Reintegration conditions 'good'

Johannesburg - The Gauteng provincial government believes favourable conditions exist for the reintegration of people displaced by xenophobic violence, according to a report in Gauteng News on Friday.

"Reintegration has already happened in a number of areas including Diepsloot, Tembisa, Thokoza, Alexandra, Mohlakeng, and the Gugulethu informal settlement."

Humanitarian observers, however, said security and preparing their original communities for their return had not been adequately addressed.

According to the Gauteng News the government was working with all the affected communities to create conducive conditions for displaced foreign nationals to safely return to their homes in their respective communities.

Communities where reintegration had already taken place were displaying "warmth and neighbourliness" to the foreigners.

Gauteng provincial government spokesperson Thabo Masebe said many councillors, community workers and politicians were working towards creating a culture of tolerance in the province.

"It's the kind of work that we will see going on for the next few months," he said.

Return to their lives

Police were monitoring areas affected by the violence, which left more than 60 people dead during May. Mass meetings and house-to-house visits were being held to engender an understanding of everyone living "side by side" in South Africa.

Business people had come to shelters to offer employment for skilled workers. Having secured an income, it made it easier for them to return to their own accommodation, which appeared to have been mostly in rented quarters.

"They should be allowed to return to their houses so that they can return to their lives," said Masebe.

He said an attack on a foreigner in Gauteng's Ekurhuleni earlier this week, was attributed by police to "mob justice", not to xenophobia.

But Loren Landau, director of the Wits Forced Migration studies programme believed the government was not keeping its public commitments made during the violence.

He said councillors had been asked to prepare communities for their return, but there hadn't been strong leadership from the province or central government.

The reintegration programmes were mostly being carried out in a small scale ad hoc way.

He said people needed to know the communities and understand the tensions and explain what it meant to live in a democracy and a multi-ethnic society.

"I would have liked to have seen that message coming through much stronger," said Landau.

He said none of the fundamental issues had been addressed and there were fears that violence could happen again.

At the time of the attacks some of the people interviewed accused foreigners settling in South Africa of taking jobs they could have had and of abusing housing allocations.

'Treated ashamedly'

SA Council of Churches secretary general Eddie Makue said the country and churches had failed victims of xenophobia. He said security was the biggest concern for displaced people in shelters wanting to live independent lives again.

"It's like saying to an abused woman, 'go back to your husband'," said Makue.

"They have been treated ashamedly by their community... people do fear and there is some justification in that."

He said the recent attack underlined this fear.

Home Affairs Department spokesperson Cleo Mosana said another 37 people taken from the Glenanda shelter in Johannesburg to the Lindela repatriation centre near Krugersdorp, had had their documents verified and were free to leave the centre.

- SAPA