City calls for South African National Defence Force

By Anele Siwa
27 May 2008

The City of Cape Town is continuing to accommodate people who have flee from xenophobic aggression in six temporary Safety Sites around the metro region, as well as in many community halls across the city.

“We have carried out this operation in terms of our disaster relief function as a local government, which is to return stability to our communities, protect the safety of people threatened by violence, and address humanitarian needs,” says Mayor Helen Zille.

According madam Mayor following this operation, they will support the re-integration of people who wish to return to their homes in Cape Town.

“We will also support efforts to return those displaced foreign nationals who wish to return to their home countries,” she explain.

Zille says in the current climate of unrest, the process of re-integrating displaced people into their communities will require a peace-keeping force to be deployed to the most sensitive hot-spots around our city.

“I call on the Western Cape Safety and Security Minister to approach the Minister of Defence and request the urgent deployment of a peace-keeping force of the SANDF to act as an umbrella for the reintegration process. I also repeat my call to the Department of Home Affairs to either deploy more staff or procure temporary staff to assist with processing documents of displaced people in our various Safety Sites, and to assist those people who wish to return to their home countries,” she added.

Attempts to get comments from Western Cape Safety and Security Department have failed.