South African camp closures taken to constitutional court

The safety camps set up in Gauteng Province to house victims displaced in South Africa's xenophobic attacks were due to close on 15 August, but an application for urgent interim relief brought by a small group of foreign nationals, due to be heard by the Constitutional Court on 18 August, has given them a reprieve. The High Court in the capital, Pretoria, on 12 August upheld the Gauteng provincial government's decision to dismantle the shelters. Foreign nationals Odinga Mamba, Vasco Mitabele, Kiza Milinga Issa and Davidzo Aabidah Maduviko, from the Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in South Africa, then filed an appeal in the Constitutional Court. More than 60 people were killed, hundreds were injured, and nearly 20,000 migrants from neighbouring countries were displaced in a wave of xenophobia that began in May 2008, in Gauteng, South Africa's richest province, and spread throughout the country.