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The University of Cape Town and the UCT Students’ Representative Council have noted with concern the closure of various refugee camps around Cape Town. We are deeply troubled about reports of the serious difficulties faced by refugees still in these camps.
We call on both local and provincial governments to offer transparency and clarity regarding the living conditions inside the camps. We further ask that any organisation wishing to provide humanitarian assistance be allowed access to these camps in order to administer the necessary aid.
While we understand the complexities and practical difficulties facing authorities dealing with this crisis, we appeal to the authorities to address the immediate needs of the people inside the camps. As a long-term solution, we call on local and provincial government to facilitate either the reintegration or repatriation of the remaining refugees.
In the meantime we urge the authorities to explore appropriate shelter options for those in the camps until suitable alternatives are found.
We also invite staff and students to assist SHAWCO by contributing “dry” food (such as tinned food, cereal, etc) and clothing to either the SHAWCO office on Upper Campus, or the SHAWCO office on the Health Sciences Campus. The SHAWCO Mobile Health Clinics will be going out to offer basic healthcare and to distribute food at these sites. Please contact Jonathan Hoffenberg on ext 5019 if you have any queries in this regard.

Acting Vice-Chancellor
Professor Thandabantu Nhlapo
UCT SRC President
Mr Chris Ryall

Posted on:  2008-12-01 09:02:56

With food and services cut off to the Blue Waters refugee camp, the situation grows more desperate by the day. According to independent monitor Tracy Saunders, some 600 refugees who were still in the camp were being starved out as authorities force the closure of the camp. She said whatever assistance the community could offer in the form of aid would be “gratefully welcomed”, given the fact that the last meal was delivered to Camp B two weeks ago and last Saturday in Camp C.
The comment came a few days after about 150 refugees in Camp C held a peaceful demonstration in the camp to put the focus on how dire their situation had become. “Saturday’s demonstration was very peaceful. People just marched around the camp to the gate and the metro police who were present were very accommodating. At this point, all food to the camp has been suspended and it is the most heart breaking situation to watch unfold. We have built quite good relationships with these people over the last six months. When I left them, they asked if I would be able to bring food in. Children are crying, parents are worried…it is really very, very heartbreaking,” she told VOC on Monday.
Saunders reported that both volunteer and media access to Camp C had been restricted in the last week, which raised concerns since people had the right to access information. While authorities have seized giving aid, volunteers were still trying to help. “People are free to leave, but much of the information they get comes into the camp, rather then them going out to gather information. As a result, they are very cut off and rumours spread quickly. They only pick up information from the media and when they hear the authorities say that they will seek an eviction order, it raises their fears even higher.”
Saunders said she had difficulty understanding the position taken by city and provincial officials. “I find it astonishing that we can treat a small group of people like this. These people were the ones who were severely attacked in the main xenophobic attacks in may and they are too scared to return to the community. Every family’s story here is unique, yet there has been no one to one engagement with them by authorities. So for the city to say that they have exhausted all options is an outright lie. I refuse to believe that.”
Referring to the city’s explanation that this had been only a temporary arrangements and that the holiday resorts that were used as safety sites had to return to its original purpose with the onset of the holidays, Saunders said: “If we are the kind of society that needs to have a beach resort open for the holidays rather than helping people who are fleeing from a war torn country, it makes one very sad. I don’t know what that says about us.”
She said the monitors were hoping to engage with the authorities “to make them understand that these are people that really, really need help. We are also hoping to get beyond the present impasse where the Somalis are insisting on being repatriated, the UNHCR refuses to send them back to a war-torn country and in the interim, another Somali was killed in Khayelitsha on Thursday.”
Saunders said much more progress will be made if the people who are engaging the refugees would do so with dignity and respect. “I have seen the forms the refugees have been asked to fill in. If I was a refugee and I was given one more form to fill in, I too would want to tear it up. The people here are really desperate, scared and hungry with little access to information. Anyone who would like to bring food to the camps can bring it to the gates. These people are starving and they really need help. Any offers of assistance would be gratefully appreciated.”
Earlier this month, the Joint Refugee Committee of the Western Cape wrote an open letter calling for speedy repatriation. The letter was addressed to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, provincial government and the South African Human Rights Commission. The letter said there were about 280 refugees at Blue Waters and 140 at Youngsfield who were waiting for interviews with the commissioner or the International Organisation for Migration. The government has urged all refugees in camps, including those who want to be repatriated, to go back to communities as the sites close down.
Pieter Cronje, spokesman for the City of Cape Town, said they were busy putting together court papers to effect the closure of the sites as refugees refused to leave after the official closure last month. “As far as we are concerned, we have processed all the applications to repatriate or relocate refugees and most the remaining refugees have refused offers of repatriation and relocation. Six hundred people are left of more than 20 000 when the attacks started. We are now left with a small percentage and we are requesting them to leave. If all else fails we will launch a court order for eviction and we are hopeful that they can be persuaded to leave,” Cronje said. The refugee crisis has cost the province and city more than R200 million. VOC/IOL

