BREDASDORP – the Human Rights Commission is involved in mediation attempts after scores of foreign nationals were attacked and forced from their homes in Bredasdorp.
Two Zimbabwean men had to be hospitalised after they were reportedly attacked by an angry mob wielding knopkieries and other weapons. Men, women and children of foreign nationality who were displaced as a result of the xenophobic attacks, have been housed at Die Glaskasteel and other halls in the Overberg town.
The violence broke out last Thursday (24 March) after approximately 200-300 residents of Zwelitsha marched to Cape Agulhas Municipality’s (CAM) offices to hand a memorandum to Deputy Mayor Raymond Ross, Municipal Manager Eben Phillips and Bredasdorp Police Station commander Lieutenant Colonel Gustav Tamboer.
Grievances highlighted in the memorandum include: . the influx of undocumented non-nationals in Zwelitsha, . lack of access to land for informal dwellings, the renting of informal dwellings to non-nationals by locals, . lack of job creation opportunities, illegal shebeens, drug houses, visibility of Law Enforcement, . business owners who allegedly refuse to employ South Africans in order to dodge labour laws, . lack of proper sanitation in the informal settlements and . slow response from the local police.
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