Siyafana Sonke Action Campaign condemns the utterances by Ethekwini Mayor, Cyril Xaba, feeding into the disinformation campaign targeting vulnerable migrant and refugee communities.
According to Mayor Xaba’s comments in a recent podcast, he informed the interviewer that displaced refugees were demanding ‘free housing’, to the detriment of South Africans.
The Siyafana Sonke campaign will not let these dishonest comments go unchallenged. The comments have been widely spread on social media by the anti-migrant movements, and Mayor Xaba is actively feeding into a scapegoating narrative which deflects blame for South Africa’s societal ills onto the refugee and migrant community. We are under an obligation to place the truth before the public.
The truth of the matter is that Mayor Xaba has been comprehensively informed of the displaced refugee community’s circumstances from the first moments of their displacement on 19th May 2026. He has had numerous meetings with the refugees and with activists advocating for the refugees.
He knows that the refugees have been living, for more than a month, on the streets outside the Home Affairs Refugee Office on Che Guevara Road, Durban. He knows that the refugees have been consistently requesting ‘temporary, emergency accommodation’. He knows that the Department of Home Affairs is simply ignoring the refugees, hoping that they will disappear into the ether and cease being an election year inconvenience.
Stating that the refugees are demanding ‘free housing’ is an unnecessary and political expedient act of dishonesty, which will simply inflame the heightened tensions in the Ethekwini area. We have already noted many negative and targeted social media comments.
The Siyafana Sonke Action Campaign regards Mayor Xaba’s comments as being grossly irresponsible, and we urge that media houses interrogate the Mayor on his stance regarding South Africa’s constitutional and international obligations to provide refugee communities with safety, security and shelter. We also urge the Mayor’s political party, the African National Congress, to question the Mayor in his comments and to release a formal statement condemning this distortion of the true facts.
We are particularly alarmed at the fact that the Mayor’s comments come on the heels of SAPS members telling meal providers to stop delivering food to the refugee community and after the Ethekwini Metro ceased delivering water to the displaced refugee community on Che Guevara Road.
The South African government is obligated to make provision for the safety of documented refugees and migrants. It is also obliged to provide humanitarian aid to the victims of a concerted forced displacement campaign. In the interim, civil society is supporting with the provision of food, water, medicine, clothing, blankets, nappies, formula and safety and security on the ground. Given that the scale of the crisis, this is simply unsustainable.
We can see that the South African government is falling well short of compliance with its legal obligations. We urge the media and general public to critically analyse the conduct of State officials in this crisis, and to determine whether they are meeting the standard of ethical, compassionate leadership that this crisis demands.
For media enquiries:
Yeshelen Govender: +27 83 417 4983
July Eccles: +27 79 158 2552
For reporting incidents of violence:
E-mail as much detail as possible to report@xenowatch.ac.za or
WhatsApp 063 839 0124
The answer to division is solidarity.
The answer to fear is organisation.
The answer to hatred is unity.
Siyafana Sonke Action Campaign
