SA's unspent cash blocks water flow

In many cases, the lack of basic services comes down to government's poor management of money.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) has described the lack of access to clean water and adequate sanitation in the country as a potential "national crisis".

A report by the organisation found that, as far as the provision of water is concerned, 38% of South Africa's municipalities are at a high risk of crisis and 9% are already in crisis, putting their inhabitants at risk of contracting disease.

In the Madibeng local municipality, for example, diarrhoea is recurrent, especially among children, because neither the water supplied erratically by the municipality nor the water delivered by trucks is of an adequate standard.

In January, four people died in the Madibeng townships of Damonsville and Mothutlung during clashes with the police following protests over the supply of water in January.

This week was marked by fresh protests over sanitation and water in areas such as Mbombela, Bushbuck­ridge, Tshwete and Pienaar.

Informal settlements

A department of water affairs report published in 2012 said that access to sanitation is increasing at a rate of 300 000 households a year but "the sanitation sector is faced with ongoing growth of formal and informal settlements, particularly in urban areas, due to rural-urban migration, population growth and the influx of foreign nationals".

But the increased provision of sanitation has been slow in the past two years "as there has been a lack of co-ordination between different departments and tiers of government," the SAHRC head of research, Karam Jeet Singh, said this week.

"The provision of basic services is a local government competency, happening in communities with no tax base. In many cases, local government has no resources to provide these resources.

"Sometimes local authorities get bulk grants from the government but they just don't know how to spend and they misallocate the funds, which is a polite way of saying there's corruption."

Singh said that water and sanitation must be one of the government's top five priorities because the right to them is linked to other rights.

'Safety issue'

"Improper toilets become a safety issue, especially for women.

"In schools with no proper toilets, it becomes an issue about the rights to education. If government were to prioritise it, there could be a co-ordinated response from the top.

"By no means are we saying it is a simple issue. The issue of new informal settlements is real but it can't be removed from other issues. It needs to be reprioritised so that it can be dealt with in a co-ordinated fashion," Singh said.

It is estimated that, at 2011's prices, about R45-billion was required to provide basic services and upgrade existing infrastructure, but the total grant to municipalities in the 2011-2012 financial year was R41-billion.

But the municipalities are also unable to spend their infrastructure grants.

Sabelo Mthantatho, a senior researcher of the Financial and Fiscal Commission, said that a lack of capacity and a failure to follow procurement regulations, which often led to service providers not delivering services of an acceptable standard, were largely responsible for underspending.

"Take the rural household infrastructure grant, for example, where conventional sanitation methods can't be used. That fund has experienced significant underspending since it was introduced in the 2010-2011 financial year."

Only 66.7% of that year's R100-million allocation was spent and, in the following financial year, only 72.8% of the R258-million allocation was spent. There was significant spending between February and March 2011 (R52-million), which raised the suspicion of "fiscal dumping".

"If a new grant is in the system," Mthantatho said, "you find that the beneficiaries are not aware or not sure how to use it, which is usually a lack of capacity."

The report also found the implementation of government's programmes for the very poor to be lacking.

"The issue there is that there are low levels of literacy – people don't know their rights – so you won't get the required levels of registration," Singh said. "If we got the required levels of response from the department of social development then people would know how to use it."

Protest statistics

According to data from the web-based data and intelligence service Municipal IQ, over the past 10 years, North West has accounted for 10% of all protests, with 42% of them related to water.

Kevin Allan, the managing director of Municipal IQ, said this week that painting a picture of broad failure in municipal delivery was an overstatement and that delivery has generally improved.

"In metros, delivery is broadly very good, notwithstanding significant population growth.

"The problem is with smaller municipalities and a number of delinquent municipalities. In these, capacity is poor – they can't spend their money and thus can't deliver.

"Also, we can't generalise about protests and nondelivery. While protests are often because of poor delivery, in metros, which experience many protests, delivery is good and protests rather reflect frustration in pockets of poverty, which are often on the periphery of municipalities and where people feel deprived relative to neighbouring, more established suburbs, wards or communities."

Waste not: Adequate sanitation and clean water are basic rights. 

What price economic growth without water?

The majority of Southern Africans are living in an "unrelenting struggle against sanitation and water poverty," according to a new report that accuses governments in the region of failing to prioritise their plight.

International nongovernmental organisation WaterAid said in its report, From Promise to Reality, that Southern African leaders have fallen behind on their promises to boost public spending on basic services, with the poorest and most vulnerable people hardest hit.

"There is a lot of economic growth in the region . . . but this is bypassing much of the population," said John Garratt, senior policy analyst at WaterAid, contrasting the optimism over Southern Africa's economic prospects with the region's lagging progress on clean water and sanitation targets.

An estimated 174-million people in Southern Africa – almost two-thirds of the total population – lack access to basic latrines, and more than 100-million go without clean drinking water. About 120 000 children under the age of five die every year in the region from diarrhoea caused by unsafe water and sanitation.

WaterAid says progress in increasing access to services in Southern Africa has been "stubbornly slow" since 1990. In some cases levels of access are "stalling or even falling".

A major increase in resources is needed, particularly in rural areas, it says.

Garratt said sanitation and hygiene have been particularly neglected, with some governments casting these as private issues best left for households and families to address. Where money is available, it often appears to be directed primarily to urban centres at the expense of rural areas.

In 2008, African governments signed the eThekwini declaration committing to spend at least 0.5% of their GDP on sanitation and hygiene, and to put in place separate budget lines to improve accountability and track progress.

WaterAid said no government in Southern Africa has met the spending target.

The NGO's report, which is based on case studies from Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia, said increased revenue from natural resources should make it easier to fund basic services.

But governments do not always benefit enough from their natural resources and there is little transparency over how that money is spent, it said.

- M&G

DA Housing: Better Together?

Developing sustainable policies, and implementing them, is the biggest challenge facing any government. 

This is particularly the case in developing countries with limited resources, facing huge demands.

Housing policy is the most complex arena of all.

The big question is: what role should the state play in housing delivery? 

What is affordable, and sustainable? What role should individuals and communities play?

Should the available budget be distributed broadly, in an attempt to deal with the scale of the need? Or should a smaller number of beneficiaries receive a higher subsidy, while others wait their turn, sometimes for decades?

