Refugees ‘threatened’
A GROUP of about 589 refugees living at the Bellville Public Transport Interchange (PTI) are fearing for their lives after threats from security guards from the City’s department of transport and taxi operators who demanded they remove a speed fence that keeps them apart.
The group’s leader, Caroline Hkajira, said she had been called to the fence separating the two groups yesterday morning to intervene when a truck showed up intending to tear it down .
Hkajira said that’s when a rowdy group of taxi guards began to make crude threats and pick up stones as if to taunt the group.
“A truck showed up this morning out of the blue, to take down the fence. They said the City had sent them to remove it. We didn’t understand, so we tried to call the City, but could not get through to anyone. All this while our lives and families were being threatened by the people standing on the side of the taxis. They said they would bomb us and shoot us.”
Mayco Member for Transport Felicity Purchase said the site occupied by the refugees had always been the PTI holding area for minibus-taxi operators. She said that despite the refugees living there, there was no authority in place to keep the fence on the Paint City site.
“Thus, the fence would have to be removed urgently. The site was occupied by the refugee tent at the start of the Covid-19 pandemic without the City’s consent. It’s important to note that the Bellville PTI is not the only site where the Transport directorate has removed speed fencing.
“Unfortunately, the refugees at Paint City have been preventing the service provider from removing the speed fencing. To date, several attempts to have the fence removed have failed. The latest attempt was yesterday morning, and the matter escalated to a stand-off between the taxi operators and refugees,” she said.
However, Hkajira said: “I think at this point we understand that we are not wanted in South Africa and we are more than prepared to leave. We cannot go back to our countries or stay here where we are murdered.”