Govt prepares for 14 camps

The government was to announce on Thursday that camps would be set up countrywide for the victims of xenophobic attacks.

However, the camps would not be referred to as refugee camps because of the negative connotations of such a name worldwide.

From what Beeld was able to gather, the Cabinet met until about 17:00 on Wednesday to discuss the proposed camps, among other things.

This came after a meeting on Monday between President Thabo Mbeki, the Cabinet committee which was established to deal with the matter, and provincial premiers.

Mbeki was to meet UN High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres in Japan on Thursday where the crisis would be discussed.

Exact details of the plan could not be confirmed officially on Wednesday, but Beeld was able to determine the following:

• "Shelter camps" (perhaps with a more-acceptable name) would be announced which temporarily would provide foreigners with shelter and food in the interests of their safety, health and sanitation;

• There would be up to 14 of these camps countrywide - seven large and seven small ones;

• Foreigners would stay in the camps "for as long as necessary" - no timeframe was given;

• It looked as if metro councils would be approached by provinces to cordon off areas for the camps.

• Metro councils in Gauteng and the Western Cape - where the xenophobic attacks were the most widespread - would get camps, but not the metro councils in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal;

• The number of foreigners in the country was estimated at about 51 000 on Wednesday night, of which about 28 000 were in Gauteng and 20 000 in the Western Cape;

• It seemed as if the national government was not in favour of the UN openly helping because it considered the country to be in a position to resolve the matter itself;

• The Ekurhuleni metro would erect tented camps on the outskirts of Springs and Germiston, and possibly in the Kempton Park area too; and

• The greater Johannesburg city council already was working on plans for camps, together with the national and provincial government.

At the time of going to press no comment could be obtained from the Tshwane metro council in Pretoria.