Author: PASSOP

42 Years of service to South Africa, Mr Joubert will be greatly missed

On behalf of PASSOP (People Against Suffering, Oppression, and Poverty), as a citizen of South Africa and as an activist for immigrant rights I would like to express its condolences to the family, friends and co-workers of Mr Frederick Joubert. His death is a great loss not only to the Department of Home Affairs, but also to all South Africans and immigrants. We had the privilege of witnessing his great work ethic, his high level of integrity and positive attitude towards serving people during the Zimbabwean Dispensation Project (ZDP). At a moving memorial service organized and hosted by the department of Home Affairs Mr. Yusuf Simons (the departments provincial manager) told of how Mr. Joubert served the department of home affairs for 42 years, providing dedicated and committed service at all offices he served in. The department of home affairs did well to recognize his contribution; it was really moving and certainly made me feel like the department really cares about its staff. I was greatly moved by the large and diverse group of home affairs officials who paid tribute to him, he was loved and respected by most of the people he worked with. His life’s work was to serve people and he must have served tens of thousands of South Africans with ID’s, birth certificates, passports and thousands of Zimbabweans with visas. He was a good, honest, fair, and hardworking man and he will be greatly missed.

Braam Hanekom,

PASSOP

COSATU and PASSOP are extremely disappointed by the DA’s allegations that the ANC and Minister Tina Joematt-Pettersson are fueling violence in De Doorns.

We are extremely disappointed by the unfounded and misguided allegations that the ANC or the Minister of Agriculture has in any way supported violence during any strike action.  We also rubbish claims by the DA that humanitarian aid by either the ANC or Minister of Agriculture was donated to leaders of any organization and any suggestion that the aid was distributed to organizations.  We also want to set the record straight on the following points:

– The Department of Agriculture was approached by PASSOP privately due to concerns over the extreme poverty and humanitarian crisis experienced by the rural community of De Doorns, which depends entirely on income from the agricultural sector.

– PASSOP also made a general public appeal for assistance for those in this impoverished community for a number of reasons, including unemployment, low wages, and interruption of income because of a high number of dismissals, labour disputes, and resulting strike actions.

– The Department of Agriculture provided much needed humanitarian assistance that was intended to alleviate the humanitarian crisis and create an environment where level headed negotiations would be more viable between employees and employers in the agricultural sector.

-Regarding the strike action that occurred in November 2012: several DA  politicians blamed intimidation as the reason many workers did not work.  We are, therefore, confused that the DA publicly opposes the distribution of humanitarian aid to a community that they claim had been intimidated into not working, resulting in lost income and adding to an already dire situation in the community.

– No aid from the Department of Agriculture was given to any individual leader or organization for distribution.

– Aid from the Department of Agriculture was distributed by a contracted logistics company which enlisted the support of community-based volunteers, both unionized and non-unionized, and also included some members of immigrant communities.

– The aid was distributed to the entire community regardless of whether they had participated in the strikes or not.

– We want to clarify that it is our understanding that neither the ANC nor Minister Joemat-Pettersson called for perpetrators of violence or crime to be released but rather appealed for those arrested for participating in an unlawful gathering to be released in an effort to create an environment where negotiations between striking workers and employers would be more viable

– It is widely acknowledged that minister Joemat-Pettersson played an essential role in negotiating a suspension of the strike action in the De Doorns area after strike action had put the season’s harvest at great risk.

If there is any tangible evidence of abuse by any organization or individuals involved in voluntarily distributing aid under the watch of the logistics company, then we encourage the DA to present evidence of the abuse to the department for further investigations.  We cannot rule out the possibility of abuse during the process of distribution but we believe that blaming the Minister of Agriculture is cheap politicking and allegations against the ANC are unfounded. How can the DA accuse the ANC of supporting violence after recent statements and comments condemning violence made by the chairperson of the ANC in the Western Cape, Marius Fransman?