Every political party has grappled with these questions in the 18 years of South Africa’s democracy.

Finding answers has become increasingly urgent, given the enormous demographic shifts, across the sub-continent, leading to the mushrooming of un-serviced informal settlements in all urban centres. Despite the “delivery” of some three million “RDP” houses since 1994, the backlog is now greater than ever, and growing.

In this most complex of debates, there is an emerging consensus on some key issues. Firstly, everyone agrees that the reason people move to cities is to secure an income, not a house. Indeed, many people leave adequate housing behind in rural areas to move to shacks in urban settlements, as they search for a job and services, ranging from electricity to adequate health care. 

In fact, there is near unanimity internationally that if developing countries can solve the jobs crisis, the housing crisis will increasingly resolve itself. That is one reason why the key focus of government policy must be to create a context for rapid economic growth and job creation (rather than entrenching dependency on the state). All political parties in South Africa agree on this, but differ on how best to achieve job-creating growth. 

While this debate, correctly, becomes the focus of public discourse, there is growing convergence in the field of housing policy – an important and welcome development.

In line with developing countries world-wide, the shift in South Africa’s housing policy has been led by the national department of Human Settlements over the past five years. The new approach is based on the insight, articulated by Minister Tokyo Sexwale, that our past approach is proving “totally unsustainable”. Those lucky enough to receive a house, benefit from a state subsidy of approximately R100,000 per house, while on the other hand, increasing numbers of urban migrants live in settlements without services. Whereas some receive a lot, many more get nothing. Given the available budget allocations, and the regulatory environment, most shack-dwellers will wait more than 30 years for a house. And ironically, many who are fortunate enough to get a house will end up back in shacks. Because their primary need is a source of income, many move out of their houses, and rent them or sell them (at a massive discount) to people who do not qualify for a state-subsidised house in the first place, and who could afford to access housing through the market. This unintended consequence of the “down-market” raiding of state-subsidised houses is enormous. In one Western Cape housing development, for example, 80% of beneficiaries moved back into shacks within nine months of receiving their new homes. 

While it may be argued that letting or selling a state-susidised house does indeed enable families to get what they most need – a source of income – this is not a particularly cost effective way of achieving this (to put it mildly) and merely serves to entrench dependency on the state, while aggravating the problem of homelessness amongst the poor (which is the problem the policy was designed to resolve in the first place!).

After facing these anomalies, the national department of Human Settlements launched a new approach, summarised in a policy document released by Minister Tokyo Sexwale in 2010:

“The current housing development approach with a focus on the provision of state subsidised houses will not be able to meet the current and future backlog and there are questions related to its financial sustainability. We need to diversify our approach to include alternative development and delivery strategies, methodologies and products including upgrading of informal settlements, increasing rental stock, and promoting and improving access to housing opportunities in the ‘gap’ market. The core subsidised housing product must be but one of many approaches.”

This policy shift is based on the point of departure that housing solutions in poor communities must be the product of a partnership between the state, individuals and communities. As a result the subsidy regime has been adjusted to encourage the upgrading of existing informal settlements, developing site-and-service schemes, and to make bank loans more affordable. There is also a new focus on affordable rental housing. The new policy and subsidy approach is designed to address the myriad demands for state assistance in housing, while encouraging the active participation of the people themselves in securing their accommodation.

Minister Sexwale summed up the new philosophy recently when he said: “I’m often frowned upon when I say this, but free housing can’t and won’t go on forever in this country. I urge people to capacitate themselves in order to build their own houses.” 

This statement has been backed up by President Jacob Zuma who in 2010 set a national target of delivering 400,000 serviced sites, a goal that requires a substantial shift away from delivering “houses”, towards the delivery of land and services instead. This is the basis for what is known as “incremental housing development” which benefits far more people and is more sustainable.

If the DA wanted to score political points, we could pounce on the revised national housing policy. We could claim that the government had abandoned the poor by scaling down the hand-out of free houses. But this would be disingenuous. In fact we believe that housing delivery should be lifted out of the terrain of party political point-scoring, because the policy imperatives are so clear, and the escalating need so great. We have to use the government’s available resources to offer a range of options, to provide basic services to the millions who need them, to support and partner communities in upgrading their dwellings and communities – and to retain the delivery of houses to those who are prepared to wait. We acknowledge that trade-offs are necessary.

While the DA recognises the factors behind the national policy shift, ironically many ANC public representatives and activists do not. In fact, many seem entirely unaware of the developments in housing policy over the past five years. While the DA is promoting co-operative governance in the field of housing delivery, in line with the new national policy framework, many ANC officials are seeking to score political points out of their own party’s policy shift, by blaming the DA for it! This reflects the extent of confusion, incoherence and division within the ruling party.

In the year of Mangaung, the ANC in general (and Tokyo Sexwale in particular) are not being particularly pro-active in clarifying the confusion. Indeed, they seem to be doing all they can to avoid explaining their new policy direction to their own followers, in case they face a backlash! 

They should not be so coy. It is very encouraging to experience the enthusiasm with which some communities are welcoming the broader range of options available to support them improving their lives.

It was my privilege in recent weeks to visit Langrug, an informal settlement near Franschhoek, where the community is actively partnering the local authority and a range of other organisations, to upgrade their shacks and infrastructure. I believe this partnership could provide a blueprint for upgrading informal settlements in the rest of South Africa. The Langrug community started by facing a stark reality: 72 people shared a single tap and 49 people a toilet. The demand for housing was growing at such a rate that families faced a 72 year-wait for access to an RDP house. So they opted for alternative solutions.

They established a partnership with the Stellenbosch Municipality, and community organisations associated with the South African Shack Dwellers International Alliance (SDI); an innovative NGO called the Community Organisation Resource Centre (CORC); and the Informal Settlements Network (ISN).

This partnership is one of the first of its kind of which I have become aware. They have a long way to go, but their progress is encouraging. Residents have conducted an enumeration survey to determine the community’s needs, families have co-operated in the relocation required to construct and managed storm-water and grey-water run-off channels. The community has participated in re-designing the settlement in a block formation to maximise security and enable services to be "retro-fitted” while retaining current densities. In turn the local authority is playing an active planning role and allocating finances necessary for services and incremental upgrading. Located in a spectacular setting, Langrug has created a vision of its future as a stable, sustainable Franschhoek, and I have no doubt they will achieve this, in significant measure through the community’s participation and efforts. 

