Stick-wielding vigilantes harass asylum seekers

A member of the vigilante group stands outside the Home Affairs gate. Police moved the group from inside the gate after the harassment of several asylum seekers. Photos: Joseph Bracken

• Immigrants queuing at Home Affairs offices in Durban to apply for asylum were harassed on Tuesday by a group of about 15 vigilantes.
• Some wore masks and most carried sticks.
• They pushed people in the queue in the parking area and shouted insults.
• Police sent them away from the parking area.
• Home Affairs announced on Monday that all asylum seekers would be able to apply for asylum, ending a six-year closure of the asylum system to new applicants.

Asylum seekers waiting in line at the Home Affairs Refugee Reception Centre in Durban were harassed on Tuesday by stick-wielding anti-immigrant vigilantes, some of them wearing masks.

A group of about 15 vigilantes appeared at the centre around 12:30pm. Some wore masks and most of them were carrying sticks or knobkerries.

They walked past the SAPS officers stationed outside the centre and into the fenced-off parking lot. Several of them began shoving the people waiting in the parking lot to apply for asylum documents, telling them to leave.

Only after a few minutes did the police officers intervene and tell the vigilantes to leave and stand outside the gate.

According to Wandile Mhlongo, the leader of the group, the intention of the protest was to block people from seeking asylum in South Africa.

After being moved across the road, the vigilantes shouted insults at the asylum seekers, including “kwerekwere” (a xenophobic term for immigrants from African countries) and “criminals”. Some told the refugees they must leave South Africa and seek asylum in the closest country to their home country.

Police reinforcements arrived and SAPS officers allowed Mhlongo into the centre so he could see the application process and report back to the others. But when he came out, tensions remained high with police forming a barrier to stop the vigilantes from crossing the road.

Police formed a wall with shields to stop the group entering the parking area.

The protest was not organised by March and March, said Mhlongo.

However, at around 3pm, Xolani Zuma, the husband of March and March leader Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, arrived at the centre to speak to SAPS.

Zuma said he was shocked that the Home Affairs Department was able to assist so many refugees while there were so many South Africans who did not have identity documents. “We want Home Affairs to stop processing the refugees because we believe that its resources should be utilised by South Africans,” said Zuma.

March and March had previously raided a makeshift refugee camp that formed outside the office in the wake of the organisation’s 30 June deadline.

One of the members of the vigilante group shoves an asylum seeker attempting to get into the Home Affairs building.

A long wait

The long line of asylum seekers outside the Refugee Reception Centre on Tuesday followed an announcement last Monday that all asylum seekers would be able to apply for asylum, ending a six-year closure of the asylum system to new applicants.

The announcement was made by Home Affairs following a Constitutional Court ruling in July this year.

Many of those queuing on Tuesday were people who had been locked out of the refugee system during the covid lockdown.

Bihh Mutombo, who fled the Democratic Republic of Congo 12 years ago, told GroundUp that he had been going through the asylum application process when he was locked out in 2020. He had been queuing on Tuesday since 6am.

Mutombo had to leave all his family behind after fleeing the DRC out of fear for his life, he said. “I don’t know if there’s anyone left there.”

Hundreds of people had been waiting since the early hours of the morning, and some had slept on the street to secure their spot in the queue. By the end of the day, officials had only managed to process 20 of the asylum seekers, and the rest were told to return on Wednesday.

One of the women waiting in line said she ran a small salon and that coming to Home Affairs every day cut into her income. “I am a single mother and I am paying rent for my flat. I have been in the country for five years now,” said the woman, who did not want to be named. “Not having proper documents has lots of challenges. Sometimes I even struggle to be assisted at the hospital when I am sick.”

Women with young children and infants were put at the front of the queue.

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