Zimbabwean refugees injured during disturbances at Lindela
By Tichaona Sibanda
22 November 2006

There were near-riots at Lindela holding camp in Johannesburg last week when authorities fired tear-gas into confined cells leaving several refugees, including 10 Zimbabweans, injured in the pandemonium.

Tension is reportedly mounting at the camp over the way refugees are being treated. Last week’s disturbances were triggered when authorities tried to quell noisy dissent by a group of people who claimed they had been wrongly arrested for allegedly possessing fake asylum papers.

The vice-chairman of the Zimbabwe civic society organisations in South Africa, Solomon Chikohwero, said among that group were Zimbabweans who had been rounded up from the streets of Johannesburg.

‘Since the majority in this group had legal documentation to remain in South Africa, they believed they had the legal right to ask the authorities in the camp to get Home Affairs officials to come and verify their papers. The reply they got was that they shouldn’t tell them how to do their job,’ Chikohwero said.

The group was locked up in cells and told Home Affairs officials would only be summoned the following day to check their documents. This did not go down well with the ‘new inmates’ who started banging on the prison rails demanding their freedom.

It is at this point that the authorities fired tear gas canisters into the cells causing chaos as refugees tried to flee the choking smoke. Many of the refugees from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique and Zimbabwe were injured in a stampede that followed.

Such disturbances seem to be part of life at the camp as we have also received reports that refugees are being beaten and subjected to other forms of physical abuse. Lindela is described by former inmates as disgracefully overcrowded, squalid and unhygienic.

Reports of last week’s disturbances only came to light when some Zimbabweans who had been arrested for having fake papers were released after checks proved they had genuine asylum claims.