They are active agents of change. They are owning their future. They refuse to remain dependent and passive victims of circumstances. They symbolise our dream of sustainable development in South Africa. Politicians from all parties owe such communities the dignity and respect they deserve, rather than turning their efforts into the political footballs of electoral contests.

Sincerely yours,

Helen Zille

- SA Today

Heavy police presence in Cape townships

A heavy police and military presence has been deployed in Western Cape townships following sporadic xenophobic violence, police said on Monday.

Provincial authorities said scores of foreigners had sought refuge at police stations in the region.

Police spokesperson Captain Frederick van Wyk said that on Sunday night there were "sporadic incidents of looting" at shops belonging to foreigners.

Areas where this occurred included Nyanga, Philippi East and Khayelitsha on the Cape Flats, Wellington, Paarl East, Mbekweni (a Paarl township), Franschhoek and Klapmuts.

"Police responded and a heavy police contingency was deployed in conjunction with Metro Police and SANDF [the defence force] in all these areas," Van Wyk said.

He said seven men, aged between 19 and 30, had been arrested in the Nyanga area.

They were charged with public violence and would appear in the Phillipi Magistrates' Court on Monday.

"SAPS [the police] will continue to deploy in high numbers to maintain law and order in the mentioned areas," he said.

"Tranquillity has been restored and no further reports of violence have been reported."

Spokesperson for provincial disaster management Daniella Ebenezer said earlier that 70 foreigners had sought refuge overnight at Mbekweni police station in Paarl and 22 at Wellington.

There were smaller numbers at police stations in Franschhoek, and Langa and Harare on the Cape Flats.

They had gone to the stations "mainly because they were fearful", but in some instances following attacks on shops.

Ebenezer said there were "sporadic" attacks on shops on Saturday in the region, and "some incidents of looting" on Sunday.

No-one had been seriously injured.

She said that according to reports from police, on Sunday spaza shops and containers also used as shops were "damaged" in Mbekweni, Paarl East, Wellington and Nyanga.

The province and municipalities were ready with contingency plans, she said.

Die Burger newspaper reported on Monday that shortly before midnight on Sunday, police advised foreigners, mainly Somalis, to leave the Cape Flats township of Nyanga, and escorted numbers of them out of the area.

The newspaper carried a photograph of Somali spaza shops in flames in Philippi, also on the Cape Flats. - Sapa

Cops move to protect foreign nationals

Police have been deployed in several townships on the Western Cape province of South Africa to protect foreign nationals after escalating threats of violence against them, a police spokesperson said on Monday.

Signs of social instability could potentially harm South Africa's image and investor sentiment, undoing the gains of hosting a successful soccer World Cup tournament that ended on Sunday.

Police said the situation in the Western Cape province was tense but there have not been injuries so far.

"There were two shacks that were burned in separate areas and there's been sporadic incidents of looting and threats have been made on foreign nationals," said Western Cape police spokesperson Frederick van Wyk.

"Police have responded. At this moment there is a heavy police contingent (in several areas) which also includes Metro police and SANDF (South African National Defence Force)," he added.

The biggest economy in Africa has attracted millions of workers from across the continent and further afield, but their presence is not always welcomed by those locals who compete with them for scarce jobs and resources.

Two years ago more than 60 people were killed during anti-foreigner attacks.

Police in Gauteng said there had not been incidents against foreigners in the economic hub of South Africa.

- Reuters

Protests are Mbeki’s fault, says Sexwale

Human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale has blamed councillors elected during former President Thabo Mbeki’s administration for the latest wave of violent protests at service delivery.

Sexwale said people were not against President Jacob Zuma’s government, but against the municipalities aligned to the previous administration.

Sexwale said it was “inconceivable that people could revolt against Zuma’s government, which had been established just three months ago.

“There is a disconnect between us (leaders) and our people. This is quite clear. The people are not demonstrating against a three month-old government.

“They voted us into power three months ago. They are simply saying leaders in the past have done things wrong and they want to tell us.”

Sexwale did not mince his words, adding that “ this is a new administration, although we are a continuing government of the ANC. That is why Polokwane happened. We needed change”.

‘People are angry at municipalities aligned to former regime’

‘They are simply saying leaders in the past have done things wrong and they want to tell us’

‘(The) housing (department) has built 2.8 million houses. Housing is not a problem but poverty is’

He emphasised that people wanted the government to hear about the challenges they have had to face for a long time.

However, he warned the protesters that blockading roads, looting, and burning buildings “was not on and would not resolve the problems. It is not acceptable to use methods of violence to bring the message to us.”

He said he had been studying the situation in all areas where the violent protests had erupted, adding that many wanted jobs before houses.

“It is a fact that (the) housing (department) has built 2.8 million houses, whether good or bad. Housing is not a problem but poverty is.”

Sexwale said he visited Diepsloot informal settlement (in Gauteng) last week. “Most (of the people there) were clear that they did not want houses.”

There are 2000 informal settlements in the country and Sexwale said he intended to visit all of them.

“I want to go back to Diepsloot and sleep over with my officials to get to understand the problem. There has been a disconnect between them and the leaders, which has left our people at the hands of some unscrupulous mayors and councillors.”

Sexwale said that during his visit to Diepsloot, “a lot of people asked for jobs. People’s problems vary and are different. We cannot come with a one-size-fits-all strategy to resolve them.

“For instance, there is a man who runs a successful taxi business in Diepsloot who does not want to be moved but wants services like water, toilets and electricity in the area.”

Sexwale said other people had become landlords, owning about four shacks in their back yards and charging monthly rentals of R800.

“These are people who have to be moved because their houses are built on a sewage pipe but they are worried about their business. So do we destroy that economy or listen to them and plan accordingly?”

But he said human settlement was about more than housing. “The crisis now is about urbanisation, a challenge that was at some point going to catch up with the new South Africa. All metropolitan areas have had an influx of people looking for wealth.”

