4.3. The Strengths and Transformative Power of the
Inner City' CSOs
The lack of social justice for FMs living in the inner
city should be challenged to end the discrimination and exclusion that
force them to stay away from the local people, and to create
a more inclusive city where everyone can feel free to
participate and contribute to its social and economic transformation. To
achieve this objective, everyone's contribution is important, including that of
the CSOs which, I believe, may play a very important role in this process.
This section will focus on the strengths and the
transformative power of the inner city CSOs, based on the various initiatives
that they are currently undertaking to improve the social and economic
situations of FMs.
4.3.1. Social initiatives.
Social initiatives undertaken by the city's CSOs are
concentrated on sectors such as
education, health, and other social assistance (including
access to social grants, to the bank account and to legal permits, as
well as freedom of movement).
Education
As I previously said, it is through networking relationships that
all the city's CSOs facilitate
the access of the FMs (children in particular) to education. In
SA, primary education is free
for South Africans in public schools. Section 27 (g)
of the 1998 Refugees Act gives also refugee children this right, which is
often neglected; but recently progress was made by the Department of Education
under pressure from the city's CSOs. As a result, this Department agreed to
start assisting refugee children in attending primary and secondary
education. Regarding secondary education, for instance, Mr Nzuzi from the JRS
stated that, in 2006, of
the applications for fee exemptions that his organisation
submitted, almost 99% of them were
approved by the Department. According to Nzuzi, the national
government (NG) understands
civil society efforts to promote education for the refugee
children, because the government
education policy is `inclusive'. That is why, in a
province such as Mpumalanga, one hears slogans such as:
«Celebrating Diversity
Education for Diversity
Breaking down Barriers to Learning Democracy is about including
everyone Inclusive Education
Education for All»
(Mpumalanga Department of Education, 2006)
Health
It is internationally known that refugees and asylum seekers do
have free access to the health care in public health facilities. In the
inner city of Johannesburg, before the beginning of
2002, both refugees and asylum seekers had free access to primary
and secondary health care
at the Johannesburg Hospital (JH); but at the end of 2002, the
management of JH decided to exclude asylum seekers from this measure,
requiring them to start paying a deposit prior to any consultation. The
amount of this deposit depended on the case of each patient. This
decision was taken because the JH had doubts about the validity of the asylum
status of some people. This measure was challenged and regarded as
unfair by the Johannesburg's CSOs, including JRS and LHR, because the
majority of asylum seekers are jobless. In 2003, these CSOs negotiated with
the authorities of the Johannesburg Hospital and an agreement was
found and the decision was changed in favour of asylum seekers. Both
CSOs and the management unit of this hospital agreed that each
asylum seeker patient (who needs to be treated at this hospital) should
bring a recommendation letter from the JRS, testifying his/her asylum seeker
status in Johannesburg, prior to any treatment. Once again, the Johannesburg
civil society proved its potential to improve the quality of life
of FMs living in the inner city.
Social Grants and Bank Account
In 1998, when the Refugee Act was published, asylum seekers
could not work and study in SA, nor could they open bank accounts. Life was
very hard for most of them, in the sense that their family members living
outside SA could not transfer money to them through banks. By
the end of 2000, CSOs dealing with human rights issues and
FMs, under the initiative of the Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), challenged
this government decision. In 2002, the national government, through the DHA,
granted asylum seekers the permission to open bank accounts; and later it
allowed them to work and study.
With regard to the social grants, Nzuzi (from JRS) said that,
in the past, disabled FMs were excluded from the social grants that the
government provide to all disabled South Africans; but, at the beginning of
2006, under pressure from the CSOs, the government decided to start providing
social grants also to the disabled refugees and asylum seekers by the
end of the year.
Permit and Freedom of Movement
From both FMs and members of civil society, I learnt that
getting asylum seeker permit was not easy in Johannesburg compared to other
South African cities. Corruption was the easiest way to get it. Those who
could not make it or lacked money were exposed to police harassments.
I learnt also that some nationals of countries, such as Zimbabwe,
were denied
the right to asylum in Johannesburg, as the DHA used to
treat them as economic migrants, fleeing their countries because of hunger
and lack of job opportunities. In the inner city, even now, Zimbabweans are
among people who are denied the right to asylum, and are suffering from
police harassment. They are sometimes forcibly sent back home. CSOs,
such as Zimbabwe Torture Victims Project (ZTVP), the Catholic
Department of Pastoral Care for Refugees (DPCR), the Jesuit Refugee
Services (JRS), and the Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), have created
illegal detention units in their offices to deal with illegal detention
of FMs. These units often work in collaboration with the DHA, SAPS, and the
South African immigration services to defend and protect the rights and the
dignity of the victims, as well as helping them to obtain permits. Talking with
an official of the DHA from Crown Wheels (See Chapter Three, Anonymous Three),
he recognised that corruption was a major problem in his
department, particularly when the Refugees Reception was
located in Braamfontein and
Rossethenville. That is why the Ministry of Home Affairs
recently opened a new Refugee
Reception Office in Crown Wheels, partly, in order to end
corruption and resolve the issue of the backlog of asylum applications.
With regard to freedom of movement, LHR and other
organisations, supported by the UNHCR, are currently challenging the
Department of Home Affairs to provide travel documents to FMs who intend
to travel out of SA for vacations or for business purposes.
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