Date: 2021-10-04 08:30:29
Calm Has Been Restored and Malawian Nationals Reintregrated
ETHEKWINI NEWS FLASH
MEDIA STATEMENT
FOR IMMIDIATE RELEASE
01 April 2019
Calm Has Been Restored and Malawian Nationals Reintregrated
FOLLOWING a highly successful meeting between the community of Burnwood Informal Settlement, the Mayor of eThekwini Municipality Zandile Gumede and the Acting Malawian High Commissioner to South Africa Gloria Bamusi, on Saturday, 30 March 2019, the Municipality is pleased to announce that calm has been restored and majority of Malawians that were forcefully displaced last week have now returned to their homes.
Reports indicate that an altercation ensued last week after a Malawian national was found in possession of stolen goods that belonged to a South African. This unfortunate situation was then hijacked by a group of locals who started kicking out other Malawians in the name of getting rid of “criminal elements”.
As a sign of extending an olive branch, the Malawian nationals wrote a letter apologising for those that have committed the act of crime. This gesture was overwhelmingly welcomed by the locals who indicated that they were ready to welcome the Malawian Nationals back to the community.
Mayor Gumede said that the reintegration and repatriation processes were at an advanced stage and the Municipality was confident that by Wednesday, 03 April, all the processes would have been concluded.
“We have managed to return the situation to normality, a large group of Malawian nationals have opted to return to Burnwood Informal Settlement. However, we have about 105 Malawians who have requested to be repatriated. We are doing everything possible to assist them together with the International Organisation for Immigration and the Malawi High Commission,” said Gumede.
The Acting Malawian High Commissioner to South Africa Gloria Bamusi said that the Malawi High Commission supports all the processes that are currently taking place.
“Now that all the issues have been resolved we believed that the community of Burnwood and our people from Malawi will now live in a peaceful co-existence. We want to thank the leadership of the Municipality and South African government for ensuring that the issues were resolved in a speedily manner, “said Bamusi.
The Municipality would also like to extend gratitude to Community Policing Forum, NGO’s, the Islamic Society who have come to the party in terms of caring for people in the shelter and the City officials who worked tirelessly to restore calm.
ENDS
Issued by eThekwini Municipality’s Acting Head of Communication Mandla Nsele.