Gauteng will close shelters on Friday

Briefing reporters in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 13 August 2008, provincial government spokesperson, Thabo Masebe, said temporary shelters on an extended or permanent basis were not sustainable.

"We want to stick to our latest deadline of closing all temporary shelters on Friday. We will clear everything and we don't expect that there will still be people there after the closure," he said.

Masebe said however, that they had a contingency plan in place to deal with those people who did not co-operate with the reintegration process.

"We don't want to see women and children sleeping on the side of the road. We do anticipate that one or two people might refuse to co-operate, but we have a contingency plan in place," he said, adding that further details would be made available if necessary.

He said there were about 2,500 displaced people from other countries in all the six temporary shelters at present.

There are 1,500 people in Rand Airport, 500 in Boksburg, 297 at the Glenanda shelter and 175 at the Countryview shelter, and in Springs there are about 100 displaced people.

About 15,000 people have returned to their homes voluntarily and some returned to their country of birth, since the shelters were set up,

Masebe said the displaced people had been duly informed about the plan to close down the temporary shelters.

"A team comprising of Community Development Workers (CDW's), Councillors and MEC's visited the different shelters to inform the displaced people about the closure of shelters.

"We also used the opportunity to reassure them that as government, we are confident that safe conditions exist for foreign nationals to continue living in the province," he said.

The response in all shelters has thus far been positive, except at the Rand Airport, where people have expressed their fear of going back to their respective communities.

He said government cannot build houses for people without legal papers.

"There is no policy that justifies such a move and this is one of the dilemmas that we are facing," he said.

More than 17,000 people from other countries as well as South Africans were displaced when the attacks on people from other countries broke out in Alexander in May.

Article published courtesy of BuaNews