5.2. Recommendations for the Local and National
Governments
With regards to the CoJ and the national government, this
section aims to review first of all how these two spheres of government
currently deal with FMs, before formulating certain recommendations that
will be based on the creation of partnerships between the city's
planners and CSOs to facilitate a greater social justice for
FMs.
5.2.1. How the CoJ and the NG deal with Forced
Migrants?
In South Africa, forced migration issues are the
exclusive domain of the NG, which
formulates policies and regulations stating how the country
should manage and monitor the issue of international migration. According
to the 1998 Refugees Act (number 130), the board
of the Refugee Department of Home Affairs consists of
the Minister of Home Affairs, the Director-General of Home Affairs,
and the Standing Committee, and Refugees' Reception Offices (SA, 1998).
According to section 8 (e) of the Refugees Act, the Director-general «may
establish as many Refugees' Reception Offices in the Republic as he or she,
after consultation with the Standing Committee, regards as necessary for the
purpose of this Act» (ibid., 1998).
The same Act states that the members of the Standing
Committee for Refugee Affairs (SCRA) are appointed by the Minister of the
Home Affairs, and she/his is the one who can determine where their
headquarters may be located (Section 2, 2). Note that each SCRA is
composed of a chairman and a number of other members as the minister may
determine. Their power and duties stated in section 11 are the
following: formulating and implementing procedures for the granting of
asylum, regulating and supervising the work of the Refugee Reception
Offices (RROs), and may liaising with representatives of the UNHCR or any NGO
(SA, 1998).
Considering the above-mentioned elements, it is
understandable that FMs depend on the national government, which receives
reports from different RROs; but there is collaboration between the national
and local governments on matters concerning FMs. It is important to
note that, at the CoJ, there is not a unit or department dealing exclusively
with FMs; but their concerns are shared between different departments
of the city council, including the Department of Community
Development, the Department of Health, the Department of Development
Planning, and so on. According to the Anonymous Three, from the Community
Development Department, on matters regarding the FMs, the CoJ works in
collaboration with
the local Police department and the Department of Home Affairs
(Interview with Anonymous
Three, 2006). In other words, there is a relationship
between the city of Johannesburg, the police, and the DHA.
5.2.2. Recommendation For the city of Johannesburg
Regarding to the local government, I will recommend that
the city of Johannesburg should
encourage the cit y planners to collaborate with CSOs, by
exhorting them to serve as a bridge between the city council and CSOs. In
other words, the city's planners may become the representatives of the
city council to the CSOs, in the sense that if CSOs want to discuss with
the local authorities on matters relating to the FMs, they can do
it through the city's planners who, in turn, may bring their concerns to the
city's authorities.
As the representatives of the local government, the city's
planners may provide CSOs relevant information about the city's vision,
projects, and capacity to respond to the claims of the FMs. They can also
direct and advise local authorities as to how to include FMs'
interests in the city's agenda and how to facilitate their full participation,
as residents, in the life of the city.
In their collaboration with CSOs, the city's planners can also
play the roles discussed below,
as suggested by Healey (1991): policy analyst, intermediator, and
social reformer.
- Policy analyst: through this role, the city's planners will
be social analysts, in the sense that they will use their background and
knowledge on various policies to think about which analysis to
undertake, to evaluate findings and to assist civil society in addressing
government
on challenges facing the inner city FMs.
- Intermediator (or networker): As intermediators, the city's
planners will try to build a bridge between the local government and the
CSOs, by helping them to exchange views, to negotiate, and find
solutions to issues affecting the FMs.
From the intermediator role of planners, the members of the
CSOs will learn from planners a «more interactive and negotiative style of
practice» (Healey and Thomas, 1991: 173) that may make them more
convincing in the way they challenge government policies or decisions.
- Social reformer: as social reformers beside CSOs, the city's
planners will demonstrate that they are committed to changing the
society, «to build better cities, to promote democratic public
policy-making and implementation; to assist in the advance towards a fairer and
more
humane society; to conserve environmental heritage and ecological
balance» (Healey, 1991:
30); that is, they will show both the local government and the
CSOs that they are committed
to building a just city, according to Fainstein (2005).
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