http://www.vocfm.co.za/public/articles.php?Articleid=43093

By Jacques Breytenbach
The xenophobic attacks that broke out in May this year have instilled a deep sense of fear in all foreigners living in South Africa.
Many foreigners are still too traumatised to return to the communities from which they were driven and refusing to leave shelters put up to house them when the violence broke out, but formally shut down since.
Various challenges faced by foreigners living in South Africa were discussed at a conference organised by the African Coalition for Refugees (Acor) this week.
Taking part were, among others, Amnesty International, Lawyers for Human Rights, the Zimbabwean Exiles Forum, and the SAPS.
Acor project director Douglas Kabanda said xenophobia was a negative aspect of society.
“My surname is Kabanda and my neighbour’s surname is Thabo. We live comfortably alongside each other and when we braai together I share salt and cutlery with him.
“But what we want to take out of this conference is how a situation comes about where two neighbours, one local and one foreign, turn against each other to the point where they want to kill one another.
“I believe that xenophobia is just beginning in this country.
“This is what researchers have told our organisation and that is why it is so important to find a solution,” he said.
Acor’s primary mission is to promote the socio-economic integration of refugees and immigrants living in South Africa, as well as to help them to develop their potential and live productive lives in the society in which they find themselves.
They also help foreigners to find employment and provide shelter to those who need it, while also providing education and counselling to young people.
Acor president, Kevin Ssonko, said foreigners who first arrived in South Africa found it difficult to adjust to their new circumstances.
“I came to this country 11 years ago. We received no social benefits from the government and as a result many people turned to prostitution and crime, while others committed suicide.
“Currently, there is something very wrong with the system. So much that the public can’t take it anymore and are turning to xenophobic violence,” he said.
Senior Superintendent Mandla Twala said law enforcement in Gauteng had been caught off-guard by the xenophobic attacks.
“The SAPS did not expect the violence would get out of hand the way it did. It is our mission to protect everyone living in this country, local and foreign.
“Although xenophobia seems to be under control now, the hostile situation continues to bubble underground. We deal with separate incidents of xenophobic violence regularly.
“But we have steps in place to clamp down on this anti-social behaviour,” he said.
Gabriel Shumba, executive director of the Zimbabwean Exiles Forum, said wrong perceptions fuelled hatred towards foreigners.
“There is a serious misconception among South Africans that foreigners come to this country to steal their jobs.
“Half-truths in the media about crime being committed predominantly by foreigners are also in part to blame.
“Politicians who blame the lack of service delivery on too many foreigners living in South Africa are making the situation worse,” said Shumba.

