Mayor Xaba has zero Ubuntu for refugees and disregards Umbilo ratepayers, says business association

The Umbilo Business Association (UBA) has slated government’s “inhumane” attitude to several hundred refugees camped on a Durban street and lack of political will to address the plight of business owners along Che Guevara Road.

For 13 weeks, about 400 documented refugees and asylum seekers who fled their homes following violence, evictions and intimidation in the run up to the anti-migrant protest have lived on the busy Umbilo Road outside the department of Home Affairs refugee office.

Unlike thousands who sought refuge first in Sherwood Park when the intimidation and violence against documented and illegal migrants broke out in May ― who were then moved to the Durban Drive-in repatriation site and eventually sent to the Lindela repatriation centre ― no one has offered the group outside the refugee centre proper accommodation.

The displaced families, mainly from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Burundi and Rwanda, who live in the temporary, makeshift camp have been living under difficult conditions with a few mobile toilets.

They were forced to leave their homes, work and school following lawlessness by members of anti-migrant body March and March, Operation Dudula and the Amabhinca Nation, who have conducted protests and “clean-up” campaigns during the first wave of the protest action which had June 30 as the deadline to repatriate foreigners.

The anti-migrant organisations say they were forced to take civil action after government failure to police foreign nationals living and working in South Africa.

This week’s announcement by March and March of a second wave of anti-migrant action and a September 30 deadline has left the refugees uncertain about their safety.

But Umbilo businesses say the continued presence of the refugees has impacted business owners including a security company, a car battery business and a tyre franchise.

Ian Campbell-Gillies of the UBA said the presence of the refugees has a social and economic impact on the businesses.

“They conduct themselves in a reasonable manner and while they have toilets, not all of them use the facilities. There have been instances of sexual conduct and of course some of them conduct repair businesses on the street. This has a huge social impact in the area.

“In addition there has been a huge business fallout because the businesses have recorded a direct impact on dwindling sales. They have lost customers who don’t want to traverse the congested street or can’t find parking because of the masses of people milling around.”

Campbell-Gillies said eThekwini mayor and his government have shown “zero Ubuntu” in the three months since the municipality brought the refugees to the area.

He said they contacted the municipality on July 10 regarding possible solutions to the crisis and “there has been no response”.

We left our homes which we rented, ate proper food and paying jobs to live on the streets because of the uncertainty. We trusted the government’s promise of providing us with temporary accommodation until the issue with organisations like March and March and MK Party were sorted out.