He explained that, as was the case worldwide, many people had left rural areas and settled in places where there was a lack of basic services because they wanted to live in urban areas and look for work.

Sexwale said the problem had been compounded by the global recession, when the economy needed 6% growth.

“The global downturn has put more pressure on us.”

- The Times

Constitutional challenge to law on slums

A GROUP of KwaZuluNatal shack dwellers is challenging the constitutionality of the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination of and Prevention of Re-Emergence of Slums Act, intended to eliminate the province’s slums, stop sprawls re-emerging and to upgrade and control existing slums.

The group fears the law undermines national legislation such as the Prevention of Illegal Eviction and Unlawful Occupation of Land Act (PIE) and the Housing Act, which provide significant protection for people whose rights to land are insecure. The shack dwellers also fear that other provinces might copy the law.

The group also claims that officials have placed reliance on the Slums Act in an attempt to justify evictions and shack demolitions without court orders.

Abahlali Basemjondolo Movement SA is an organisation with 20000 members, residents of the Kennedy Road Informal Settlement in Clare Estate in Durban and of 16 other informal settlements in the greater Durban and Pietermaritzburg areas.

The organisation challenged the constitutionality of the provincial law in the KwaZulu-Natal High Court last year. It argued then that the Slums Act was an unreasonable, retrogressive measure that exceeded the powers of provincial government, was fundamentally irreconcilable with national legislation and threatened to infringe on the fundamental rights of the poorest, most vulnerable members of society.

Judge President Vuka Tshabalala dismissed the shack dwellers’ application in January. Tshabalala said the Slums Act was a reasonable legislative response to the plight of vulnerable people.

The residents applied for leave to appeal to the Constitutional Court. The matter will be heard on Tuesday next week.

In its written submissions to the Constitutional Court, the organisation said that where it was clear an eviction would have unjust or inequitable consequences — such as homelessness — then PIE required that the occupation be tolerated notwithstanding its unlawfulness.

In their written submissions, counsel for the residents Heidi Barnes and Kirsty McLean said: “We submit that this — the toleration of unlawful occupation in circumstances in which the alternative would be unjust or inequitable — is central to the scheme and purpose of PIE.

“Indeed, we submit that PIE effectively discourages the institution of eviction proceedings in these circumstances.”

The advocates also said the relationship between eviction, alternative accommodation and the state’s positive obligations to achieve the progressive realisation of the right of access to housing had been further clarified in two important Supreme Court of Appeal judgments.

“While they were decided in significantly different contexts, the effect of both judgments is that unless the state complied with its obligations … eviction orders would not be granted against people who would be rendered homeless as a result.

“We submit that it is clear that there is a constitutional obligation on the state to provide at least temporary accommodation to persons who will be rendered homeless as a result of eviction.”

The advocates said PIE, read in the context of the constitution, afforded unlawful occupiers two forms of protection. “First, the holding pattern established by PIE means that it is unlikely that eviction proceedings will be instituted against unlawful occupiers, at least by the state, if there is no suitable alternative accommodation available to them. Second, in the event that eviction proceedings are instituted against such unlawful occupiers, the state is required to provide alternative accommodation, of a temporary nature at least, to those who would otherwise be left homeless.”

The advocates also argued that the Slums Act regulated not housing but land, in particular land tenure, access to land and evictions. “Since land is not a competence of provincial government, it is submitted that the Slums Act is beyond the legislative competence of the KwaZulu-Natal provincial government and accordingly invalid.”

The advocates said it was highly desirable to determine the constitutionality of the Slums Act as soon as possible.

“The Slums Act is the first of its kind in the country, and may well be copied in other provinces. We respectfully submit that this court may take notice of the fact that a bill modelled on the Slums Act has been drafted in the Western Cape.”

- Business Day - New Worth Knowing

Local leaders incited xenophobia attacks: study

Community leaders played a role in the xenophobic violence in May 2008, a study by the International Organisation for Migration released today showed.

"The idea that it was caused by a faceless crowd doesn't hold water," a researcher at the Forced Migration Studies Programme at Wits University, Jeanne Pierre Misago said. "Community leaders were involved," Masigo added.

He said local leaders organised xenophobic attacks to improve their credibility within the community. "They can then say they are the one true leader of the community," the researcher said.

Misago was speaking about the findings at a conference at the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg. He said these local leaders had some co-ordination in organising xenophobic violence in neighbouring townships.

Media reports also played a role by showing successful looting by mobs and the inability of police to handle the situation. – Sapa

Refugees: City goes to court

Cape Town will be filing an application in court before the end of the week for an eviction order for the remaining refugees at the Blue Waters safety camp near Strandfontein.

Pieter Cronjé, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town, said there were 396 refugees at Blue Waters and 64 at the Youngsfield military base, even though the camps had been closed.

He said that while the city, the province and the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) were still assisting people with either relocation or re-integration, many of the remaining refugees had refused all offers. So far the cost to the city had been R120-million. To date they had only recovered R17m from national government Cronjé said .

Cronjé said they would not use force, but would rather allow the legal process to take its course.

He said that once the application had been filed with the Cape High Court, the sheriff would advise the refugees, who would then have 10 weekdays - days in which the court was in session - in which to indicate whether they wanted to defend the action or not.

"If they do want to defend it, they will have 15 working days in which to file their affidavit and the city, as the applicant, would be given 10 days to file an answering one."

The registrar would then set a date for the court to hear the matter.

Cronjé said the eviction would only apply to Blue Waters because it was municipal property. The SANDF would need to take legal action on the Youngsfield refugee camp.

But Braam Hanekom of People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (Passop) had appealed to the city not to evict the refugees until after the elections in the interests of stability in the Western Cape.

This week the Tshwane Metro Council bulldozed the last remaining refugee camp in Akasia outside Pretoria and the Department of Home Affairs shut down its refugee processing centre at Musina, a move that was denounced by international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontiéres (Doctors Without Borders) who said 3,000 to 4,000 Zimbabweans queued to apply for asylum and sought refuge there each night.

- Cape Argus

Seven Zimbabweans killed in S.Africa in suspected arson

Seven Zimbabweans, four men and three women, were found dead in South Africa after their shack in Western Cape province was allegedly set alight, police said Monday.