• This article was originally published on page 6 of The Pretoria News on December 01, 2008

More than 6 months after foreigners were attacked and chased from their homes and businesses  all over the Peninsula people are still living in dire conditions with no more clarity about their future than they had 6 months ago
There will be a demonstration at 10 am on Saturday the 29th November at the Blue Waters Camp in Strandfontein . The residents of the camp wish to highlight their worsening plight. It has been several weeks since the 100 people, including 60 children in Site B received food or had access to electricity .
On Saturday the 22nd  November electricity was suspended to Site C and the last delivery of food was made.There are approximately 500 people at Site C  including more than 150 children.
It is ironic that over the past week there have been several debriefing meetings attempting to understand the “lessons learnt” from the dismal handling of the xenophobic attacks in May and the resulting humanitarian crisis. Perhaps one of the first lessons could have been  to wait until the situation was resolved  before declaring the process finished . 600 people still living in tents with minimal if any food security,no access to energy and inadequate sanitation  is not a good example of a “lesson learnt”.
People in both sites have been chased from their countries of origin by conflict .They were chased again in May by their South African neighbours .For many the attacks in May were not their first experience of  xenophobic violence, but  for some it was the most extreme.
For those who were attacked and watched loved ones being killed in May , leaving the camp to return back to the places they were chased from is a very frightening prospect .Some have attempted to”reintegrate ” in to communities , only to be greeted with  xenophobic insults  and in some cases attacked once again .
When the camps were consolidated  and people were moved to Blue Waters it was on the understanding  that they would receive assistance with repatriation and other services offered by the UNHCR. To date the displaced foreigners do not feel that the UNHCR has engaged with them in a meaningful manner.
The displaced foreigners at Blue Waters ask once again for individualised consultations with the UNHCR .Each family has unique concerns and the one size fits all approach to date has not been successful in addressing this ongoing crisis.
Volunteers are currently banned from  entering the camp. Volunteers who have been assisting with nutritional, health and educational needs have been denied access. Food brought to the camp must be distributed at the gate. A logistical nightmare and something  which is bound to end up in uneven food distribution at best or severe conflict at worst.
With the situation in Zimbabwe worsening by the day , a resumption of tensions in Burundi and no end in sight to the conflict in the DRC and Somalia ,people seeking refuge from other parts of the continent will continue to be a reality.Ignoring their plight and hoping that the situation will resolve itself is not an answer.

For further details or more information please contact:
Assad Abdullahi  073 461 8201
Frigimie Malebos 078 319 2534 or via  083 672 0381
John Kisomezi  073 503 3968
John Dieudonne-Mulumba  076 185 4707
Thank you for continuing to cover the situation .
Regards
Tracey Saunders
Volunteer

- Nov 28 2008 06:00

Timus Mubia escaped with only his life twice in the past 11 years in South Africa. Called a kwerekwere and hounded out of various townships for being Namibian and for being unable to speak isiXhosa, he has been living in various refugee camps for the past five months.
He fled Du Noon township at the end of May this year when xenophobic violence broke out there. He is now in Blue Waters camp outside Muizenberg:

