#WorldRefugeeDay-x: New refugee reception office to open in Cape Town

1970-01-01 -

Cape Town - A new refugee reception office in Cape Town will be opening its doors soon. That’s according to the Department of Public Works. “The process (tender process) to secure premises is underway, and we hope it will be done by July

This process has time frames that depend on the correct procedures being followed,” said spokesperson Bukiwe Mgobozi. According to a report on the status of the reception office sent to the Scalabrini Centre, the department said the status quo remained the same regarding their readiness to open the new office. The report also showed that as part of its execution plan they had not yet placed an advert for a tender; it also showed that the proposed date for occupation would be next year in January. “Public Works received a request for accommodation from the Department of Home Affairs in February this year. That request had to be revised and corrected, and the process had to be restarted in March,” Mgobozi said. But advocacy groups said the process could be much longer than that. “When they do find a premises they will still have to prepare it, which could mean renovating it and setting up an IT system. So they still have a long way to go, and I strongly doubt they will be able to do that within a month,” said Marike Keller, a policy development and advocacy specialist at Sonke Gender Justice. Keller said something similar to what happened to the Refugee Reception office in Port Elizabeth could happen. On June 15 a site hand-over, from Public Works to the Department of Home Affairs, took place at the future location of the Port Elizabeth Refugee Reception Office. The Director-General of Home Affairs, Mkuseli Apleni, said that services would only start in October. Cory Johnson from the Scalabrini Centre said: “Well we hope they wrap up this process quickly and get this done in a timely manner, and we hope that they communicate everything with us.” The Supreme Court of Appeal found the decision to close the Cape Town refugee reception office “substantively unlawful and irrational” and required the department to reopen and maintain a fully functional office in the Cape Town metropolitan area by March 31, and to provide monthly reports on its progress in complying with the order