Cape Town – A total of 6 000 refugees are to be moved to a newly identified site
in Bellville to curb the spread of
Covid-19.
Refugees have been without a place to stay after they were evicted from
the Central Methodist Mission in the CBD at the end of February.
The refugees have since split up into groups and sleep in and around the city
centre.
Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Patricia de Lille said she had to prioritise the refugees during the lockdown, who would be among the most vulnerable to contracting the coronavirus.
“We have been working together with the City to look at accommodation for the refugees and homeless. There are about 6000 refugee people in the City," she said.
“For now we have prioritised the refugees because we are very concerned that we're sitting on a time bomb in the church - there's no social distancing, even the refugees who are out on the street at the moment, they congregate in groups of 100 and more, so it's of concern with the coronavirus.
“This is the first site that we are preparing; we're in the process of procuring another marquee tent that can at least fit 600 people, in Voortrekker Road in Maitland.”
De Lille said that following the City’s court order to remove the refugees from the church, the City, Home Affairs Department and police would come together to come up with a plan on the move from the church to the Bellville site.
“In terms of food and emergency staff, we must make a public call for help. We should not be concerned about money in the meantime, we should be concerned about saving lives - R60 000 was spent on this site using the Public Works Budget,” said De Lille.
Mayco member for community services Zahid Badroodien said the city had identified seven locations to permanently house about 4000 homeless people.
“On Saturday we were looking for a number of vacant lands and we have identified many of those lands. We remain very open to this continuous engagement," he said.
“In terms of refugees specifically, this facility will be housing them and a certain portion will be housed in the Voortrekker area. Now we will continue to work in terms of the instructions and interdicts to move those individuals to this location.
“Obviously (it also) depends on the availability of water and sanitation, which we'll be working on throughout the day so that these individuals can be housed in this facility,” Badroodien said.
Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development Mcebisi Skwatsha,who visited the site yesterday, said: “I appreciate the co-operation between the minister and the City, what is more important is that those who are in need of a place are now going to move in making it easy for the government to provide health services.”