Pretoria – There seems to be no end in sight to the misery for a group of families, with 23 children in tow, who have been stuck at a Musina shelter for several months after being evicted from outside United Nations offices in Pretoria, but at least they have not been totally forgotten.
In December authorities forcibly evicted the group of mainly Congolese, Zambian and Burundian immigrants from the site of the UN offices in South Africa’s capital city.
An eyesore and a growing burden on state and humanitarian services, the group was eventually forced to undertake the arduous journey of some 450 kilometres to Musina in Limpopo, right on the border with Zimbabwe.
Three months later and the group of seven families are still encamped in the Musina shelter, living under threadbare open sided tents, their days rolling meaninglessly into weeks and months.
Last week,however, Pretty Ncube was among those able to bring a small measure of relief to the embattled immigrants. The Johannesburg-based human rights activist accompanied aid organisation Gift of the Givers and Africa Awake vehicles which delivered canvas tents, food, diapers and bottled water to the group at the camp founded in 2005 by Bishop Simon Sithole of “I Believe in Jesus Ministries”.
“We are one as Africans. The people are just like my brothers and sisters even though we do not speak the same language. We are all Africans,” Ncube told African News Agency (ANA) in an interview.
“Still, there is a lot of need at that shelter. It is not only about that particular group which moved from Pretoria. This is about everyone staying at the shelter. That shelter is receiving three to five (new) people every day from DRC, Zimbabwe and Burundi. Each night, there are about 120 people sleeping there.”
When ANA spent time at the camp in December, a number of the children had been hard-hit by diarrhoea and had to be rushed to a clinic in Musina. The majority of the immigrants wasted their days napping, hunger gnawing away incessantly. Some of the children played with the only available toy – a single tap alongside the fly-infested toilets – splashing away in the muddy ground. The tap serviced the entire shelter.
Sithole explained that electricity had since been cut off by the local municipality due to soaring debt.
While the shelter is home to over a hundred desperate souls, the seven families from Pretoria, led by outspoken Zambian Alex Masuka who has refugee status in South Africa, have kept largely to themselves, establishing their home on one side of the shelter.
This week, Ncube urged fellow South Africans to reach out and assist displaced Africans seeking shelter in different places across South Africa.
“I think it is our responsibility to assist our brothers and sisters. Our African leaders should be ashamed for producing the refugees on the continent. This is caused by greed, corruption and the desire to rule for life,” she said.
“We need to understand what had happened for the people to leave their countries. Along the journey to South Africa, most of the women are raped. It is emotionally draining on me when I ask them such questions. I cry when they narrate to me their stories. This is why I choose to be involved in the matter,” said Ncube who has worked with refugee and underprivileged communities since 2007.
Last month, the United Nations High Commission for Refugees said it was re-engaging the group of seven families with 23 children who were forcefully removed from the humanitarian organisation’s Pretoria offices in the city centre in December.
“Our office met yet again with all of these families to try to assess their individual needs and to encourage them to integrate into the community. Assistance was provided for some to enable them (to) assume their responsibility for themselves and their family members but eventually, they failed to do so.
“Unfortunately they are still demanding resettlement to another country as the only solution to their problem,” said UNHCR spokesperson for Southern Africa Tina Ghelli.
However, the UN further accused the group of cynically using the children.
“UNHCR is very concerned about the welfare of the children and we have consulted with the department of social development regarding their situation. Despite several attempts made, the parents have not allowed the department near their children. It is their parents who have directly placed their children in a precarious situation. Rather than work towards ensuring that their children are safe, they prefer to maintain them this way, most likely to use them to try to evoke sympathy. It is very worrying.”
The seven immigrant families had become an almost permanent feature in Pretoria central where they had camped outside the UNHCR for around two years. That was up until Christmas when a series of events saw the group uprooted and make the trek to Musina in the hope that they would cross into Zimbabwe and a safer, more accommodating haven.
African News Agency
* Use IOL’s Facebook and Twitter pages to comment on our stories. See links below.