We want to ensure peace and stability - Gigaba
13 February 2017
Johannesburg - Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba says his department wants to ensure peace and stability in areas that have been "earmarked" as problematic, following violent attacks on foreign nationals at the weekend.
Gigaba is heading up a government delegation, along with Gauteng Community Safety MEC Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane, in the south of Johannesburg, following attacks on Nigerian nationals in Rosettenville over the weekend.
Police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubela said nine people had been arrested over the weekend and that the police were continuing to patrol the area.
On Saturday, 10 houses were set alight after angry residents claimed they were being used as brothels and hiding spots for drug lords.
Fed-up residents had taken to the streets the previous Sunday, forcing their way into homes believed to be used for drug dealing and prostitution. They carried out the furniture and set it alight.
Household goods were carried out of four houses and destroyed between 10:00 and 13:30 before police could disperse the crowd, said police spokesperson Captain Mavela Masondo at the time.
None of the homeowners has laid any criminal charges, but police are investigating incidents of malicious damage to property and public violence.
Walkabout
Gigaba, who started the walkabout at the Yeoville Police Station early on Monday morning, said the Department of Home Affairs had requested the community outreach programme to visit areas which were populated by immigrants.
He said government officials would also be talking to community leaders so that the problem received the attention it deserved.
Gigaba said that, in order to manage these areas, they should not only talk to immigrants, but also to South Africans. He said the purpose was to highlight the importance of community leaders in the communities. "Leaders have a responsibility at all times to consider that what they say can lead to lives being lost and property being destroyed."
According to Gigaba, the department had spent R31m on deportations.
"South Africa is highly attractive to immigrants, both regular and irregular. The irregular migrants would include the silent seekers who arrive in South Africa without documentation," he said.
Focus on drug-affected areas
Gigaba said that, between 2014 and 2015, 10 000 people had been detained trying to enter the country illegally.
Nkosi-Malobane said it was not a once-off programme, and that they would sustain it.
"We are not reacting or responding to what has happened in Rosettenville. The programme is something that has been done," she said.
Nkosi-Malobane said violence would turn good leaders in the communities into criminals.
She said that, over the next three months, they would be focusing on areas affected by drugs and human trafficking.
These areas included Vereeniging, the area next to Vaal University of Technology, Randburg and Cresta.
Others areas were Bosmont, Sophiatown, Soweto and Mamelodi.
Rosettenville residents still fuming
Home Affairs Minister Malusi Gigaba’s visit to Rosettenville on Monday meant nothing, residents of the crime-riddled area said.
Just like the police’s presence, it would have no effect, some said.
“They come and arrest the guys and the same day they are out. Something must happen, because they do nothing. It is either the police station must burn or I don’t know,” an angry Matshidiso Mofokeng said.
They had had enough of the crime and violence in the area.
The 55-year-old woman had been living in Rosettenville since 2002.
She claimed that police were friends with the Nigerians in the area.
“They [police] come here and then they have drinks with the Nigerians. We have been reporting crime for many years. We are sick and tired of the Nigerians and the police.”
During his visit on Monday afternoon, Gigaba said the department and locals needed to agree on what to do. He appealed to residents not to take the law into their own hands.
“The concerns of the community are genuine, therefore we need to act.”
He said he had asked his department’s “community outreach programme” to visit areas populated by immigrants.
In Rosettenville, residents followed him around as he visited two of the 10 homes residents set alight on Saturday. They claimed they were being used as brothels and as hideouts for drug lords.
One of the torched houses in Rosettenville, following the violent outbreak over the weekend. (Iavan Pijoos, News24)
Police spokesperson Captain Kay Makhubela said nine people were arrested over the weekend and that police were continuing to patrol the area.
Community members held placards that read: “Drugs has no place in our community [sic]”.
Gigaba said the social development department would be called in to help children allegedly lured into prostitution. Investigations would be undertaken to determine if these children were victims of human trafficking.
A second resident, Ellen Dube, 37, said when they had referred matters the police, nothing happened.
“They do absolutely nothing, so what must we do? We take the matters into our own hands.”
She said Nigerians had told them that “money talks”. She had lived in the area for 10 years.
“We want the minister to issue the papers, so that these people can go back to their countries. Let them come here and visit. If they come for three months, let them stay for 3 months and go back. We don’t want them here,” she said.
Chadrack Kazembola, 17, who moved from Congo to South Africa 10 years ago, said he did not feel safe in the country anymore.
“In a moment of xenophobia, I feel unsafe. I feel that I am not safe in this country, because I need to watch out when I go to school and when I come back. I feel that I am constantly targeted.
“South Africa is my home and I grew up here,” he said.
