At an in-person seminar hosted by the Institute for Healing of Memories on Thursday, about 20 refugees and asylum seekers from Zimbabwe, South Sudan and Malawi spoke of their difficulties in securing Covid-19 grants and their challenges in getting their papers from Home Affairs.

When the government introduced the R350 Covid-19 grant for unemployed people who were not receiving any other grant during lockdown, Scalabrini Centre of Cape Town, an NGO that advocates for migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, took the Department of Social Development to court for excluding refugees and asylum seekers.

Audience member Israel Makolyech, a refugee from South Sudan, said he did not know of anyone who had received the Covid-19 grant.

“There’s a slowness across the board when it comes to getting the R350 grants to both South Africans and refugees. Lots of people are battling to make ends meet, but I will speak to the Labour Department to speed this up,” Western Cape South African Human Rights Commissioner Chris Nissen told Daily Maverick.

In a radio interview, Sassa spokesperson Paseka Letsatsi said that new applications for the R350 Covid-19 grant would not be accepted until Lindiwe Zulu, Minister of Social Development, issued directives, which is expected on Friday 23 October.

At the seminar, Kundayi Chinoingira, a social worker at a shelter, said that trying to help homeless refugees and asylum seekers with their documentation was difficult because “you go to Home Affairs and [refugees] are treated like garbage”. Refugees and asylum seekers have complained about xenophobic treatment from Home Affairs officials.

Without paperwork, refugees and asylum seekers are unable to open bank accounts, access healthcare and enrol their children in school.

“David from Zimbabwe” said that he “felt stuck because the journey to getting [your] papers can be lengthy.”

Father Michael Lapsley. (Photo: Gallo Images / Foto24 / Leanne Stander)

“Refugees have been struggling to get their papers and we know that without your papers, you have no dignity. Some refugees and asylum seekers, their papers expired in March, but they’re reluctant to go to Home Affairs,” said Etienne Ciamala, who works as a welfare assistant consultant at Scalabrini Centre. 

Chinoingira said the lack of documents also means refugees are prone to being exploited as “they need to eat”.

Nissen said he understood why people were reluctant to go to Home Affairs once their papers had expired.

“People are scared of being found out and being arrested, but not going to renew their papers only worsens the problem,” he said. 

Nissen reminded the audience that where refugees and asylum seekers were excluded, civil society fought for them: “When they said only South African spaza shops could operate during lockdown, we fought that.” 

Panellists and audience members sat a metre apart, with all wearing their masks throughout the discussion. Throughout the seminar, microphones were sanitised before and after use by a speaker.

The Institute for Healing of Memories was founded by Father Michael Lapsley in 1998. He is an anti-apartheid activist who lost both his hands when he opened a letter bomb in 1990 while in exile in Zimbabwe.

The Institute for Healing of Memories hosts healing workshops, community dialogues and seminars across the globe for refugees, gender-based violence victims and incarcerated people or those who’ve recently been released from prison.

Lapsley said it was important for South Africans and refugees to have conversations “because we’ll realise what we have in common are our pain and our beauty”. DM