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A grim situation
29/05/2008 07:38 - (SA)
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| A Somali woman braves the cold at the Soetwater temporary camp for foreigners. (Lauren Clifford-Holmes, News24) |
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Verashni Pillay
Cape Town - The biting wind as we get out of the car at the temporary camp for foreigners is like a slap in the face.
We are at Soetwater near Kommetjie - about 30km outside of Cape Town - an idyllic get-away spot for campers and surfers under normal circumstances. But there is nothing normal about the 3 000 desolate men and women we are faced with, placed here to protect them from the very citizens they had come to for refuge.
Brightly striped carnival tents tower under the grey pallor of the sky. The smell of the ocean and the natural beauty and fynbos of the recreation site seem all wrong. Not when surrounding us are desperate men and women, crowding me and demanding in broken English to be sent back home.
"The government must take us home," say a group of Somali men, blankets wrapped around their heads and shoulders in a style reminiscent of their traditional head dress.
No choice
"You want to go back to Somalia? But there is war there." I say.
"If we are going to die, it is better that we die in our own country," says one man to a chorus of agreement. I open my mouth to argue but trail off, not knowing what to say. This is the choice they are faced with.
"Come see," a man says pulling me into one of the tents, each housing a separate nationality.
Inside rough sheets of black plastic are laid out on stony ground. Several men and women are lying down bundled in grey blankets, even though it is about 11:00 in the morning. There aren't any mattresses. "Are they sick?" I ask, and then realise that it's so cold all they can do is lie down and try to keep warm.
It's not like there is much else to do. Some people have left to go to work and amongst the rest there is an air of bored listlessness. Some crowd into the cars they brought with them to keep warm.
A few are sick, like 34-year-old Abdikadir Mohamed Noor (left) who was hit in his back and sides during an attack on his shop at Khayelitsha. He lies in his tent and his brother tells me that he cannot walk to the medical tent.
I had spent the weekend at my church in Rondebosch as we took in people fleeing the violence and xenophobic attacks that had spread to the Western Cape by Thursday last week. Like other churches, community centres and mosques, we housed hundreds of people until the City of Cape Town could erect more tents at one of several sites outside the city.
I didn't realise that this is what we were sending them to.
'Freedom of movement'
Unlike other African countries, refugees in South Africa have freedom of movement. They don't have to be confined to refugee camps, dependent on aid. They can find work and make a life for themselves alongside our citizens. Theoretically it sounds like a better deal. But with scarce resources, resentment and jealousy thrown into the mix, the violence that shocked the country and the world was the result.
There are no officials around so I end up talking to volunteers who seem to be the backbone of the site. There is an unverified amount of about 3000 Somalis, Malawians, Zimbabweans and Congolese, amongst others, sheltered here.
"All the food has come from churches, citizens, and so on," says Kirk Elsworth, a member of Kommetjie Community Watch, who sent out an e-mail asking the community to help when the camp was erected. Now there are volunteers from the surrounding areas as well as churches, mosques and other organisations sorting clothes, making sandwiches and sterilising baby bottles in an attempt to meet the fleeing foreigners' basic needs.
"There's been no food from 'you know who'," says Elsworth, referring to the government.
I speak to Jeremy Koeries, a local pastor who has been put in charge of food distribution.
"The government outsourced the provision of food to an NGO called HDI (Historically Disadvantaged Individuals)," says Koeries, a ball of energy as he bounces around helping people. HDI have been bringing soup, but the delivery the night before came late and the soup was thought to be going off.
Donations
Thankfully, donations from the public have kept the impromptu kitchen going. "I don't know how we served 2700 people last night," says Koeries, clearly running on adrenaline and very little sleep. "Don't ask me how we did it."
The camps - at Soetwater, Harmony Park, Silverstream, Strandfontein, Youngsfield Military Base and Chrysalis camp in Tokai - are heavily reliant on volunteers and donations to keep running.
Outside one tent a line of men are pushing and shoving to get in. Slipping inside we see a number of women sorting clothes to give to people as they are allowed in one at a time. A five-year old girl in a tattered summer dress is bundled into a pink jersey and warm jacket. She breaks into a huge smile as a toy rabbit is handed to her. "For me?" she asks incredulously.
It seems the real heroes of this national disaster are the ordinary men and women who have opened their homes, devoted their time, and given whatever they can to help those in need. If there is any good news in a grim situation it is that as many South Africans who have hurt and betrayed these people, there are more who have welcomed them with open arms.
- News24
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