A police spokesman told SAfm public radio that the alleged attack, which took place in a squatter camp, was under investigation.

Last year, mobs killed at least 62 people and drove thousands of others from their homes in a two-week frenzy of xenophobic violence targeting mostly migrants from neighbouring countries, such as Zimbabwe, Mozambique and Malawi.

The mobs blamed the millions of African migrants in South Africa for providing unwelcome competition for scarce jobs and public housing. - (dpa)

SA's R300m aid gift to Zim a 'waste of money'

South African taxpayers' gift of R300-million to Zimbabwe was a waste of money and some of it is being misused for the benefit of President Robert Mugabe's cronies in Zanu-PF.

The donation - or aid - was announced late last year by Finance Minister Trevor Manuel, who pledged the gift would only be handed over after an internationally-recognised government of national unity was formed.

President Kgalema Motlanthe repeated this assurance.

An instant SADC foundation, the Zimbabwe Development Assistance Framework, was formed to channel agricultural inputs to Zimbabwean farmers.

This framework is still not yet fully operational and its impartiality has been questioned.

The aid began moving into the country before Christmas.

It is mostly seed, fertiliser and fuel from South African companies and was sent despite warnings from Zimbabwean agriculturalists that most of it was too late for this summer season, and unless distributed carefully would be abused.

Most of the seed arrived months too late to plant and is being eaten, and the wrong fertiliser was ordered for this time of year in the maturation cycle of annual crops like maize.

Before Christmas, 60 000 litres of diesel was also sent into Zimbabwe for distribution.

A senior civil servant, working in the depleted technical support network for farmers, Agritex, in the fertile Mashonaland West province, confirmed that South African aid was often only available to Zanu-PF supporters in parts of the country, particularly Mashonaland West, Mugabe's home province, and Mashonaland Central where Zanu-PF is also in control.

The SADC aid appears to have been well-intentioned but misguided.

The senior Agritex officer from Mashonaland West, who spoke on condition that he was not identified, said SADC had tried to provide for fair distribution by not using civil servants such as those from Agritex to disperse it.

"The South Africans don't know how the system works. Not all of us are Zanu-PF. There are still a few professionals left in Agritex and we could have stopped this. The chiefs have to obey Zanu-PF even if they don't want to."

In theory the monitoring of the South African-sponsored SADC aid was done by three church groups, seen by many Zimbabweans as aligned to Zanu-PF; the Evangelical Fellowship, the Zimbabwe Council of Churches and the Johannes Masowe Apostolic Church.

At the height of the distribution last month the Catholics, cited as monitors in the department of agriculture circular, were supposed to have joined but had not yet been invited.

Abdenico Bhebe, Movement for Democratic Change MP for Nkayi, one of the driest parts of Zimbabwe in the south west, said on Thursday his constituency had received no SADC aid packages.

"Nothing, nothing, and there is also not enough food aid coming in either because the government is not fulfilling its part of the memorandum of understanding it signed with the NGO sector by providing 40 percent of food.

"There is only Western food aid coming in, and people are hungry. We have received none of the SADC seeds and fertiliser but it would be too late now anyway."

A hostile Agritex official at its head office in Harare denied on Friday that it was possible to misuse the aid, because he said a SADC official, whom he called Mr Whale, attended many of the distributions.

But he conceded Whale couldn't be everywhere when the aid was handed out.

Each village head was given - to dole out to seven or eight farmers in his precinct - three packs of South African seeds, 25kg of maize, 20kg of beans and 5kg of Rapoko, ground nuts, sorghum and cowpeas, and 50kg of fertiliser.

Experienced seed growers for both commercial and communal farmers said the deadline for planting maize, sorghum and groundnuts passed in November, and that if seeds were sent to Zimbabwe after this, when so many people were hungry, they would all be "consumed as food".

According to the latest Ministry of Agriculture circular, distribution began on January 19, although maize seed had arrived in Zimbabwe a week earlier.

Most of the rest of the inputs arrived a week later.

The World Food Programme has upped its estimates of Zimbabweans needing food aid from 5.2 million to more than seven million and it says it does not have enough donations to buy food for those in need and so it cut rations again this month.

- Cape Argus

Land reform in a ‘mess’: AGRISA

Land reform in South Africa is a mess, AgriSA said.

"Results are quite a mess. There is little post-settlement support for the beneficiaries of land reform, especially in restitution provision," AgriSA’s deputy president Theo De Jager told a press briefing in Pretoria.

"The restitution committee has missed its fourth extended date for the finalisation of land claims."

After a decade of land claims, the list of claims had still not been finalised.

"Farmers are living in this uncertainty not knowing where they are going to go with their farms. This has been a major stumbling block for investment, especially in the northern provinces.

"Farmers don’t know if they’re going to keep their farms or not [and] are simply not investing on those farms," he said.

He could not think of one restitution farm — among thousands that had been transferred — that had been successful. This was due to "poor planning" and the delay in the payment of settlement grants.

"Government itself acknowledges that 566 of those farms have collapsed."

The industries that were hardest hit included citrus farming and forestry.

AgriSA said ineffectiveness and administrative irregularities in state structures hampered progress with land procurement and transfer.

Following a meeting with the ANC last year, AgriSA said it noticed major differences between how the two organisations viewed land reform.

"One of the big differences in our view is that the core function of agriculture is to produce food and fibre for the nation, while if you are looking at the political agenda of the ruling party it places almost overwhelming emphasis on the social and transformation challenges of the industry," said its executive director Hans van der Merwe.

Following the recent cholera outbreak, he added that water safety needed to be paid attention to.

"The water quality status is a national challenge to address in a comprehensive way. At local authority level... the whole way in which sanitation has been dealt with leaves much to be desired.

"It could have huge impact not only on food safety in South Africa but food export status of South Africa," said van der Merwe.

The organisation was also concerned about crime.

The body’s Andre Botha said: "Farmers do not receive assistance from government. The biggest problem we have is morality and discipline. We will keep on encountering effects of crime. We see this as economic sabotage."

The productivity of the industry was not receiving adequate attention as the country was importing 1.5 million tonnes of wheat a year, which affected the profitability of local markets.

- The Times

Xenophobia: the bill

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".

