VZCZCXRO6634
RR RUEHDU RUEHJO
DE RUEHSA #1356/01 1871150
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 061150Z JUL 09
FM AMEMBASSY PRETORIA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8984
INFO RUEHSB/AMEMBASSY HARARE 3869
RUEHTO/AMEMBASSY MAPUTO 6096
RUEHMB/AMEMBASSY MBABANE 4553
RUEHTN/AMCONSUL CAPE TOWN 6977
RUEHDU/AMCONSUL DURBAN 1093
RUEHJO/AMCONSUL JOHANNESBURG 9345

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 PRETORIA 001356 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PREF PHUM SF
SUBJECT: POLICE ARREST 244 ZIMBABWEAN MIGRANTS IN JOBURG 
 
REF: A. PRETORIA 0770 
     ¶B. PRETORIA 0771 
 
 
------- 
SUMMARY 
------- 
 
¶1.  On July 3 police in Johannesburg conducted a midnight 
raid of the area around the Central Methodist Church, 
arresting 344 mainly Zimbabweans sleeping in the street. 
Rights organizations condemned the police action as 
"heavy-handed" and "disproportionate" and promised to defend 
the detainees in court.  The city is making token efforts to 
provide shelter for a small number of the thousands of 
homeless Zimbabwean migrants thronging its downtown at night. 
 National policy on Zimbabwean migrants remains unclear, 
however, and rights groups are concerned about possible 
signals that the "identity card" scheme announced in April 
(reftels) may not be implemented.  End Summary. 
 
--------------------------- 
POLICE RAID DOWNTOWN CHURCH 
--------------------------- 
 
¶2.  Around midnight on Friday July 3, police arrested 344 
persons in downtown Johannesburg who were sleeping on the 
streets around the Central Methodist Church.  The arrested 
were homeless men, women, and children, mostly Zimbabwean 
migrants but some also destitute South Africans.  Witnesses 
from Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which operates a clinic 
at the church, accused the police of "manhandling" the 
detainees and threatening them with stun guns.  A police 
spokesperson denied any mistreatment.  In a joint operation 
by the South African Police Service (SAPS) and metropolitan 
police, the 244 were taken into custody, to pay an immediate 
fine of 300 rand (US$38) or face charges in court the 
following Monday of loitering, public indecency, and public 
disorder.  A police spokesman said the SAPS intended to 
continue such raids. 
 
¶3.  The Church has for years been a haven for foreign 
migrants, and a source for contraversy in the community. 
Over the past year the crisis in Zimbabwe has swelled the 
Church's overnight population of homeless persons seeking 
shelter to as many as five thousand persons, including more 
than a hundred permanently housed children.  The Church's 
Bishop Paul Verryn is a hero to rights groups and has been 
glowingly profiled in the media (including on CNN), and the 
Church was defended in court this year by Nelson Mandela's 
own former lawyer George Bizos.  Local businesses and 
residents, however, continue to lodge official actions and 
legal challenges against the Church, complaining of mess and 
smell (mainly due to lack of sanitation facilities), crowds, 
and even crime. 
 
--------------------------- 
NGO'S CONDEMN POLICE ACTION 
--------------------------- 
 
¶4.  Rights organizations condemned the police action and 
promised to defend the detainees in court.  Press quoted the 
Legal Resource Center (LRC) saying the raid was 
"heavy-handed" and "disproportionate."  In a July 5 joint 
statement, LRC joined Lawyers for Human Rights and the AIDS 
Law Project in accusing the SAPS of "an egregious abuse of 
the police's power to arrest" for such petty offences as 
loitering, in a move that "serves no purpose other than to 
intimidate people who are already impoverished and 
marginalised."  The statement called for the immediate 
release of the detainees, especially of vulnerable minors and 
pregnant women, explicitly contradicting prior police claims 
that they would immediately free women and children.  Lawyers 
said they had been refused access to the detainees but would 
defend them at the hearing on Monday. 
 
-------------------------------------- 
Q-------------------------------------- 
POLICY TURN? OR COMMUNITY FRUSTRATION? 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶5.  Spokesman for the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) Ronnie 
Mamoepa said DHA was not involved in the raid, but he did not 
distance DHA from the action.  Mamoepa's only response on 
policy questions was a vague "The solution is to resolve the 
situation in Zimbabwe," urging foreign nations to lift 
sanctions against that country.  Johannesburg municipal 
authorities, meanwhile, said they were nearing completion of 
 
PRETORIA 00001356  002 OF 002 
 
 
plans for temporary shelters for just over a thousand 
migrants.  The municipality's efforts to house some 
Zimbabwean migrants have been months in the making, and they 
are insufficient to support the thousands in need, but the 
city has demonstrated a will to assist despite bearing the 
brunt of the migrant influx. 
 
¶6.  COMMENT: National policy towards Zimbabweans remains 
ambiguous, as reflected in Mamoepa's noncommital remarks.  In 
early April the lame-duck DHA Minister announced plans for an 
"identity card" enabling all Zimbabweans to remain in South 
Africa (refs A, B), but NGOs were anxious whether the new 
administration in May would honor the pledge.  In late May 
the new DHA Minister fed those fears by saying the card 
scheme was "not scrapped, just on the back burner."  The 
weekend's police raids could signal a reversion to tougher 
tactics of arrest and deportation.  Alternatively, however, 
the police and Home Affairs are frequently out of sync on 
immigration issues, and the raids could simply reflect a 
localized police reaction to long-simmering community 
frustration.  It is too early yet to read policy significance 
into a regrettable weekend event.  END COMMENT. 
 
 
 
CONNERS