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- A Stuijt
- Retired South African medical journalist, ex-Sunday Times of Johannesburg.
Anti-South Africa protests at London embassy Nov 22
09:28 | 
Posted by
A Stuijt |
SA trade union Nehawu, Palestinian Solidarity Committee, Doctors without Borders among activist groups which are demanding a "South Africa without Borders'
Nov 21 2008 -- KRUGERSDORP. hlengiwem@citizen.co.za A large international human-rights coalition -- which includes SA's Amnesty International, Cosatu-alligned Nehawu trade union, the Palestinian solidarity committee, Doctors Without Borders - is planning to hold a mass-demonstration at South Africa's London embassy in Trafalgar Square on November 22, 2008 -- this Saturday -- between 1 and 2pm.
The Citizen's journalist Hlengiwe Mnguni reported this week that the protestors also started picketing at the Lindela concentration camp for illegal migrants in Krugersdorp. The campaigners, pulled together in the Coalition agaisnt Xenophobia, have focussed on the Lindela camp as the symbol of hatred in their campaign.
This week, they fired the first salvos with their demands to close down Lindela camp, purportedly because it was 'racist'. They housed only about two whites among the 800 black Africans and this was racist, they said.
The Lindela camp has become infamous worldwide for its atrocious conditions. The Lindela Repatriation Centre also has been a bone of contention because it is a privately owned deportation centre outside Krugersdorp in South Africa and housed in a former mining hostel which is owned by the ANC Women's League. It has over the years become notorious for corruption and human rights abuses against suspected illegal immigrants. Every Wednesday the Department of Home Affairs and South African Border Police deport thousands of immigrants from Lindela Repatriation Centre back to neighbouring Zimbabwe and Mozambique.
The company running the facility, Bosasa -- which now denies that it has shareholders from the ANC Women's League-owned Dyambu Holdings -- vehemently denies the charge of racism today. They reacted to an article in The Citizen earlier in which the Coalition Against Xenophobia (CAX) called for the vile concentration camp's closure -- citing the absence of "non-African" inmates held there.
Lindela is the symbol of state-sponsored xenophobia in South Africa and it must close, says CAX
TIt's interesting that these 'human rights campaigners' took so long to notice the situation at Lindela, for its inhumane conditions are not exactly a state secret - back in 2002, The Star already published an expose by Abbey Makoe (19 July 2002) describing the situation at these vile holding pens and there have been numerous government commissions investigating the conditions and promising improvements.
http://www.queensu.ca/samp/sampresources/migrationdocuments/commentaries/2002/lindela.htm
Bosasa's spokesman issued the following statement:
The operating company 's spokesman Papa Leshabana, said this week that up to November 19, 2008 the racial composition of their camp was as follows: seven Chinese, 24 Pakistanis, two Peruvians, three Sri Lankans, three Iraqis, 17 Indians, and in the past three months people from Georgia, Morocco and Nepal were also detained at the facility. He added: 'The fact that there were currently 801 INMATES originating from African countries in the facility was not irregular considering that it was located in a region in Africa surrounded by much political and economic instability."
On Tuesday, Zimbabwean national Kumbulani Sibanda got the international campaign ball rolling by telling The Citizen journalist of the brutality and inhumane conditions the inmates have to suffer at the centre -- undoubtedly true, as there have been many hundreds of similar stories published in the past. CAX’s Sthembiso Nhlapo said the group demanded that the camp must be closed - at once. They were planning to continue picketing there.
ANTI-SOUTH AFRICA MANIFESTATION AT SA EMBASSY, LONDON NOV 22 1-2PM
They are also planning a picket outside the SA Embassy in London Saturday, 22 November between 1 and 2pm.
SOURCES:
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http://www.citizen.co.za/index/article.aspx?pDesc=83599,1,22
http://www.barrybester.com/lindela.htm
http://www.queensu.ca/samp/sampresources/migrationdocuments/commentaries/2002/lindela.htm
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/412966.html
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The protest campaign in London is sponsored by:
The Coalition Against Xenophobia includes: African Renaissance Civic Movement, Alternative Media Productions, Action Aid International, Amnesty International (South Africa), Animal Rights Africa, Anti-Privatisation Forum, Black Sash Trust, Blakbox Imprint, Ceasefire Campaign, Central Methodist Church / Refugee Ministries, Children’s Rights Project, Christians for Peace in Africa, Earthlife Africa (Johannesburg), Education Indaba Forum, Ethiopian Community of South Africa (ECSA), Foundation for Human Rights, Freedom of Expression Institute, General Industrial Workers Union of SA (GIWUSA), Golden Triangle Community Crisis Committee (Golcomm), Group of Refugees Without Voice, Imbawula Trust, Inner City Resource Centre, Islamic Relief Johannesburg, Jubilee South Africa, Keep Left, Khanya College, Kliptown Concerned Residents, Landless People’s Movement Gauteng & Northwest, Lawyers for Human Rights, Lesbian and Gay Equality Project, Masibambane Unemployment Project, Medecins sans frontiers (Doctors without Borders), Merafong Demarcation Forum, NEHAWU Johannesburg, Pacifique Sukisa Foundation, Palestinian Solidarity Committee, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Samancor Retrenched Workers Crisis Committee, Samigos, Social Movements Indaba (SMI), Somali Association of South Africa (SASA), Sounds of Edutainment, Treatment Action Campaign, Ubuntu Indaba Forum, Umzabalazo we Jubilee, Workers World Media Production, Yeoville Stakeholders Forum .
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2008/11/412966.html
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