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Foreigners flock to camp
06/06/2008 07:22 - (SA)
Virginia Keppler, Beeld
Pretoria - Displaced people have travelled from as far afield as Durban and Cape Town - some even by plane - to become part of the camp in Klerksoord near Rosslyn, and be registered by the United Nations.
This was after foreigners from the camp made thousands of photocopies of one of the UN's registration forms and began handing them out.
This created a false impression among immigrants that the UN would help them to emigrate.
The photocopies were made in the military's shooting-range office which is right next to the southern camp (the first camp), after foreigners found a photocopier.
The power to the building has since been switched off.
The Tshwane metro council's head of communication Console Tleane said the registration was actually to enable the council to know who lived in the camp and where they came from.
"It is also to enable us to restrict access."
Convoy of vehicles
The Tshwane metro council's executive director of social development Ntlogeleng Mogotsi explained the situation in the camp to the president of the United Cities and Local Governments of Africa (UCLGA) Pastor Smangaliso Mkhatshwa after he visited the camp on Thursday.
The UCLGA is an organisation of African municipalities.
Mogotsi said the refugees phoned their friends and families in other provinces and before long, a convoy of vehicles, many of them flashy cars, arrived at the camp from Johannesburg, North West, Mpumalanga and from other provinces.
"Initially, more than 1 000 people stayed here but on Monday there were more than 2 000 people.
Mogotsi said: "That is why the UN and the Department of Home Affairs registered the people here again on Wednesday under very strict conditions."
Tleane said all the people who had arrived at the camp since Monday were sent back to their homes.
Mkhatshwa said he was satisfied with the conditions in the camp. "The people are treated humanely."
He also praised police, metro police, non-governmental organisations and churches for the help which they had provided to make peoples' lives a little easier.
Wake-up call
The UCLGA is holding a conference in Ghana next month where heads of state, ministers and members of local governments will meet.
"We'll then have to explain what we understand of the xenophobia and how we're going to try to prevent it in future.
"If we had been better prepared for what happened, we would have been ready. This was a wake-up call for us."
He added that the borders between African countries should be removed.
"This will not only prevent xenophobia, it will also be good for business," he said.
- Beeld
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