Lockdown Sites To Be Allocated For Foreign Nationals Living In Cape Town CBD

A group of foreign nationals who have been living in the Cape Town CBD will soon be under lockdown at two sites in the city.

Hundreds of them, including children, had been camping at a church on Greenmarket Square since October after they were removed from outside the UN Refugee Agency offices.

This is where they were demanding assistance to leave the country due to xenophobic violence.

Moving the disgruntled foreigners out of the city centre became an urgent matter following the introduction of a state of disaster and the 21 days national lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

The Bellville site is on city-owned land and is known as Paint City. The Department of Public Works erected a marquee, which could accommodate 600 people.

The city’s Zahid Badroodien said toilets and showers still had to be set up before the foreigners could be moved.

“We will now continue to work in terms of the instructions to move these individuals to this location. It is obviously dependent on the availability of water and toilets, which we will be working on,” Badroodien said.

The other site is along Voortrekker Road in Maitland and it will accommodate any overflow as well as homeless people.