Still waiting for an anti-human trafficking law

(IRIN) – South Africa has been identified as a major human-trafficking destination for victims from within the country, the region and beyond, yet there is no legislation that specifically criminalises human trafficking and protects victims.

This report online: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportID=93104

Axe falls on Zimbabwe an illegals

Time’s up for illegal Zimbabweans in South Africa. As thousands queued outside Department of Home Affairs offices countrywide this week in a last-minute scramble to legalise their stay in South Africa, the department was adamant that there would be no extension of the deadline, which ended on Friday.

With barely hours to go before the cut-off, only 250633 Zimbabweans had applied to home affairs to legalise their stay, sparking fears of mass deportations of those who had failed to apply in time.

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SA may deport 1.2million for missing legal deadline

Source: Times Live (Article first published 01January 2011)

Rumours of xenophobia send foreign nationals fleeing

The rumour mill, a few recent xenophobic attacks and memories of countrywide attacks on foreign nationals two years ago have combined to create an exodus of people from the coastal city of Cape Town to their home countries or South Africa’s rural areas.

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South Africa, Christianity and the World Cup

By Tinyiko Sam Maluleke

During Edinburgh 2010, you’ve sometimes been wearing a South African football shirt and carrying around a vuvuzela (a traditional South African stadium horn). Can you tell us your motivation behind that?

I think the awarding of the FIFA World Cup to an African country for the first time is quite historic, because [it] is easily the biggest sporting event in the world. So I wanted to acknowledge and celebrate that, to start with.

Secondly, I wanted to emphasise the affirmation for, and of, Africa in the process. It’s a massive affirmation in a world where Africa has often been suspect and thought of negatively. This is one major morale boost for Africa.

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Mugabe says no to power sharing

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MDC ministers to get back their portfolios

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SOUTH AFRICA: Foreign Nationals Attacked with “Impunity”

IRIN – Foreign nationals are being attacked with “impunity” in South Africa, a leading human rights organization charged as the latest service delivery protests turned violent and several hundred residents turned their anger on Ethiopian refugees living in Siyathemba township, about 80km east of Johannesburg.

Service delivery protests erupted on 7 February in Siyathemba, a satellite township of Balfour, a rural town in Mpumalanga Province. Shops owned by foreign nationals were looted, more than 100 people, including women and children fled the township, and police arrested 22 people for public violence, according to reports.

Similar acts of xenophobia took place during service delivery protests eight months ago in the same township, when the perpetrators were also arrested but charges of public violence were subsequently dropped.

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Bishop’s Suspension Leave Asylum Seekers Exposed

Zimonline – The suspension of Methodist Bishop Paul Verryn exposes
thousands of African immigrants and refugees in the city to abuse and could
result in the government closing down their church sanctuary, human rights
groups dealing with refugees and asylum seekers said on Tuesday.

Verryn, who is well known across South Africa and beyond after turning his
Johannesburg Central Methodist Church into a sanctuary for refugees from
across Africa, was last week suspended from his position in the church on
allegations of breaching church rules pending disciplinary hearing on
February 8.

But rights activists say his suspension from the church – which offers
refuge to more than 3 000 immigrants from across Africa with the bulk of
them Zimbabweans – could make life more difficult for the foreigners who
continue to flock to the sanctuary.

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“Bishop (Verryn) was the only man who stood firm for the rights of asylum
seekers and refugees,” South Africa Women’s Institute of Migration Affairs
(SAWIMA) executive director Joyce Dube told ZimOnline.

Funds needed for displaced Zimbabweans

Photo: Tebogo Letsie/IRIN

Thousands of Zimbabweans were dispaced when xenophobic violence erupted in 2008

(IRIN) – The number of Zimbabweans displaced after some of their shacks in an informal settlement outside De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, were attacked and demolished by local South African residents, has risen to about 3,000, said the South African Red Cross Society.

The Red Cross has appealed for R2 million (about US$270,880) to help provide urgently needed blankets, water, food, first-aid kits, toiletries, clothing, fuel for transport, and logistical support for the displaced.

Red Cross spokesman Kelvin Glen told IRIN that the aid agency had responded to a call for help by local authorities on 15 November to provide meals and blankets for about 80 people, “but the numbers have risen since”. Most of the displaced are being sheltered in a marquee tent pitched on the local sports ground.

More Zimbabweans fled following attacks by local residents early in the morning of 17 November. The South Africans were unhappy that local farm owners were employing Zimbabweans, according to police at De Doorns. The situation was stable at the moment, said the police.

Activists Slam Unscrupulous NGO’s Exploiting Zimbabwean Refugees in South Africa

By Lance Guma

Several activists and MDC officials in South Africa have slammed an NGO that allegedly manipulated the plight of Zimbabwean refugees there to raise funds for a repatriation programme. MDC SA Chairman Austin Moyo told Newsreel on Friday that hundreds of Zimbabwean refugees at the Central Methodist Church in Johannesburg were duped into going back home, on the back of a promise of R7000, computers, printers and scanners, to start internet café’s back home.

Recently two buses packed with the refugees made the long journey back to Zimbabwe. On arrival back home none of the promises were delivered, instead the refugees were given R200 to use as bus fare to travel to their respective villages. Within a few days most of the refugees were back in South Africa at the Central Methodist Church, which has become home for thousands over the years. Some reports said the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the International Organization for Migration may have helped fund the repatriation programme.

UNHCR and IOM officials are yet to comment on the matter but sources say the equipment for the refugees was bought some time back, but for some reason has not made its way to the intended beneficiaries.

Newsreel sought comment from Elliot Moyo, whose organization raised the funds for the repatriation. He told us he was in a meeting and could only speak to us after our Friday broadcast. Moyo however promised us a response by Monday. MDC SA spokesman Sibanengi Dube told us it was a very common problem to have NGO’s raising money, using the plight of Zimbabwean refugees in South Africa, and later diverting the money for their own use. He said they were investigating the latest case to see where the money and computers went to.

The Zimbabwean crisis has seen the mushrooming of hundreds of NGO’s in and outside the country. Although some are genuinely involved in helping the situation, several unscrupulous individuals have also created room for themselves to divert money from donors meant to help people in need.

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