While the strike by workers in De Doorns is non-political and the distribution of aid donated by a national government department was non-political, the DA seems determined to discredit the striking workers.  We call upon the DA to stop creating controversy around the humanitarian and food security plight of farm workers.

For comment contact Mike Louw, COSATU, on 0824947935 or Braam Hanekom, PASSOP, on           0843191764

PASSOP welcomes the interim court judgement in the matter of Abebe Legesse Biru and Others V Ministry of Home Affairs 1541/13. The UCT Refugee Law Clinic took an urgent application to court to stop the practice of limiting the number of extensions on an asylum permit. The Court ordered that the two clients must have their permits extended by no later than Thursday the 14th and that their files must be transferred to Cape Town to allow for their further extensions pending final relief.

Home Affairs should extend asylum permits for asylum seekers wherever they are in South Africa. At PASSOP we have recently been inundated with cases of asylum seekers who applied in Johannesburg but are now based in Cape Town. The Cape Town Refugee Reception Office was refusing to extend their documents, instructing them to go back to their office of application in Johannesburg. The time and expense of travelling between Cape Town and Johannesburg every three months to have documents extended is untenable for many people. We believe it is unreasonable for Home Affairs to refuse to extend documents for asylum seekers because they applied at another office in South Africa.

We fully support the UCT Refugee Law Clinic and the applicants in this important court case and we hope the court will give a favorable and progressive final decision on the matter. Hopefully this case and cases like it will hope motivate Home Affairs to document people who obtained their initial permit at another Refugee Reception Office.

We would like to inform the public and other relevant stakeholders that there will be a memorial service for Letsekang Thokwana, who died a few weeks ago after being shot by rubber bullets during the strike action in De Doorns. He was reportedly not part of the farmworkers strike. PASSOP expresses its deepest condolences, and unequivocally condemns all forms of violence during protests and public gatherings.

In solidarity with the deceased’s family and friends, the entire community will gather tonight for a memorial service in De Doorns. Sympathetic members of the public, media and other stakeholders are invited to show their support to the Thokwana family and the entire De Doorns community during this difficult time.

Meanwhile, FAWU and PASSOP have sponsored the event and both organisations have also contributed financially towards the repatriation of Letsekang’s body to his family in Lesotho for a dignified funeral. The details of the memorial service are as follows:

Date: 30 January 2013

Time: 1800hrs

Venue: Van Kirsten School, De Doorns

For more information, please contact Langton Miriyoga on 084 026 9658

In 2013, we will be advocating for better access to public transport for disabled children in Cape Town. At the moment, the trains and golden arrow buses are not accessible, or accessible in a very limited way to disabled people. The MyCiti bus is accessible to people in wheelchairs, however, it only serves the northern suburbs and downtown area. There are no routes in the Southern Suburbs or the Cape Flats. We want to begin a campaign to expand the MyCiti bus routes to include these areas. In this way, the disabled children that we work with will not have to rely solely on expensive taxis for transport but will also be able to use the MyCiti bus.

We commend FAWU for releasing the following statement:

The leadership of the Food and Allied Workers Union (FAWU) has learned with disdain and disappointment that officials from the Home Affairs Department and the officers from the South African Police Services (SAPS) are on a concerted xenophobic which-hunt of farm workers, who are mainly nationals from Zimbabwe and Lesotho, and in the process have ‘arrested’ more than 140 in the town of Ceres and surrounding areas.

This morally repugnant campaign by Home Affairs and the Police was carried as from yesterday afternoon throughout the evening with workers taken from trucks and loaded to police vehicles and dropped off at the police stations. We are aware of an emerging alliance between farmers; labour brokers, who some masquerade as supporters of farm workers struggles; and some in government, be they police officers, home affairs officials or councilors.

The purpose of this campaign is to mete out punishment to the farm workers, especially foreign nationals, for having engaged in historically unprecedented strike action in pursuit of their demands. Foreign nationals are punished for having part of the strike and local farm workers, punished differently, for not been xenophobic. This farm workers maximum unity, and zero-xenophobia, surprised everyone, including FAWU.

