Locals urged to open their hearts

Mzikayise Sithembile says the government should stop saying South Africans are lazy because he is a builder and is running a tuckshop during the local meeting and KwaZulu Natal leadership in Bottle brush in Chatsworth PICTURE BONGANI MBATHA

Mzikayise Sithembile says the government should stop saying South Africans are lazy because he is a builder and is running a tuckshop during the local meeting and KwaZulu Natal leadership in Bottle brush in Chatsworth PICTURE BONGANI MBATHA

Published Apr 12, 2015

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Durban - eThekwini deputy mayor Nomvuzo Shabalala on Saturday urged residents of the Bottlebrush informal settlement in Chatsworth to allow displaced foreign nationals to return.

Speaking at a specially convened meeting at the Crossmoor sports grounds, Shabalala said South Africans needed to remember that neighbouring countries had sheltered apartheid activists.

But many boycotted the meeting and some residents said further violence was guaranteed if foreigners returned.

Dignitaries who attended included Health MEC Sibongiseni Dhlomo, MEC Weziwe Thusi, former MEC of human settlements Maggie Govender and consul-general Henry Mukonoweshuro from Zimbabwe.

Thusi said the Department of Home Affairs was scrutinising the residency documents of displaced foreigners following this week’s xenophobic attacks in KwaZulu-Natal. Those who lacked the necessary documentation would be repatriated, said Thusi and the rest would be reintegrated.

Tempers flared when angry residents objected to the return of the foreigners. One local, Mzikayise Sithembile, told officials many residents from the settlement had boycotted the meeting.

“The government should just deport them or worse things will happen,” he said.

“Yesterday, some resolved not to attend this event. People are angry and will take action again against the foreigners.”

Another resident, Thembani Gumbi, blamed the government for failing to resolve the xenophobia issue when it surfaced in 2009.

He asked what had been done in the intervening years to prevent a recurrence of violence.

 

A street committee member from the settlement, Vusi Jobe, said foreigners did not respect locals and were not fully integrated members of the community.

“They are hard to deal with. It is difficult to trace them or arrest them when they have committed a crime because they move to another place using a different name.We need them to be integrated into our culture or the problems will persist,” he said.

During the meeting, residents set out their concerns over a range of social problems.

Some in the crowd said they got “a raw deal” from the government because foreigners had been allowed into the country and took jobs they believed should have gone to locals.

Dhlomo said the health department was trying to ensure pregnant women and those in need of medicine or medical care were not prejudiced because their medical documents had been lost when they were displaced. “Let’s agree to have them back in the communities, to be able to access health care, and enable all children to return to school,” he pleaded.

Sunday Tribune

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