I am a decent man. I don’t like violence. My story is about poor people and what happens to poor people like me.
Twice now I have felt the fear of xenophobic attacks. That fear when the men with their sticks surround you and speak isiXhosa to you, waiting for your answer. And you can’t answer. Twice. Once in 2001 and then again in 2008.
I am still young and I am not ready to die. I want to live. I want to work. I’m a decent man who believes in God and who believes in the goodness of people.
Living in this country today is not good because no man can live with so much fear. No man must wake up, wash his face and eat and not know the difference between right and wrong.
Discrimination destroys people’s lives and I am one of thousands of people whose lives are being destroyed in South Africa today.
I am from the Himba tribe in Northern Namibia. I was born in 1972. Himba people don’t yet realise the importance of education. I was lucky to get a date of birth because a white man came to the village at the time of my birth.
I came to South Africa in 1997 looking for a better life. At the time I was illiterate and couldn’t speak English or isiXhosa and for a 25-year-old that was very embarrassing.
People mocked me because I didn’t know how to approach them.
My desire was to go to night school, but I had a big fear because I couldn’t communicate.
In 1998 I met a man from Namibia and I told him I’m from the Kaokaland and he said he was a school teacher and he offered to teach me how to read and write.
I was so overwhelmed when he started teaching me the alphabet and consonants and vowels.
At the beginning all I wanted to do was to write my name and to write a sentence with the words in the correct order. After three months I could start writing down my imagination. That was like magic to me.
My teacher told me the only way to learn this English language is to speak it. He said don’t be shy! Speak! I started to buy books and newspapers and read as much as I could.
In 1999 my friend found me job at the Seven Eleven as a baker. Then in 2000 my dream came true and I went to the Adult Learning Centre at night. I was there until 2001.
But then in 2001 the world ended. The South Africans in Du Noon said we must go away because they hate us. There was a lot of conflict between the South Africans and other Namibians. The government then moved us into a tent where we had to wear the same clothes day and night. Everything I owned was destroyed and stolen. My shack. My possessions.
I lost my job as a baker because I was too scared to take a taxi to work. The violence threatened my very life.
I so much wanted to finish my education.
I saw my vision and life just hovering in the air.
I started working on the sea in 2002. I hated it. It was just work and eat and sleep with no knowledge and no reading and no writing.
What I wanted in life was to become educated and have opportunities and face up to challenges.
I came back to Cape Town in 2003 and went back to the tent. But there was nobody. People said that the foreigners went back to the communities. I praised God, for now I could concentrate on becoming literate.
In 2004 I joined my literacy school again and the driving school. At the end of 2004, I passed my grade 2. In 2005 I passed grade 3 and got my driver’s license.
I started another course on how to be a fire fighter and do first aid and personal safety.
In 2006 I applied for a job at Elite Maritime Personnel. They offered me a contract to travel to Antarctica. On this journey my dream was to become a chef.
In September 2007 I decided to study at Northlink College and took a course in cooking. I completed the course and registered with the Community Youth Development Programme. The registration fee was R3 000.
I told myself that they would offer me a job in America with the Florida Orlando Marriots Grande Vista Hotel. On November 27 I got a call from the lady who congratulated me and said: “Welcome to the United States!”
I felt triumphant in my soul because I got that wonderful message which read: “With congratulations, Timus, you have been accepted.”
I applied for a visa and paid R750. They confirmed my interview with the US ambassador on December 10 2007. I was so very happy. My dream was coming true. I could read. I could write. I could dream and my dreams could come true.
Then the US Ambassador turned me down, saying I have not strong enough ties with South Africa. I understood because I understood the boundary and regulations he was explaining to me.
I lost that money.
When I thought nothing worse could happen, 2008 came and the Xhosas with their sticks and anger against us.
Now I’m living in a tent again and my life hovers in the air and in the darkness.
I’m poor, but I’m a hard worker. I don’t want to become a thief. I don’t want to grow old alone but how can I take a wife and have a family when I can’t predict tomorrow?
I don’t know who I am. Am I a foreigner or an African? In this situation of xenophobic attacks, I am so confused that I can’t think straight.
Every day I pray and ask God what the purpose of my life is.
I have a right in this world. I have the right to be free and to work and do with my life what is good and decent.

Source: Mail & Guardian Online
Web Address: http://www.mg.co.za/article/2008-12-04-welcome-to-xenophobics-shameful-heartbreak-hotel