- Cape Times

Residents spurn aid

Hatred of foreigners is placing a R62-million housing project in a township outside Kommetjie at risk after a group of residents said they didn't want the project to receive donor money from "makwerekwere".

Two weeks ago about 200 people living in shacks in the small Masiphumelele settlement between Fish Hoek and Cape Point attacked and stabbed the chairperson of a local community housing organisation and threatened its fundraiser because he is a white man, originally from Europe.

Lutz van Dijk, fundraiser and board member of housing NGO Amakhaya Ngoku, which initiated the development, is according to locals opposed to the development a "kwerekwere".

"That man is a foreigner and he's forcing us to move. We don't want to live in flats -- we want houses and we don't want Lutz's money because he is a corrupt foreigner who doesn't belong in South Africa," said Simon Kiti, spokesperson for the group of residents opposed to the development.

"We don't want their money. We don't want money from the private sector. We want the government to come and build us houses -- the ANC is on our side on this issue and said we don't have to move," he said.

Kiti claims to represent 152 families, all members of the ANC, who refuse to move.

Amakhaya Ngoku (meaning "homes now") was formed in 2006 by local residents after a fire destroyed about 400 shacks, leaving more than 1 000 people homeless. After months of consultations and meetings residents agreed the shortage of land made free-standing houses impossible and settled for 352 sectional title flats. The project will offer residents a rent-to-buy scheme that allows them to rent their homes for four years at R400 a month, after which they can buy and own them.

Last week the chairperson of Amakhaya Ngoku, Themvinkosi Kitchen, was stabbed and stoned by residents opposed to the building project.

Amakhaya Ngoku is under immense pressure to start construction this week to fulfil the funding conditions of some of its 20 major international sponsors. Foreign donations are contributing more than R35-million to the project and failure to start building soon could put some of this money at risk, as well as increase building costs.

Kiti also objected to foreign nationals living in the temporary site to which Masiphumelele inhabitants have been relocated while construction is under way.

"We will not move from the school site [the area earmarked for the development] because some kwerekwere tells us to move. Why are foreigners the beneficiaries of houses when they don't even belong in South Africa? Those people come here with their corruption and drug money using bribes. Only government should build houses," Kiti said.

Originally from the Netherlands, Van Dijk came to South Africa to work for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission seven years ago and decided to settle in the country. He is the director of an orphanage in Masiphumelele. He receives no payment from Amakhaya Ngoku and will make no money out of the housing project.

The divisions within the community started after the city council identified 23 families set to receive flats on the school site as already having benefited from subsidised houses elsewhere. The families were told they couldn't receive subsidies twice and their names were removed from the list.

"When that happened, suddenly they started with all their other complaints against the project. Suddenly they didn't want flats, but wanted houses. Now they're jumping on this kwerekwere-wagon and the ANC leadership are not stopping them causing this problem to escalate," said Bulelwa Jafta, secretary of Amakhaya Ngoku.

Officials from local construction company Jolinde Construction tried to talk to Kiti and a group of about 15 men on Monday morning to try to convince them to vacate the land.

"You need a court interdict to come and stand here. This land is ours and we will not move. Go away," Kiti said. "This is not the old South Africa where whites can say 'go' and then we jump. Come back when you have a court order. The ANC said we're entitled to stay here."

Later that day Jolinde started clearing and fencing off the land around those families who refused to move. On Tuesday night the tyres of all the big construction vehicles were slashed, causing damage estimated at R40 000. On Wednesday the rest of the defiant community vowed to go ahead with the project, even though some shacks are still standing on the site.

Provincial ANC chair Mcebisi Skwatsha said the problem in Masiphumelele stems from the divisions within the ANC. "We need to address this issue urgently. If these people are discriminating against other people or foreigners, they're going to be very disappointed," Skwatsha said, promising to intervene speedily.

It took Amakhaya Ngoku two years to secure the land and get the go-ahead for the project. Earlier this year government pledged R27,5-million for the project. The shortfall was made up by donations from England, Germany, Holland and Australia, as well as from South African individuals. By far the smallest amount came from South Africans.

At a gratitude ceremony held this week at the nearby temporary relocation area for residents, mayor Helen Zille, who spoke in isiXhosa amid loud cheers and ululation from the community, said there comes a time when one can talk no more but has to start doing.

"We can't keep on talking about this development. Two years was long enough. It's now time for building. Amakhaya Ngoku! Not Amakhaya Landelayo! [subsequent houses, houses coming afterwards]".

University of Cape Town Professor Denis Goldberg, Rivonia trialist and member of the advisory committee of Amakhaya Ngoku, said on Wednesday last week: "You, as Amakhaya Ngoku, reinforce in me the belief that the long, long years in prison, in my case 22 years, were indeed worthwhile."

- Mail & Guardian

Xenophobia crisis control costs city R100m

The cost of managing the xenophobic crisis that erupted in the city has soared to more than R100-million.

And to date the government has not reimbursed a single cent of the money, which means the city's safety and security department's spending has gone more than R50-million over its annual budget.

A report submitted to the council's portfolio committee on Monday by the city's director of budgets, Johan Steyl, indicated that the city had submitted its third claim of R25,8-million last month on the back of its first claim of R70,7-million in June, and another R5,6-million in August.

These are all claims for actual costs incurred.

Steyl said the city had followed its agreement with the provincial government on managing the crisis and related financial costs to the letter, which included that the submission of claims be made to this level of government, which would then forward them to the Treasury.

He said the city's disaster management centre had liaised with the provincial department on the reimbursement of its money, but to date had received no formal response.

The finance committee decided that the matter should be brought to the attention of the mayoral committee, with a view to it being discussed at its next meeting next week.

The city is incurring ongoing costs as it still accommodates just more than 2 000 refugees in three sites in the city, five months since the violence against foreign nationals broke out in the townships.

- Cape Argus

Council boots out victims of xenophobia

REFUGEES from xenophobic violence have been told to leave community halls and other sites in Cape Town by the weekend or the city’s officials will “pursue legal options” against them.

VIDEO: Re-integrated Refugees Face Life After Xenophobic Violence

Hans Smit, executive director for housing for Cape Town, said yesterday that there “has been unhappiness” among the communities that used the halls and other facilities before they were turned over to the refugees.

