Durban - Shocking revelations have emerged about the government allegedly ignoring early warnings that groups from the outskirts of Durban were “mobilising” to disrupt the peace march against xenophobia in the city two weeks ago.
The aggression in the streets at the tail end of the march saw the CBD come to a standstill as police clashed with hundreds of people demanding that foreigners leave the country. Nine people were arrested for gathering illegally.
This was revealed during a debate about the municipality’s and provincial government’s response to the xenophobic attacks in various parts of the city.
The municipality tabled a report to the executive committee on Tuesday stating that eThekwini and the provincial government had allocated R25 million to assist more than 5 000 displaced foreigners.
The report noted that the city contributed R10m while the provincial government footed the rest of the bill. About R5.4m had already been spent on logistics, although it was not clear who had paid for this.
While it was also unclear how much the national government had contributed to relief efforts, it was stressed that various national departments had sent staff to provide services at the camps.
Ethekwini deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala admitted on Tuesday that the city had been aware that some people wanted to disrupt the march on April 16.
“In terms of the march and the intelligence that should have been gathered, we knew even before the march started that there were people who were going to disturb - (people) who were coming to the march with the intention to disrupt,” she said. “We even knew that some were bused, given transport from Umlazi and other areas just to destabilise.”
Responding to a comments from DA caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango that the city should have known about the threat of disruptions, Shabalala said: “The intelligence does its own work. Whatever has happened, we had the information even before that, Mncwango, that this was going to happen.”
Mncwango said earlier that he had hoped an intelligence report would have been provided about what was done to avoid the attacks and the disruption at the peace march.
He asked how almost 2 000 people could gather in the CBD without the intelligent services picking this up and alerting authorities.
He said the city and provincial government would not have had to fork over R25m had the aggression been detected earlier and the violence and attacks been prevented.
Responding on why an intelligence report had not been tabled on Tuesday, Shabalala said: “Intelligence can’t be giving us their reports on a daily basis… That information is not ours to deal with - it is for them.”
The report, presented by the city’s communication head, Tozi Mthethwa, indicated that there were about 5 400 foreigners at three camps in Phoenix, Chatsworth and Isipingo.
It said that more than 2 000 people had been repatriated. Buses from Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique were sent to Durban to fetch their citizens. Thirty-two Malawians at the Phoenix camp were reintegrated in their communities, the report stated.
The city’s executive committee heard how foreigners from as far as Richards Bay and Eshowe sought refuge at the camps to take advantage of the repatriation interventions.
A breakdown of the city’s R10m contribution indicated that about R4m was for communication and education costs, R1m was for water and sanitation and R375 000 was for electricity. Another R2.4m was for “staff costs” and about R700 000 was for transport.
Money was also spent on waste removal, health services, security, stadium costs, sound, video, stages, photography and tents.
The costs included the logistics for King Goodwill Zwelithini’s imbizo at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the peace march and various other anti-xenophobia campaigns.
The Mercury