CAPE TOWN, South Africa – Cape Town authorities have initiated court proceedings to evict 360 asylum seekers from temporary camps in Bellville and Maitland, citing years of unsuccessful reintegration attempts and the occupants’ refusal to accept alternatives to international relocation.
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis announced on June 18 that, after successive offers of alternative housing or repatriation, the city has filed joint eviction applications with the Department of Home Affairs and Public Works. The eviction targets foreign nationals living at Paint City in Bellville and Wingfield in Maitland since 2020.
About 800 of them were moved there after being removed from a church in Cape Town’s city centre, where they had camped out in protest, demanding repatriation or relocation to a third country. The camps emerged following protests outside United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees offices in 2019.
Home Affairs Minister Leon Schreiber said the city’s move was a result of the department’s newly launched Operation New Broom, the latest technology-driven initiative aimed at arresting, convicting, and deporting undocumented foreigners occupying public spaces. The operation uses biometric technology to verify immigration status.
“We don’t want to be here anymore. We just want the UN or someone to help us leave South Africa, but not go back to our country,” said one refugee who spoke anonymously. Many asylum seekers maintain they face persecution if returned to their home countries.
Mayor Hill-Lewis told CapeTalk’s John Maytham that efforts from agencies, including the UNHCR, had not swayed what he called “die-hards”: “Even the United Nations Commission on Refugees has helped, or tried to help, but they have stubbornly insisted that they should be transported to Canada.”
Camp residents describe increasingly harsh conditions. They have also not had showers since 2020 and experience regular water outages at the site. Meanwhile, those who remain at the camps described life as increasingly dire, with a lack of sanitation leaving people to use plastic bags, makeshift structures from cardboard have been erected inside the tents and illness is common.
“We would rather die here than in the communities we ran away from where there were killings, looting and kidnapping,” says Francine Nduwimana who is among 500 refugees living at a camp in Bellville Paint City, Cape Town. Despite the poor conditions, many refuse to leave.
Some asylum seekers who accepted reintegration offers report inadequate support. Others who took up the offer to return to South African communities said that reintegration efforts have failed because the support offered was insufficient. A 24-year-old mother born undocumented in South Africa explained the R2,000 provided per family proved insufficient for rent, food, and essentials.
“Of the groups at Wingfield and Paint City, 67 people have returned voluntarily to Burundi, one to Cote d’Ivoire and one to the Republic of Congo.” The UNHCR established a help desk offering confidential advice and counselling for those considering voluntary return.
Congolese national, Mukanda Lambert, who lives at the Wingfield site, said it was untrue that they were occupying the land unlawfully. “We didn’t come here by ourselves — the very same government put us here. I don’t know what game they’re playing.”
Community organizations criticize the eviction plan. As recently as 2023, asylum seekers living at Paint City feared returning to xenophobic environments in townships and preferred tent living over unsafe neighbourhoods. The UNHCR, which initially managed services like toilets at the sites, eventually withdrew due to legal limits around funding makeshift camps.
Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson said: “We are ensuring that public assets are used for public good! No one has the right to unlawfully occupy state land and buildings.” The sites are earmarked for potential social housing projects.
But the refugees and asylum seekers say they have not been informed of the move adding that they want to be taken to a third country as they do not feel safe in South Africa. This demand has persisted for nearly five years.
With eviction proceedings now formally under way, many refugees said they’d have no choice but to wait on the city’s next move because they had nowhere else to go. The court will ultimately decide whether the eviction can proceed under current circumstances.