By Anel Powell
The City of Cape Town spent at least R108-million on relief to victims of xenophobia, but so far has only been reimbursed R17-million by the provincial and national governments.
City chief financial officer Mike Richardson said the R91-million shortfall, which had to be siphoned from various council departments, would affect their budgets.
Housing mayoral committee member Dan Plato said the money used for xenophobia relief measures were needed for other projects.
“We need to tell citizens out there that we can’t afford to spend money like this.”
In a report to the city’s mayoral committee on Tuesday, Johan Steyl of the finance department said the city submitted reimbursement claims of R70,7-million, R5,6-million and R32-million to the the province and national government.
“The claims related to actual costs incurred,” Steyl said.
The claims were submitted in June, August and September.
Since then, the city has racked up a further R1,9-million in xenophobia-related costs.
Meanwhile, the department of provincial and local government said in a letter to the provincial disaster management centre that the National Treasury had approved an amount of R12,8-million for the provincial departments and R17,3-million for the City of Cape Town.
Steyl said it was not clear whether this amount would cover all claims, including costs incurred after the submission of the last invoices, or only a part of the claims.
The city was then told by the National Treasury that the allocation was evaluated on the basis of whether the claim was reasonable and whether the expenditure was deemed appropriate.
Steyl said the city did not make provision in its budgets for the xenophobic attacks, which erupted without warning in May.
Relief measures, including shelter and support for the thousands of people who were displaced and housed in safety sites, put the budgets of the city’s departments “under considerable strain”.
anel.powell

• This article was originally published on page 3 of The Cape Times on November 26, 2008

 
25 November 2008
Anna Majavu

About 400 displaced people from Cape Town’s last two safety sites have threatened to drown themselves on the nearby beach if the UN high commission on refugees and government do not resettle them in a safe country.

The commission (UNHCR) says it cannot send the residents from Eastern DRC, Somalia, Burundi and Rwanda back because of the wars.

Residents have accused the UNHCR of reneging on its mandate to resettle those who cannot reintegrate.

Dadaleonia Myongani, a single mother with three children, said she fled the DRC after her husband was murdered there.

“But it is not safe for me alone here” she said.

Yesterday residents from Blue Waters site B marched on the nearby site C camp and demanded to be resettled. They accused the UNHCR of “corruption”.

“They just come here to force us to go back to Khayelitsha” Alex Banda said.

The sites were shut down by the city and provincial governments two weeks ago but hundreds of adults and 59 children had not moved.

Metro Police guarding the site have allegedly prevented food deliveries from charities.

Volunteer Tracey Saunders said doctors who tried to visit “four newborn babies and 60 malnourished children who have ringworm and one who has sickle-cell anaemia” were turned away at the weekend.

http://www.sowetan.co.za/News/Article.aspx?id=891643 (link to video interview)

Dear All,

Date:  Monday, 24 November 2008.

Time: 4.45 pm

Site: Bluewaters site C.

Access to site denied.

I spoke to two policemen who have agreed to allow Rev Louw and I access tomorrow to count the number of the children still on site. This access may still however, be denied as camp management do not want anyone in the camp right now. How do we negotiate access without having to beg to be allowed in when we arrive at the gate? The children on site need to be monitored for trauma, health conditions as well as being given access to a safe place to play and learn. Ntombi and I had spoken on Friday about using the Breadline Africa school container for trauma councelling - this is obviously now very difficult.

It appears that some children have left with their families, but the majority are still on site. The number of children at this site is still close to 200. The number of children at Bluewaters B on Thursday stood at 62.

The policemen are extremely concerned about the manner in which the site shut down is being handled by camp management. They said that other policemen on site are becoming increasingly disgruntled about the manner in which they themselves are being treated by the person in charge and cannot understand why someone from Sport and Recreation would be in charge of running and closing a camp. The two policemen described the manner in which the situation is being handled as inhumane.They also expressed concern about the medical team who were turned away on Saturday. The policemen spoke to me in confidence and I did not ask them what their names are.

A group of about 10 children came to the gate while I was there. Little Florence Omari,3, who had a beautiful mop of curly hair has had it shaved off revealing bare patches covered in ringworm ointment. Eleven year old Guillame Omari’s skin is looking increasingly yellow. Binti’s daughter, Sam Sam has a fine rash all over her face. Sam Sam is about 20.

The children I spoke to said that Mr Mohammed fetched them for school today.

I am very concerned about the possibility of scabies, ringworm, tapeworm etc being carried to the schools they are attending. We do not want to see these children ostracised yet again, this time as a result of unecessary health conditions caused by poor sanitation, virtually non-existant health care and inadequate diet.

