Zim refugee camp a hive of 'rape, theft'

Gauteng's biggest refugee centre in Marabastad has turned into a slumland where women are raped every night and where refugees - mainly from Zimbabwe - squat for months hoping to get legal documents. The national assembly's Home Affairs committee paid an impromptu visit to the Home Affairs centre on Wednesday and its chairperson, Patrick Chauke, labelled the situation "inhumane" and a "massive crisis". The smartly dressed MPs were met by hundreds of hungry, haggard looking refugees pushing and shoving to get into the building. 'It's created a slum'The centre's director, Mfundo Ngozwana, said at least 1 000 people streamed to their office each day but with a staff of only 15 and unreliable equipment, only 50 to 75 people could be processed. He said many of them slept outside the building and had been there for months. "It's created a slum where people are sleeping outside and there are even smash and grabs," he said. Some refugees told Chauke they had been there since January 2006 and even those who got their papers had no place to go. As the MPs made their way into the building, they were visibly disgusted by the stench of unwashed human bodies, overflowing bins, dirt strewn across the stairs, broken equipment with springs sticking out and important documents piled willy-nilly on the floor. 'The place is filthy'It was obvious that the floors had not seen a broom for months and in one office the table was covered in what seemed like used condoms but on closer inspection turned out to be latex gloves. Ngozwana said they had no cleaners and had repeatedly told Home Affairs head office about their problems but nothing had been done about it. He said 20 interns had just been deployed to work there but there were no offices and no computers for them. According to Chauke, the health department had labelled the centre a "health hazard" and not conducive to providing a service to the public. "The place does not conform with any standard. "The place is filthy … we don't even have ablution facilities (and) people are relieving themselves in the field. "There's no proper water or shelter that people will fit in while they wait to be served," Chauke said. He said that apart from Rossetenville in Johannesburg this was the only centre that dealt with refugees and the adverse working conditions had demoralised staff. Also alarming was that syndicates from Pakistan were operating in the area and taking money from people with the promise they would be first in the queue, said Chauke. On the pavement outside the steel fence surrounding the centre, hundreds of women sleep on cardboard boxes lined up next to each other every night.They said about 500 people usually slept there and sometimes the number swelled to 1 000. On Wednesday many of them said they had not eaten for at least a day and, if they were lucky, donors would sometimes arrive with food. The majority of them were Zimbabweans hoping to get their official refugee documents so they could find work and send food to their families back home. One of them, a young Zimbabwean mother, Cynthia, had been sleeping on the pavement with her baby since last week. She said at night the men would often take their food and phones and, if they resisted, they were beaten or raped. Chauke said the committee would meet with the national department of home affairs on Friday to discuss the matter.