UPDATE: 5.45pm:
While the date and time of the meeting is still undecided, the venue has been marked as the Rotary Grounds, behind the Madala Hostel.
Speaking to members of the hostel, who had gathered in anticipation of the meeting, chairperson of the Indunas, Bafowethu Sokhela said he had many concerns. He said he did not want the meeting with the MEC to only be with hostel dwellers, but with other members of society who lived within the vicinity of the hostel. Sokhela said criminals should feel the might of the law, but police and the military should not only target the hostel and “beat people”, as criminals were everywhere, emphasizing the fact that targeting the hostels exclusively was not fair.
It is believed the MEC would be meeting with the Indunas this evening, after which a date would be set for a public meeting.
Original report: She is expected to address the hostel residents this afternoon at 4pm as part of her department and the Gauteng government’s plans to deal with on-going attacks on foreign nationals.
The meeting follows Nkosi-Malobane’s interaction with the provincial hostel leadership last week Friday to find ways to address recent attacks on foreign nationals.
This will be one of many meetings she will attend which will take place in identified hotspots around the province, and will culminate with Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s engagement with hostel leadership on Sunday, 26 April at the Turfontein Racecourse.
An Alex citizen herself, Nkosi-Malobane’s meeting with Madala residents comes in the wake of the proposed deployment of the army to patrol Alexandra, which hostel dwellers have insisted is a smoke screen to raid the hostel, which is considered a hotbed of criminal activity in the township.
The hostel is also considered to be the prime springboard of all the xenophobic attacks which have flared in Alexandra since the initial attacks in 2008. There have been sporadic attacks since then, culminating in the killing of Sithole, which is largely considered to have been a criminal act disguised as a xenophobic attack.
A hostel induna source, who preferred to remain anonymous, said he feared there was an imminent raid that will be mounted by the police with the assistance of the army to crack down on illegal weapons and other issues.
“They have [disguised] this imminent raid of our home as a deployment of soldiers to patrol Alexandra,” he said.
Besides being a hotbed for weapons, criminals and xenophobic attacks, the Madala Hostel is believed to be a storehouse for goods looted from foreign-owned shops which are suspected to be on sale inside the hostel, or awaiting shipment to-KwaZulu Natal.
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