Every person working on this site, as well as those reintigrating with limited money and resources,risks carrying something back to their families as I have done. Please, it is imperative that proper, responsible health care practioners are sent in immediately to assess the situation.

As most of you know, a family arrived at the gates of Bluewaters B on Saturday morning. They were turned away. They may have travelled through the cholera belt. We know that many more people could arrive in Cape Town trying to get away from either conflict in the DRC or the health crisis in Zimbabwe. Surely, it is necessary to screen and document any new arrivals as best we can without sending them back into communities?

For those who did not receive the following e-mail this morning I have included it in this one so that we all know what is happening:

Rev Louw is at the gates of Bluewaters site C. Time: 9.28. Date: 24 November 2008.

• Gates are shut. Police presence consists of 3 SAP vans and a metro police car.
• The container office has been moved to the closed in chalet area.
• Adults and a large group of children are at the gate toyi toying.
• I have just spoken to Benjamin, ex-Harmony Park teacher on the cellphone.
• People from site B are trying to get into site C so that they can get food.
• Volunteers and those of us monitoring and collecting information are not allowed access until things have settled down.
• Didier and Benjamin are going to assist with a head count of the children in the camp. I will be going to Bluewaters C this afternoon to confirm the number of children still onsite.
• Please consider this very urgent.
• Number of children excluding babies at site B - 62
• Number of children at Site C approximately 200.
• Electricity was cut at Site C last night, 23 November. The provision of food has now ceased and toilets and kitchen container are to be removed from the site today.

Regards,

Ingrid Kluyts

The Educational Support Services Trust

Cape Town

Tel. 021 - 913 7710

cell. 082 0468400

Report of a visit to Bluewaters Refugee Camp

22 November 2008

Dr Philip Ginsberg, Professors Walter Loening, Heinz Rode, Ass Professor Louis Reynolds

Following reports of poor health conditions at Bluewaters Refugee Camp we visited the camp on 22 November 2008 to assess the situation of children and to find out whether their health rights were being violated or not.

We were informed that access to the camp had been restricted by the authorities, but were assured that health professionals would be allowed in after an intervention by advocate William Kerfoot from the LRC.

When we arrived at the camp gate at 07:30 we were refused access by a man known as Nico, the camp coordinator. There was no explanation for this, except that ‘the camp is closed’. Law enforcement officers at the gate, clearly upset about the conditions they were expected to enforce, told us that there were to be no more deliveries of food.

A small group of women from inside the camp approached us at the road-side. They also repeated that food deliveries had stopped. The portable toilets in the camp were no longer being cleaned. The clinic near the entrance to the camp had been closed. Their children were hungry and some of them had had not been fed yet as there was no food.

We agreed to assess as many of the children as possible outside the gates of the camp.

Main findings

1 Basic conditions

Sanitation has been brought to a dangerous level in that the toilets are not being emptied and apparently in an unacceptable condition. Water is not readily available. There is potential for an outbreak of serious enteric disease, possibly even cholera.

Food is no longer supplied which has resulted in a crisis on top of a chronic highly inadequate and inappropriate food supply. For several months the food that was supplied comprised dry bread with a bottle of juice at midday and rice with some yellow vegetable and rarely a little meat in the evening. Camp occupants have no easy access to other food outlets or shops.

2 The general health of children

We saw 93 children aged 1 week to 13 years of whom 46 were 5 years or younger. There was evidence of weight loss in a few cases but the majority of children did not present with overt malnutrition. However, there were at least 16 of the under-5’s that had clinical signs of anaemia.

It is alleged that a doctor visits the camp on a daily basis but that the advice and medicines provided did not go beyond Sugar/salt solution for diarrhoea, and Panado. The local clinic some 200 m. from the camp, had been open twice a week for some hours previously but has recently been closed with no alternative services offered.

3 Rapid screening of 10 children

1. Julis, aged 15 months. Brought to the gate by her grandmother as her mother is not well. Breast fed with 1 or 2 supplemental feeds of baby cereal. Road To Health (RTH) card shows full immunisation and good clinic attendance and that she had been thriving, but no recent entry or recorded weight; records stopped a few months ago. Her mother is losing weight; has attended False Bay hospital but missed her follow-up appointment because she had no transport. Breast feeding her baby unlikely to be sustainable.