The refugees are housed at five makeshift camps, in 11 community halls, and in mosques and churches around the city.

The city council and the provincial government’s plan is to consolidate the remaining 3300 refugees at three sites.

Smit said communities wanted their halls back — and that meant the refugees had to be moved.

“People plan weddings and run creches; they need the halls,” said Smit.

“If people refuse to move we’d have to pursue legal options, [but] we won’t serve eviction notices without exploring other options.”

Hildegard Fast, head of provincial disaster management, said transport to other accommodation would be provided for refugees from today .

Refugees would be moved to three sites: Harmony Park in Strand; Youngsfield military base in Ottery and Blue Waters in Strandfontein. Two sites, Soetwater and Silwerstroom, would be dismantled.

“We want to focus on a couple of sites, which will also intensify our reintegration and repatriation process,” said Fast.

She said that Muslim refugees would be grouped together because they would be observing Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, from Monday.

“ Different eating patterns and ablution facilities will be needed. Mothers and their children are a priority and they will be put in family tents ,” said Fast.

Capacity at the three sites would be increased to house more refugees but, she warned, they were “not going to [get] higher standards”.

She said helping the refugees had cost the province more than R104-million.

Sifiso Mbuyisa, who works on refugee reintegration in Cape Town townships, said communities had welcomed the refugees back.

- The Times

Cape of Storms - SSS

Tension ran high at Soetwater on Tuesday night where about 3,500 people displaced by xenophobic attacks are housed in the city's largest safety site.

Thirteen buses ordered by the province to evacuate the camp stood empty as conflicts between authorities and refugees erupted inside the site.

Armed Metro Police had accompanied nearly 20 Bambanani volunteers sent to dismantle vacant and broken tents.

Misinterpreting this as forced removal, Somalians, Zimbabweans and Congolese again threatened to drown themselves in the ocean.

Women with babies strapped to their backs and shouting men ran towards the ocean, but no one went into the water...

The province came prepared with a list of suitable relocation centres for each group. Officials asked to meet individual leaders because there was no one venue that could hold the camp's 3,500 residents...

"The province is stepping in and then angering the city and the problem is that no one is telling the people what is happening."

About a fifth of the 20,000 people displaced by the violence in the Western Cape have been either reintegrated or repatriated, provincial officials said on Tuesday.

The provincial disaster management centre said the number of displaced people was estimated at 15,910 the bulk of them in the Cape Town metro.

Hans Smit, the city's executive director of housing, said the city would continue to challenge an urgent High Court interdict obtained by the province on Monday night forcing the city to open 18 community halls to those displaced by the attacks.

The city said it wants the Western Cape provincial administration to first use facilities under its own control, and that community halls are not the best way to accommodate the refugees.

It also said that 15 of the 18 halls mentioned in the interdict were already being used to house the refugees.

A counter court bid by the city yesterday stopped three of the city's community halls - those in Scarborough, Bellville and Retreat - from being opened to the displaced.

"Using community halls risks exacerbating local tensions and extending the xenophobic problems that we are trying to address," Smit said.

He said the halls had to be kept open in case of natural disasters, such as flooding.

More than 35,000 people were affected by flooding last winter and many were housed in council halls.

The latest spat between the city and the province comes after the province's unscheduled relocation late on Monday night of about 22 people from Soetwater because of safety concerns...

- Cape Times

35 000 displaced refugees in the Cape

There are conflicting estimates of the number of displaced immigrants in the Western Cape - one relief agency says the number now stands at 35,000 while the City of Cape Town says the number is about 12,000.

Last week, the figure was widely estimated and accepted to be about 20,000 but on Wednesday the Mustadafin Foundation, which is working with the city's Disaster Management to assist immigrants, said the aftershock of the attacks had swelled the number to 35,000.

The foundation said it was feeding 13,850 of the displaced 35,000 immigrants, including one of the largest refugee camps, Soetwater.

"As the crisis continues ... conditions in the various refugee sites are becoming more and more unbearable.

"Furthermore, with no idea of the future or futures of their children, the refugees are becoming increasingly restless, calling on the UN for support," the organisation said yesterday.

Disaster Management's Wilfred Solomons said the 35 000 figure was incorrect, but in fact the number had dropped to about 12 000 as most of the immigrants had left the camps, reintegrated into communities and were "going to work".

According to statistics supplied by Disaster Management, safety sites such as Soetwater were at full capacity, housing close to 4,000 immigrants, while Blue Waters was accommodating nearly 200.

Youngsfield military base had almost reached its 1,500 carrying capacity and Harmony Park had reached its 2,000 capacity.

The city said Citrusdal farmers had offered employment and accommodation to some of the refugees.

On Wednesday, The Cape Argus reported that immigrants accommodated in temporary shelters have until next month to go back to their countries or return to their local homes.

They would be "temporarily exempt" from deportation, said Home Affairs Minister Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula.

She also proposed a review of the current immigration laws to provide for "special dispensations" for immigrants, saying it was a waste of resources to deport them because they always returned.

Meanwhile, Zimbabwe was arranging for about 2,500 of its citizens to be repatriated, its state media said on Wednesday.

About 50,000 migrants have left South Africa, with the bulk crossing into neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Some refused to go back to their communities in South Africa out of fear.

Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said there had been no fresh attacks since shortly after soldiers were sent into the townships, though he added that President Thabo Mbeki might extend the army's deployment when it expired this weekend. - Cape Argus

UN representitives see Soetwater groups

Refugees at the Soetwater safety camp met UN representatives after calls for the world body’s intervention earlier this week.

Representatives from various groups based at the camp held a press conference at the His Kingdom Baptist Centre in Kommetjie on Wednesday and met UN representatives afterwards.

The delegates representing groups from Somalia, Congo, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe, Kenya and Burundi, insisted on urgent UN intervention a call echoed by groups in camps across the city, who held a press conference on Monday.

The displaced people called on the UN to step in and take
control, and have them moved back to their home countries or to a different country.

Ethiopia's Israel Abate said today: "We never said we wanted to go to the USA or Canada, but we would like to go anywhere where we would be welcomed and our rights are upheld."

He said a UN representative had handed out questionnaires to gauge the conditions at the camp.