Meanwhile, we reiterate our call, repeated on the 2nd February already, for the Minister of Home Affairs, Ms Naledi Pandoor, to extend or provide a special, even though temporary, dispensation to document farm workers on Western Cape farms and in the Boland in particular. We also called for foreign nationals working in the agricultural sector in general to be assisted with documentation and the practice of deporting workers to stop.

Additionally, in all sectors but particularly on farms, we demand that the notorious practice of police or immigration officials partnering with farmers by deporting undocumented workers on their pay day in particular, thereby enforcing workers to be unpaid for their labour, and any other day generally to be stopped immediately. We should hasten to add that, we call on the Minister of Police, Nathi Mthethwa, to institute a quick commission of enquiry on the role of police officers in their involvement in these so-called deportation operations and alleged bribery and other corrupt activities that goes with this.

Equally important, we still repeat once more our call on farm owners not to victimize all farm workers but allow them back to work and to give access to trade unions to organize these workers and for them, as farm owners, to dialogue with trade unions. Should government and Ministers ignore such noble calls to investigate these xenophobic and barbaric practices by some officers in the immigration agencies and police services, FAWU should not be faulted when it allow workers to mount a wave of strike actions in solidarity and support to these vulnerable workers. We will seek to have an urgent meeting with both Minister Naledi Pandoor and Nathi Mthethwa so as to deal with this expeditiously. For more information kindly contact Katishi Masemola, General Secretary, at 082 467 2509.

KATISHI MASEMOLA
General Secretary

PASSOP condemns in the strongest possible terms the inhumane actions of several police officers from the Daveyton Police Station. Video footage has emerged of these officers dragging a man believed to be a Mozambican taxi driver named Mido Macia behind their vehicle on Tuesday afternoon, the 26th of February. The same man died hours later in police custody.

We are shocked and disgusted by these barbaric actions. Police brutality and violence of this sort have absolutely no place in our society. We urge the Independent Police Investigative Directorate (IPID) to investigate this incident thoroughly and bring those responsible to justice.

Events similar to this one have become far too common in South Africa, and erode the public’s trust in the police. We demand that the IPID response to this terrible incident set an example that shows that such behaviour on the part of the police will not be tolerated. A potentially volatile situation requires a swift and transparent resolution, and justice must be served.

For further comment contact Braam Hanekom: 0843191764

PASSOP LGBTI Refugee Project has been invited to participate in a one-day seminar with the Gay and Lesbian Archives (GALA) and the African Centre for Migration and Society (ACMS) in Jo’burg on March 8th. The day will address major challenges facing LGBTI refugees and migrants and will look to make an agenda for future work on these issues! We are excited to participate and build collaborations to make LGBTI Refugee Issues a National Issue.

You can find more information about the seminar here:
http://www.mambaonline.com/article.asp?artid=7924

A PRESS CONFERENCE WILL TAKE PLACE AT

THE COSATU BOARDROOM COMMUNITY HOUSE

SALT RIVER ROAD SALT RIVER

THURSDAY 07 MARCH 2013 AT 11H00

IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW BY-LAWS
AFFECTING SPAZA SHOPS

Joint Press Release (6 March 2013)

IMPLEMENTATION OF NEW BY-LAWS AFFECTING SPAZA SHOPS

A Coalition of organisations has been formed to challenge the City of Cape Town on its recently promulgated By-Laws that will have a dramatic impact on the continued viability of SPAZA shops in Cape Town’s townships. The coalition consists of the following organisations: Western Cape Informal Traders Coalition, the Somali Association of South Africa, COSATU Western Cape, PASSOP, the National Consumer Forum, the South African Council of Churches, the Scalibrini Foundation and the Legal Resources Centre.

