Op-Ed: The other violence: While South Africa watched the marches, the state built a camp

“We are watching a de facto refugee camp form under our noses, assembled not by the chaos of mobs but by the order of officials with stamps and clipboards and the quiet confidence of those who know that no one is watching.”

Professor Jo Vearey and Dr. Rebecca Walker (African Centre for Migration & Society, Wits University) expose a crisis unfolding beyond the headlines.

The government calls the centre temporary. But what is being built is permanent, the physical manifestation of a policy proposal that is still, legally, only a proposal.

“Reports from those physically present in Musina indicate that even they cannot get clear answers about processing timelines, rights protections, or what happens to people once they pass through the centre’s gates. When those closest to a crisis cannot account for what is happening inside it, it is more than disorganisation, it is a feature.”

A response shrouded in opacity sets a precedent that will outlast this crisis. The next government will inherit a template for managing people outside the law, road-tested, with no one held to account.

Read the full op-ed in the Daily Maverick.

[Credit: Siyabulela Duda / GCIS]