site temporarily would not only be in the interests of the refugee community but assist the business owners on Che Guevara Road to ensure that they can draw the foot traffic and customers that may have declined over the past few months.”