MSF barred from assessing detained homeless Zimbabweans following heavy-handed police raid
Médecins Sans Frontières / Doctors Without Borders South Africa (MSF) nursing staff were on Friday night (3 July, 2009), barred from attending to vulnerable Zimbabweans after police arrested a group of about 200 people in the Johannesburg CBD during a heavy-handed midnight raid.

At about 23:30 a large group of armed South African Police Service and Johannesburg Metro Police officers conducted a calculated blitz, forcefully rounding up and detaining scores of frightened, homeless Zimbabweans sleeping outside the Central Methodist Church and the South Gauteng High Court where they seek shelter.

Nursing staff from the MSF clinic, operating at the church where more than two thousand Zimbabwean men, women and children seek refuge, witnessed police manhandling some of the homeless Zimbabweans on the street. When police officers rounded the Zimbabweans up they were pushed to ground and some were even threatened with electric stun guns.

The officers arrested and then bundled about 200 Zimbabweans, including nine children and a pregnant woman, according to MSF's information, into several waiting police trucks, before taking them to the Johannesburg Central Police Station.

At the police station MSF nurses struggled to gain access to the detained Zimbabweans in order to examine them for possible injuries sustained during their arrest and detention.

Aside from the brutish manner in which these Zimbabweans, of whom many were bedded down for yet another bitterly cold night on the streets, were arrested, MSF is disturbed given a series of recent events specifically targeting this vulnerable group.

During the last few weeks, Zimbabweans sleeping outside the overcrowded Central Methodist Church and in front of the High Court have become the focus of what appears to be intimidatory actions, by security guards and police.

At the end of June a group of about 100 Zimbabweans sleeping outside the church and court were sprayed with waste water by security officials. On Thursday (July 2, 2009) Johannesburg Metro Police officers cordoned off the sidewalks in front of the court building. They ordered homeless Zimbabweans to move, citing bylaw violations and that these actions would be repeated.

MSF offers basic medical treatment to Zimbabweans through its clinic at the Central Methodist Church and grows more concerned about the intractable situation these homeless Zimbabweans face because there is no real alternatives open to them.

Despite promises by City of Johannesburg and the Gauteng Provincial Government, and months of negotiations to craft a solution that would meet the pressing needs of these destitute Zimbabweans, there has been no concrete action to improve their situation.

MSF calls on City of Johannesburg and the Gauteng Provincial Government immediately implement plans to improve the situation of these defenceless Zimbabweans.

For further details, or to arrange an interview with an MSF spokesperson, please contact:
Borrie La Grange on +27 83 287 5294 or Baikong Mamid on +27 798 722 950 or +27 768 295 325

• Read MSF's new Report: "No Refuge, Access Denied: Medical and Humanitarian Needs of Zimbabweans in South Africa" http://www.msf.org.za/No_Refuge.pdf