Foreigners told to vacate safe house

Municipality funds for refuge ‘running low’

FOREIGN shopkeepers driven out of Grahamstown by xenophobic looters almost a month ago have been given until tomorrow to find somewhere else to stay.

This is after the cash-strapped Makana municipality yesterday said they could no longer pay for a safe house.

Speaking to the Daily Dispatch after an emergency meeting with leaders of the displaced foreigners yesterday afternoon, Makana community services director Mandisi Planga also said they would not be able to give any financial assistance to help them restart their businesses.

Planga said the foreigners needed to be reintegrated into the community and urged them to try to go back to their shops and start again. “We made it quite clear that the municipality cannot afford to provide start-up capital or take responsibility for renovation of their shops.”

He also denied allegations that food aid donated to help the foreigners had gone missing.

Emotions ran high yesterday morning when more than 100 Bangladeshi and Ethiopians still staying at the safe house threatened to block the busy N2 after they were given until the afternoon to find somewhere else to stay.

Talks were later held with police, municipal officials and representatives of the foreigners to try and resolve the crisis.

The foreigners were also demanding compensation for losses in excess of R15-million.

Bangladeshi Ronnie Ullah, who is on a specially formed committee of displaced foreigners, told the Dispatch they were unable to even buy food for themselves let alone stock their looted shops.

“We have got nothing – no money, no food. We were so hungry on Tuesday we went and caught 10 fish in the river to eat.”

He said most foreign shopkeepers were still too scared to reopen and restock their shops after community reports were received that more looting would happen once they did this.

“There has not been enough help for us. We are scared to move to Joza [township] until this is properly sorted out; we don’t want to get attacked.”

Ethiopian committee representative Mike Gechera claimed less than 20 foreign shops had reopened. “The government needs to give us something so we can try and start again.”

Rehana Naveed of the foreign wives’ group started after the looting, said the problem of reintegrating displaced shopkeepers was far from being resolved. She called for provincial government intervention to try and make funds available for them to rebuild their lives.

Estimates of the damage and stock losses at the uninsured shops range between R15-million and R30-million.

Municipal spokeswoman Yoliswa Ramokolo told the Dispatch the municipality would not be able to help displaced foreigners with funds. She confirmed that funds to pay for their stay were running low.

Police spokesperson Captain Mali Govender said police intelligence were looking into claims of possible looting once the shopkeepers returned but had no information to confirm this yet. —