Refugees living in a large white tent on government land at Wingfield in Maitland have vowed to fight any attempt to evict them. This comes after the City of Cape Town filed a joint eviction application with the ministers of Home Affairs and Public Works in the Western Cape High Court.
The group were among the hundreds of refugees who protested outside the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees UNHCR offices in Cape Town in October 2019, demanding to be resettled in countries other than South Africa.
Many of the protesters eventually returned to local communities, but some families held out for their demands. They were relocated under Covid level 5 lockdown emergency regulations to camps in Wingfield and Paint City in Bellville. Despite conditions at the sites, most refused to return to local communities.
There are still about 160 refugees living at the site. There are portable toilets and communal taps. Some people have built makeshift structures around the tent on land owned by the Department of Public Works.