The Coalition believes that despite the fact that the preamble of the By-Laws stating that the intention of theses By-Laws are to stimulate the job creation in the informal sector and make it easier to trade, the application of the provisions of this By Law will have the opposite effect. The Coalition estimates that up to 70% of existing SPAZA shops in the greater Cape Town municipality will have to close because they will not be able to meet the stringent requirements.

The most harmful of these provisions is section 5.2.3 which requires that there should be a separate structure for trading, and that no area used for trading should open into a bedroom or toilet. These provisions clearly targets the most vulnerable of subsistence traders who reside in one roomed RDP houses and one roomed shacks in informal settlements and are therefore automatically disqualified from trading.

The restrictive trading hours will have a dramatic impact on consumers who rely on Spaza Shops for their daily essentials with residents having to commute to formal shopping malls at night and on Sundays to purchase a loaf of bread. The restricted trading hours is of further concern in that many formal shops in residential areas are trading for 24 hours especially forecourt convenience stores, but these shops charge a premium which impoverished consumers cannot afford.

The Coalition has asked the City to place a moratorium on the implementation of these By- Laws to allow for further consultation and broader participation. The Coalition contends that there was insufficient stakeholder participation and that these By-Laws are being implemented without due process and without sufficient dissemination of the new requirements to those directly affected.

The position of the City that there is no longer an opportunity for dialogue and that the consultation process exceeded the statutory requirements is a point of dispute as no correspondence about the implementation of the impending by-laws were received by any of the recognised Informal Traders representative organisations.

The Coalition wishes to draw attention to the social impact that these regulations will have on the informal and formal economy with many poor families being left disempowered and the supply chain upstream already in economic crises. Further job losses especially in the Wholesale industry will become inevitable. With unemployment on the Cape Flats hovering at 40 percent is it morally defensible to penalise those in our communities who display the entrepreneurial initiative to fend for themselves and create more jobs both in the informal and the formal economy?

We ask the question: were these By-Laws designed to benefit the Corporate Retailers who are increasingly encroaching on the townships with the proliferation of shopping malls? Are these unrealistic and unjustifiable requirements placed on SPAZA shops a disguised attempt to eliminate competition for Big Business especially Corporate Retailers? There seems to be a hidden agenda whether it is to satisfy Corporate interest or to target Foreign Nationals most of the new requirements have no logical basis.

The criminalising of the informal sector has severe implications for law enforcement agencies with their focus changing from real crime to the enforcement of ridiculous by-laws. The renewed harassment of informal traders by the police and city officials results in a breakdown of trust and makes informal traders especially vulnerable to criminal elements who extort “taxes” and victimise them without them being able to rely on the police for protection due to the police being seen as part of an oppressive system.

The Coalition wishes to raise the plight of the informal sector in the public domain in order to get support for our call for further consultation and a moratorium on the implementation of the provisions in these By-Laws that have direct impact on the sector. Our appeal is for the respect of Democratic principles of full stake-holder participation and mutual consultation with those directly affected.

We are currently mobilising within the Informal Sector especially SPAZA shops to make submissions on how these By-Laws are most likely to affect them. We are busy establishing a fund to assist Informal Traders to defend their livelihoods in Court should these By-Laws be enforced.

We withhold our right to challenge these bylaws in Court should the City continue refuse to engage us in a meaningful discussion and commit to resolve this matter in an amenable and amicable fashion.

OUR SLOGAN REMAINS: NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US !!!

For more information contact any of the participating organisations as indicted below.

Issued by:

The Western Cape Informal Traders Coalition – Riedewaan Charles 083 965 6324

The Somali Association of South Africa – Abdi Kader 084 775 5668

The National Consumer Forum – Imraahn Mukaddam 073 794 6092

COSATU Western Cape – Mike Louw 082 3395 443

PASSOP – Braam Hanekom 084 319 1764

The South African Council of Churches – +27 21 423 4261

The Scalibrini Foundation – Miranda Madikane 083 380 3572

The Black Business Chamber – Sizwe Ngqame 072 109 5259
Khaya Cishe 073 605 3209