2. Nathan, aged 10 months. Excellent and detailed information available on RTH card showing good primary care until a few months ago, but no up to date notes. Had been thriving. Now coughing and chesty.

3. Thesi, aged 5 years. Has been in Cape Town since 2006. Well grown but clinically anaemic. Dental caries and gum disease.
4. Karene, aged 2 years and 5 months [Thesi's sister]. Clinically well, growing well as reflected on RTH card. Had 2 meals the previous day, none available today.

5. Ramla, aged 14 months. RTH card shows good nutritional status until last weight a few months ago. Fully immunised. Chesty and coughing for a few days. Dry bread yesterday, no food today.

6. Faiza, aged 3 and a half years. No RTH card. Dental caries. Weight 17.5 kg.

7. Clotilde, aged 19 months. Clinically well. RTH card shows good nutritional status. Fully immunised. Had rice and chicken yesterday, now food insecure.

8. Blessing, aged 17 months. RTH card shows growth faltering when last weighed at clinic at about 9 months old.

9. Amidu, aged 5. No apparent medical problems.

10. Alex, aged 3 years and 11 months. Has chronic health problems and has appointments at Red Cross Childrens Hospital with the Renal Clinic and the Haematology/oncology department. He is to be admitted to a surgical ward in January 2009. His mother could not explain exactly what his problems were.

While we did not see acutely ill children in the camp it is clear that (unless there is a change in the situation) it is only a matter of time before serious illness emerges. Already several children have medical problems. With deteriorating sanitation, a lack of food and no food security, the health of all children in the camp is seriously threatened.

Moreover, the constitutional rights to nutrition, a safe environment and health care are being undermined by the withdrawal of food deliveries and sanitation services, and their right to shelter by the looming camp closure. Finally, it is clear that any move to discontinue basic services and/or force vulnerable families out of the camp are a violation of the principle of the “best interests of the child” enshrined in our constitution which states: “In all matters concerning the child their best interests must be a prime consideration”.

By Francis Hweshe

City of Cape Town authorities have denied reports that volunteer doctors and nurses are not welcome in the refugee camps and have called for co-operation between volunteers and the government.
Hildegard Fast, head of provincial disaster risk management, said the government had a clinic at Blue Waters camp from Mondays to Fridays and volunteers were welcome to help at that clinic.
At the weekend, women in the camp said volunteer paediatricians had been refused entry.
Sixty malnourished children - some with ringworm, one with anaemia and four hungry newborns - are among the refugees at Blue Waters camp near Strandfontein, says volunteer Tracy Saunders.
One woman said: “We should be treated as human beings what if the children die of diseases or hunger?
“We have a three-week-old baby and pregnant women - one is about to deliver.
“We don’t have the means to travel to hospital.”
Another described the situation as “desperate” as there was no milk, nappies or food.
Almost two dozen women at the Blue Waters camp complained about human rights abuses after a group of volunteer doctors and paediatricians was barred from entering the camp at the weekend.
The team came to see ill children in the camp on Saturday but were refused entrance by camp management.
City of Cape Town spokesperson Peter Cronje said the doctors were welcome but should have reported to the medical officer first.
The government closed down the camp to encourage foreigners to reintegrate into local townships.
The Cape Argus team visited the camp on Sunday to talk to the concerned women.
They declined to be named for fear of victimisation, adding that the police manning it were “being abusive”.
Basic food supplies were meant to be cut on Sunday and electricity supply was already off. Cronje said there were about 500 refugees there.

• This article was originally published on page 7 of The Cape Argus on November 24, 2008

FOR THE RECORD:

I was never told to report to any medical officer on duty as alleged by Pieter Cronje . Brenda da Silva just flat out denied access which was enforced by Nico.
Tracey