CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
1.1. Aim
This study deals with the role of the Johannesburg's
post-apartheid civil society organisations (CSOs) in promoting greater
social justice for Africa's forced migrants (FMs), or refugees and
asylum seekers, living in the inner city, particularly in Hillbrow and
Yeoville. My aim in undertaking this stud y is motivated firstly by my
own experience of the inner city as a foreigner national; secondly, by
the outcomes of interviews conducted in 2005 with Caroline Kihato on the
unheard voices of migrant women living in the inner city (Kihato, 2006); and
finally, in relation with pertinent issues raised by Alan Morris (1999) in
his book Bleakness and Light: Inner City Transition in Hillbrow, in
which he portrays Nigerians and Congolese, from my home country the Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), as the victims of Hillbrow, due to the general view of
the majority of South Africans who stereotype Nigerians as `drug dealers' and
almost all foreigners as those who steal jobs and bring diseases in South
Africa (Morris, 1999: 308) .
In the inner-city of Johannesburg, the majority of local
people are hostile to FMs, instead of considering them as effective residents
of the city. For this reason, FMs complain that they are marginalised,
discriminated against, and excluded from the city's life. This trend is in some
extent `legitimated' by some public institutions and private companies,
which deny to the FMs their right to work by refusing to hire them
because of their refugee or asylum seeker permits. And yet, the section
26 of the 1998 Refugee Act states that they may work everywhere in
South Africa (SA, 1998).
Access to the health care also is a challenge for FMs
(particularly asylum seekers), as this basic right is denied to them
in some public health facilities, contrary to what is stated in
section 26 of the 1998 Refugee Act and in section 27 of the Bill of rights (SA,
1998 and SA,
1996). Apart from that, FMs face many other challenges such
as police harassment, illegal
detentions, xenophobia, and unemployment.
Despite all these challenges facing FMs, the City of
Johannesburg (CoJ) and the national
government (NG) pay little attention to the circumstances
experienced by FMs in the inner city.
This study examined the potential of the Johannesburg's CSOs and
their ability to contribute
to the social transformation of the inner city by facilitating a
greater social justice for FMs and
by influencing CoJ to create structures that will allow
Johannesburg to become a `just city', accordingly to Susan Fainstein's (2005)
conceptualisation of the just city. For this reason, this study attempted to
answer the main and subsidiary research questions which are presented
below:
Main Research Question
What role can CSOs play in facilitating greater social justice
for Africa's FMs living in the inner city of Johannesburg?
Subsidiary Questions
1. What roles are the Johannesburg's inner city CSOs
currently performing with regards to
FMs?
2. How are these CSOs structured and funded?
3. How do FMs know about these CSOs?
4. Where are these CSOs located?
5. Who participates in their programmes?
6. What is social justice and why is it important for the CoJ?
| 