Thousands of refugees have been staying at six emergency camps across the province since they fled their communities following xenophobic attacks two weeks ago.

Refugee Serge Bami Samba said yesterday that conditions at the Soetwater camp were deteriorating. He said they had had reports of 85 men suffering from diarrhoea.

"We believe the South African government cannot
control the situation. The UN and only the UN has enough
skills to control this situation," he said.

Samba said they had no freedom of movement, had to tag their belongings and had no money for transport. He said they were also worried about the safety of their women and children, particularly at night, as the women were separated from the men.

The group reiterated that not everyone wanted to be reintegrated as the government had planned.

Fatima Omar, who represents Somalis at Soetwater, said she had been living in South Africa for five years, but she "would rather die in her own country than die in this country."

She said despite problems back home, she would rather return there. - Cape Argus

Death threats to foreigners

Somalians who reopened their shops in Zwelihle on Monday after a week's absence were shocked when they were greeted by handwritten notes in Xhosa on Tuesday morning warning them to leave the township by 12:00 on Wednesday or be killed.

The notes were apparently pushed under the doors of the shops on Monday night or handed over to South African landlords of the Somalians.

The Hermanus Times discovered the notes when visiting the Somalian shops on Tuesday and immediately alerted the Overstrand municipality's housing manager, Bobby von Düring who in turn alerted the police and the Overstrand emergency services.

Hermanus police station commissioner Phumzile Cetyana then deployed police in the township while re-inforcements from the municipality's law and order department, traffic officers and security company ADT were put on high alert.

One of the community leaders Archie Klaas who was with the Hermanus Times when the notes were discovered, said that the Zwelihle Bambanani neighbourhood watch also patrol the streets throughout the night.

An emergency meeting was called between community leaders, the premier of the Western Cape's office and the police to discuss the situation. At midnight pamphlets were distributed in which commmunity leaders distanced themselves from the death threats and criminal acts and warn the perpetrators that they “will be rooted out of our society”.

Apparently the problem originated on the Sandbaai side of Zwelihle that is home to mainly new arrivals from the Eastern Cape who have not been longer in the township than two years and of whom many are known as trouble makers.

Meanwhile 11 people appeared in the Hermanus magistrate court on Monday on charges of public violence linked to xenophobic attacks in Zwelihle last week. Eight of the suspects were kept in custody while three under-aged suspects were put in the care of their parents.

Another four suspects who appeared in court on Monday last week on charges of theft and housebreaking linked to the xenophobic attacks were denied bail and therefore remain in custody.

One of the leaders of the foreigners in Zwelihle, Somalian Abdul Rashid Amat, said that most of the Zimbabweans and all the Angolans in Zwelihle have left.

An unknown Kenian woman had apparently helped a group of foreigners, mostly from Malawi and Angola, to go back to their countries of origin.

While most of the foreigners who sought shelter in the community hall in Zwelihle at the height of the xenophobic attacks on the foreigners last weekend, have returned to their homes, a small group stayed at the mosque in Mt Pleasant because they were afraid to go back to their vandalised homes.

One Somalian woman, Deka Abdi called the Hermanus Times on Friday night and reported that somebody threw paraffin on a mattress through a broken window in her living room on Thursday night and set it alight. The police were informed about the incident and she and her family returned to the mosque.

They left for Cape Town on Sunday and are now staying with relatives in Bellville.

Yusuf Moos of the Hermanus Islamic Society said they received blankets, groceries and bags full of new baby clothes from two Muslim charity organisations in Cape Town that they have distributed among the affected Somalians in Zwelihle.

He said there were still some goods left and wants to appeal to foreigners who have been affected by the attacks to get in contact with him.

The Hermanus Times informed the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) of the United Nations in Pretoria last Wednesday already that there were asylum seekers in Zwelihle who wanted to go back to their countries of origin but by Tuesday this week, no reply had been received.

A group of South Africans in Zwelihe have been working hard to restore vandalised homes of foreigners with the help of the Overstrand municipality who have donated doors and other material. Burglar bars have also been re-installed in some of the homes.

On Tuesday afternoon however, Hermanus Times visited a shop and attached home of one of the foreigners that is still deserted.

The gaping door openings and debris on the floors of the residence that has been stripped of all belongings is the only evidence of the spree of greed and violence that shattered Zwelihle last week. Even the electrical wires have been ripped out of the walls. - Hermanus Times

Refugees believe re-integration won't work

Some displaced foreigners staying at Soetwater near Kommetjie in the Western Cape say it could take up to 30 years for it to be safe for them to live in the areas they fled from because they fear locals' hatred is still too strong.

Representatives of Somalians, Ethiopians, Rwandans, Zimbabweans, Kenyans, Tanzanians, Burundians and people from the Democratic Republic of Congo gathered in Sun Valley on Wednesday.

Sergebami Samba-Bamikani, representing refugees from Tanzania, Burundi and Kenya, said the idea of re-integrating foreigners into informal settlements was good but too soon.

'Maybe it will work for the children of our children'

"We don't see it as a practical thing; there's no way it will work," he said. "Maybe in 30 years it will work. Maybe it will work for the children of our children but not for us.

"Re-integration is impossible because it will cause us to die."

Israel Abate, representing the Ethiopians at Soetwater, said they no longer trusted South Africans.

"It's not the first time South Africans have mistreated our brothers and sisters from other countries," Abate said. "We are forced off buses and trains. There is discrimination and hatred.

"We've lost trust, friendship and love for South Africa and South Africans. We've even lost the courage to start afresh."

'There is discrimination and hatred'

Somalian Fatiema Hosma said she would rather go back to her home country than "die like a dog" in Du Noon, where she had lived.

"We don't want to struggle any more. We don't want people to hurt each other like this but (the locals) say they are going to finish us. We don't accept that the government should send us back into our locations," she said.

Western Cape provincial premier Ebrahim Rasool said on Wednesday there were "many agendas" at work among displaced people. He appealed to people "to remain calm, reasonable and co-operative".

"We are encouraged by the progress in several communities across the province where re-integration has happened," he said. "We appeal to our communities and to foreigners who have been displaced to work together with the province's mediators so re-integration can take place." - Cape Times