Following the 
Black Sash’s monitoring interventions in De Doorns during late 2009 and early 2010, representatives from our Western Cape Provincial Office together with the Gender Advocacy Programme and the African Disabled Refugee Organisation, carried out eight days of monitoring during March and April 2010.
The purpose of these sessions was to ‘put our collective finger on the pulse’ of the De Doorns situation. We monitored the conditions in the temporary site and assessed the progress made with regards to re-integrating the displaced foreign nationals who were driven out by the local community in November last year.
- Most of the deplaced people have returned to work and are sustaining themselves by buying their own food, as opposed to relying on food parcels. Basic services in the form of toilets, water supply and refuse collection are more available at the site than in the surrounding townships.
- From the South African’s point of view, the issue of reintegration was inextricably linked to issues of service delivery. The South Africans in De Doorns were not willing to accept the return of the Zimbabweans to the townships until adequate water and sanitation, refuse disposal and electricity were in place. Site visits illustrated that the availability of basic services in the De Doorns’ informal settlements of Hasie Square, Stofland and Ekaumphumaleni is still severely lacking. Consequently, it would take huge amounts of time and money if their demands for ‘service delivery before reintegration’ are to be met.
A key cha
llenge to the reintegration process is the months of separation between the foreign nationals and the locals. The two groups were never brought into the discussions in a meaningful way. Just recently the reintegration process has advanced a little, since the two sides were brought together to aid reconciliation.
- There is no clear understanding of who is responsible for dealing with the crisis in De Doorns. The local government has been carrying the burden since November, but it no longer has the capacity to do so.
- The displaced people were anxious that the process of reintegration gets underway as soon as possible as the grape harvest season ended in April. Their prospects looked bleak if they had no employment and no homes. They also wanted compensation from the government for all the damage caused to their belongings when they were evicted. The municipality and province are now working together in an effort to achieve reintegration. A new Reintegration Committee has been formed – replacing the previous committee – and a target date for reintegration has been set for 31 May 2010.
The munici
pality and province are now sharing the cost of providing services to the safety site so governing bodies are keen to instigate reintegration and close the site as soon as possible. Funds and the human resources needed to sustain the safety site are running very low. The municipality says it was simply unable to support the site, which is why it has tried to pass the responsibility on to the provincial or national government.
- A substantial proportion of the Zimbabweans on the camp have left now that the grape picking season is over. However, the number on the safety site is not decreasing proportionately because many Zimbabweans without work or accommodation are moving to the site from elsewhere in the Western Cape and South Africa.
- There still remains a number of obstacles to overcome before reintegration can be achieved, notably the appeasement of the South Africans who are demanding an improvement in service delivery; the need for physical space for the Zimbabweans to live and materials to rebuild accommodation; along with the question of how the situation may take shape next season when migrant workers return.
The Black Sash monitoring team continues to monitor the gradual closure of the safety site and the subsequent reintegration of the displaced people.
