This Thursday there will be a screening of the film “Burning Man: Ernesto Alfabeto Nhamuave,” (dir. Adze Ugah) about the man who became known as “the burning man” during the recent outburst of South African xenophobia.

This will be followed by a discussion.

Date: 14 August 2008 (Thursday)
Time: 12:20-1:05
Venue: Shepstone 2, Howard College Campus, University of KwaZulu-Natal

ALL ARE WELCOME!

The Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal welcomes the Open Society Initiative for Southern Africa and social justice activists from all over the SADC region. At a time of enormous political tension in neighbouring Zimbabwe, they continue their series of discussions on overcoming xenophobia.

Durban communities have long mobilised against problems: poverty and unemployment, forced removals, evictions, relocations, bad housing, water, sanitation, electricity crisis, high food prices, racism, sexual exploitation, crime, drugs, corrupt government, political repression here and across Africa, old-fashioned colonial borders between our people, thugs who scapegoat and attack refugees….

Facing these problems together is critical.

DATE: Thursday, 26 June
TIME: 17h30-19h30
VENUE: UKZN Howard College Auditorium  Howard College Campus

South Africa’s political parties were united in their condemnation of the attacks against people from other African countries that flared up in various parts of South Africa in May, displacing up to 32 000 people.

During a joint sitting of Parliament in Cape Town last week, speaker after speaker mounted the podium to denounce the wave of violence that saw people from neighbouring countries being assaulted and in some cases killed.

Leading the debate on a parliamentary report that probed the violence was African National Congress (ANC) MP Obed Bapela, who said that the attacks took place in the poorest areas of the country, and that even then it was “only in the corners of these communities” where the attacks were initiated.

Just “a few people” had launched the attacks that began in the township of Alexandra in Johannesburg, Gauteng province and spread as far as Cape Town.

Following the successful repatriation of 270 foreign nationals to their original countries last weekend (June 14, 2008) several buses are on stand-by to transport foreign nationals who still want to repatriate, said Chairperson of the Joint Operation Centre Committee Mr. Lungisa Manzi.

This comes after a number of consulate and foreign nationals themselves had requested the eThekwini Municipality and various aid agencies to assist them in this process.  Manzi chairs the JOC, which was established by eThekwini Municipality with relevant departments and aid agencies after the initial suspected xenophobic attacks within the municipal borders.

A total of 55 foreign nationals to date are willing to be repatriated in the upcoming second phase of assisting refugees to return to their countries.

“Part of the problem we are experiencing is some of the foreign nationals do not want to go back to their country of origin but to other countries else where. Currently we have 476 foreign nationals who do not want to be repatriated” said Manzi.
Consulates from different countries played an important role in accompanying their citizens until they reached the border gate. For further information contact: Lungisa Manzi (Disaster Management Unit) on 031 311 4703.