Durban - Losing their meagre homes during the fire at Dakota Beach informal settlement in Isipingo, Durban, last Sunday, is not the only crisis foreign nationals living illegally in the country face.
According to the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Home Affairs, any foreign nationals living illegally in the country will be dealt with in terms of the immigration laws of the country, and could face deportation.
The department’s provincial manager, Cyril Mncwabe, said that only those who could prove they were legally in the country would be assisted in the same way as South African citizens affected by the fire would be.
About 350 shacks built on prime land with views of the ocean were destroyed on Sunday, and around 800 informal residents were displaced when a fire broke out, leaving many people with just the clothes on their backs. Many foreign nationals were believed to have been living in the informal settlement.
Mncwabe said: “If we have to assist anyone affected, it will be to replace documents destroyed during the disaster, as long as a person can prove that the documents were destroyed during the disaster (they will be replaced).”
eThekwini Municipality speaker Thabani Nyawose visited the informal settlement this week along with other government officials to assess the damage and provide assistance to the victims. Nyawose said when the fire broke out, municipal teams attended to the victims, irrespective of their nationality.
However, he said that home affairs would handle the matter of foreign nationals going forward. “Soon after we were informed about the fire, we came here and assisted everyone despite their origin.
“While we were doing that, our Disaster Management and Sassa teams were busy taking down records of who was affected, their status and where they came from.
“We also mobilised Sassa and home affairs to assist those who didn’t have identity documents, but for the purposes of the government, we are going to assist everyone who has been affected by the fire. We are working with the community to assist everyone,’’ said Nyawose.
Msizeni Analo, 21, who has lived in a shack at the informal settlement along with 10 other people for the past three years, said they had lost everything they owned. ‘’I was very scared. We tried to take our documents out. I tried to run to my mother’s house to help. I tried to help, but we lost everything,” she said.
The shack in which Nontobeko Skhakhane, 24, and her sister Bawinile and her boyfriend shared, was also destroyed. ‘’I only managed to take clothes and documents. I was very scared and ran for my life.
There are a lot of foreign nationals living here. I’d say about 50% of the people here are foreign nationals,’’ said Skhakhane. The foreign nationals living at the informal settlement declined to comment.
SUNDAY TRIBUNE