NGO taking South Africa Home Affairs department to court

By Tererai Karimakwenda
24 August 2005

There have been some dramatic developments at The Lindela Repatriation Centre in South Africa where 2 Zimbabweans died in July.

Deputy director-general Arthur Fraser, who is the brother of a cabinet minister, director of deportations Ricardo Abrahams, and the chief director of the inspectorate, Gcinumzi Ntlakana were suspended over the 2 deaths and a host of other serious allegations. These officials have been suspended with full pay pending investigation.

The suspensions come as The Zimbabwe Torture Victims Project, an NGO that assists exiled Zimbabweans who were victimised back home, is initiating a court case against the Home Affairs department of South Africa. The ZTVP is suing on behalf of 50 of their clients who they believe qualify for legal status, but like thousands of other Zimbabweans, have no access to the application process. The processing centre in Johannesburg was closed in April and Pretoria accepts a limited number of applicants each week. The issue of access is also part of the investigations at Lindela.

In the first 7 months of this year alone, at least seven people have died at Lindela, and 21 others at nearby Leratong Hospital where they had been taken for treatment. In July as we reported, pregnant Zimbabwean Alice Chumba, 18, died of complications and Mcabangeli Mlambo, 22, died the next day after vomiting blood.

Piers Pigou, a researcher at ZTVP said there was great relunctance in South Africa to accept Zimbabweans as being bonafide exiles who need legal status until the United Nations Human Rights Commission intervened in 2003. Since then there has been a small but steady increase in the numbers accessing the application process. But Pigou noted that logistical problems, corruption and some ineptitude have kept the numbers still very low. This leaves Zimbabweans with no access extremely vulnerable to arrest by South African police.

And as for Lindela, which is run by Bosasa, a privately owned security and risk management company, a ministerial commission has been appointed to investigate the situation there. The detention centre has been widely condemned by human rights groups for the conditions to which detainees are subjected as well as for the lack of procedures for refugees to seek asylum.