Category: Events

Swaziland Independence Day Protest

Swaziland Democracy Campaign -Western Cape Chapter

The South African government has sent less that 20 million rand to help those starving in the Horn of Africa and yet it is willing to grant a R2.4 billion loan to Swaziland’s corrupt regime of King Mswati. This loan will only sustain an unsustainable system and perpetuate the continued oppression and suffering of the people of Swaziland. We should only allow the South African government to release the money after the un-banning of political parties and unions, a commitment to free and fair elections for a democratic multi-party state, the freeing of media and the decentralisation of the economy from the monarch.

Sadly on a day when we should be celebrating the independence of the people of Swaziland we chose to protest against an unelected leader, an absolute monarch that controls the country as his private fiefdom and who has failed his people. We protested to demand that the South African government stop meddling with Swaziland’s affairs and that it consider sending more aid directly to the people of Africa in need and less to corrupt and autocratic leaders.

Our protest action against the government loan to Swaziland’s monarchy took place on Tuesday 6th September. It was attended by over 50 people and covered in the media. We handed over a morandum to the representative of the parliamentary committee international relations at the gates of parliament. To view the memorandum, click here.

The Horn of Africa is in crisis. In the last 90 days, over 29,000 children under the age of five have died of starvation. According to the latest United Nations report, this epidemic is threatening more lives every day as it rapidly spreads to new regions. It is now affecting up to 12 million people, and has developed into the worst famine in the region in over two decades.

PASSOP, in partnership with several other organisations, is hosting a fundraiser to benefit victims of the devastating famine in the Horn of Africa. The cultural event, Western Cape Fights Famine: Horn of Africa Relief, will include music and dance performances, poetry readings, speeches from political leaders, and a special message from Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Every Rand raised will go to Somalia’s starving children. All proceeds will go to humanitarian efforts of the non-profit Gift of the Givers Foundation, the largest disaster relief organisation on the African continent.

To view a special message by Archbishop Desmond Tutu in support of the event, please click here.

Take action against the famine and join us to show that the Western Cape cares.

Saturday, 27 of August, 2-5pm at St. Joseph’s Marist College (Belmont Road), Rondebosch, Cape Town.

Tickets: General R100/Students R80

If you cannot attend and still want to assist, donations can be made to the following account. Please make the reference of any transfer “Famine Relief”.

Account Name: PASSOP

Bank: Nedbank

Account Type: Current

Account #: 1048074730

Branch Code: 104809

For more information, email office@passop.co.za or call 021 762-0322.

PASSOP REPORT LAUNCH ON ASYLUM-SEEKERS’ ACCESS TO THE CAPE TOWN REFUGEE RECEPTION CENTRE

AND RESULTING IMPLICATIONS OF AMENDMENTS TO  THE IMMIGRATION ACT.

PASSOP has launched its monitoring report “The Road to Documentation: Asylum Seekers’ Access to the Cape Town Refugee Reception Centre” (can be downloaded here) which exposes the unfair treatment of asylum-seekers attempting to legalise themselves at the Cape Town Refugee Reception Office in Maitland. The report exposes that in two weeks over 1600 people were turned away unassisted, several people were physically abused and asylum seekers were left without toilets for over a month.  The number of people left unassisted is of particular concern in light of the new amendments to the immigration act which allow for jail terms for undocumented immigrants and that provide only 5 days for asylum seekers to apply for Asylum.

The report launch included a discussion chaired by Braam Hanekom, the monitoring Project Manager, Alaina Varvaloucas, and monitors Stanford Hove and Kumbirai Bvuna. Members of the press and other interested parties attended.

Background:

In the past few months, Parliament has passed several major changes to the Immigration Act of 2002, two of which PASSOP believes will significantly affect asylum-seekers. The first is reducing the asylum transit permit, a 14-day permit, which allows asylum-seekers to enter South Africa provided they report to a Refugee Reception Office (RRO) within the allotted 14 days, to 5 days. The second is instituting jail sentences of 2.5-4 years for undocumented migrants and for those caught aiding or knowingly employing undocumented migrants. Since refugee reception centres around South Africa operate at an under-capacity, many new asylum-seekers are not able to successfully get access to an RRO’s services within 14 days, and many more go undocumented because they are consistently turned away from centres and refused documents. Reducing the asylum transit permit—often referred to as a border pass—to 5 days will thus be to the detriment of thousands more asylum-seekers, and mandating that an undocumented migrant be jailed with criminals for several years, especially when that migrant may be undocumented through no fault of his or her own, is a cruel overreaction.

To assess ease of access to documentation at the Cape Town RRO, PASSOP monitors surveyed every person coming out of the Cape Town centre during all opening hours for two weeks. In total, 1,659 people were refused service for various reasons, including: a lack of supplies and paper, employees not coming to work, missing or expired transit visas, queues being too long, and others. Three major and several minor violent incidents of guards attacking people in the queue were recorded, as well as multiple instances of corruption. The report finds that due to the RRO’s inability to serve asylum-seekers in an efficient, consistent, and courteous manner, the situation at the Cape Town centre will only become worse when DHA officials begin implementing the new amendments to the Immigration Act. If the new amendments are to be fair policies, the Cape Town centre, as well as the other five centres in Johannesburg, Pretoria, Musina, Durban, and Port Elizabeth, must drastically improve its service delivery.