Durban - The Ad Hoc Joint Committee on Probing Violence against Foreign Nationals has concluded its three-day visit to Durban after visiting various places around the city that were hot spots of xenophobic attacks.
Committee members went to Phoenix police station, where they asked station commander Brigadier Phumelele Makoba about the police’s response to the violence and the protection they offered foreign nationals at the camp in the area. Makoba said there had been no incidents of violence - bar one of fighting - in the camp, and that one of the people was arrested and charged with theft.
She was asked why foreign nationals chose to go to Phoenix and not other places, and told the committee that they chose Phoenix because they felt it was the safest for them.
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Makoba told the committee that the majority of foreign nationals were from KwaMashu, and had returned after the violence had subsided.
There had been no incidents of violence against foreigners in Phoenix, she said.
People went to the camp not because there was violence, but because there were rumours of imminent violence.
The foreign nationals experienced house break-ins, but some cases were hard to investigate as the foreigners had been repatriated.
Co-chair of the committee, Tekoetsile Motlashuping, said they were trying to look at the root causes of the violence and had interviewed people at Mahatma Gandhi (Point) Road, and in uMlazi.
The committee also visited Jeena’ s Warehouse in Isipingo, where it is alleged that the violence started as a result of a labour dispute.
They talked to Goolam Khan, the owner of Jeena’s Warehouse, who said he could not answer some of their questions as the labour dispute was before the Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration and was still sub judice.
Motlashuping said the committee’s work was supposed to be completed at the end of August, but they had asked for an extension.
Daily News