Johannesburg\u2019s new mayor, Herman Mashaba, said that international aid agencies must help to care for undocumented foreigners that he plans to evict from inner city buildings in a bid to attract private investment to rebuild South Africa\u2019s economic hub.<\/p>\n
Mashaba, 57, said he\u2019s planning to use \u201cshock and awe\u201d tactics to drive out occupants living illegally in some of Johannesburg\u2019s buildings, despite warnings by human-rights activists and legal experts that his plans may be unconstitutional.<\/p>\n
Because the municipal administration doesn\u2019t have the resources to look after those who are evicted, the national and provincial governments as well as the United Nations and international aid agencies will have to step in and provide accommodation, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not the role of the city to take care of the world,\u2019\u2019 Mashaba said in an interview. \u201cAll these international bodies looking after refugees all over the world \u2014 please help me. I am sitting with a crisis of our own people in the city of Johannesburg.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The city\u2019s plans include the use of \u201coverwhelming power and spectacular display of force to paralyze the enemy\u2019s perception of the battlefield and destroy its will to fight,\u201d according to the document seen by Bloomberg News prepared by the city\u2019s Regulatory, Compliance and Special Investigations unit. The issue is non-negotiable, Mashaba said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s coming,\u201d Mashaba said of the eviction plan. As many as 80% of the inner city residents are undocumented foreigners, he said. \u201cIt\u2019s a scary number.\u201d<\/p>\n
A former cosmetics entrepreneur, Mashaba became mayor when his opposition Democratic Alliance aligned with small parties to take control of Johannesburg from the African National Congress in a municipal vote in August last year.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s targeted a housing crisis that he says has been compounded by the influx of both migrants from other parts of country and undocumented foreigners moving to South Africa to look for better economic opportunities.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously people are under the impression that, because the economy is failing everywhere else, this is a city of gold and opportunity,\u2019\u2019 he said.\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s created a massive problem, a housing backlog of over 300,000.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mashaba\u2019s figures have been challenged by organizations such as the Socio-Economic Rights Institute that protect the rights of poor people who get evicted from inner city buildings.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn our experience in the buildings we work in defending people against eviction, the statistics are the other way around: about 80 percent South African and about 20% foreign nationals,\u201d the institute\u2019s executive director, Stuart Wilson, said Monday by phone.<\/p>\n
He described Mashaba\u2019s statements as \u201cxenophobic\u201d and said his plans can\u2019t be implemented because they\u2019re illegal. South Africa\u2019s constitution requires that housing must be provided for everyone in the country, not just its citizens.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wholesale eviction of poor people from inner city buildings is not a plan that can be legally carried out without court oversight and without giving alternative accommodation to people who would otherwise be rendered homeless,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Anti-immigrant sentiment has run high at times in South Africa. Attacks on foreigners in 2008 claimed as many as 60 lives nationwide, and another seven were killed when violence flared two years ago. Residents of a southern Johannesburg suburb in February set fire to at least a dozen houses that they said were used as drug dens or brothels and were mostly occupied by foreigners.<\/p>\n
Mashaba said he won\u2019t begin forcible evictions until private companies show interest in developing the properties. Invitations will go out before the end of October for companies to come up with proposals to restore dilapidated buildings in the inner city and develop and run modern skyscrapers, he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have made it clear we will look for the owners of these buildings,\u201d he said. \u201cIf we can\u2019t find them, we as the city are going to expropriate them and offer them to developers to build.\u201d<\/p>\n