Johannesburg — THERE is something abhorrent and disturbingly ironic about the Gauteng legislature's portfolio committee on health and social development trying to take the moral high ground in answering the tough humanitarian question of what to do with Zimbabwean refugees at the Central Methodist Church (CMC) in downtown Johannesburg.
Removing children from the site seems to be their hasty short-term solution. A longer- term solution is not clear but a recommended closure is not ruled out. What is ironic and abhorrent about all this is the shameless attempt by the politicians to rock up with moral platitudes at hand and, with the help of a bevy of broadcast journalists, send out a message of deep and genuine care about the refugees' wellbeing. How convenient -- as if the crisis happened overnight and they did not or could not have reasonably been aware of it. The truth is that the nature and causes of the unfolding humanitarian crisis in downtown Johannesburg are more complex. Unsurprisingly, the most appropriate interventions are not so obvious either.
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