'Disgusting' refugee meal sent for testing

One of the meals delivered to the Soetwater refugee camp this week has been sent for testing at a city health facility after complaints that it looked and smelt rotten.

Ward councillor Felicity Purchase confirmed that the food had gone for a "post-mortem".

She said it looked disgusting and could be a potential health risk.

"Stew is actually a nice word for what it looked like. I wouldn't have fed it to my dogs," she said.

Purchase said two days earlier refugees had complained that the meat in the evening meal contained hair and still had skin on it.

"They were worried it was horse meat," she said.

Soetwater refugees, now numbering about 850, are fed by the Mustadafin Founda- tion which supplies two meals a day to the camp near Kommetjie.

The foundation's spokesperson Alia Limbada confirmed they had received a complaint about Sunday's meal which had consisted of samp, beans and meat - but denied the food was rotten.

"They said it was off but when we collected the five pots one of our executives tasted the food and said it was fine."

She said there had just been a lot of water on top.

Limbada said one of the Somalis told her samp and beans was something they didn't eat.

"He said it was not suited to their cultural tastes and they wanted to rather cook for themselves."

But Limbada said they couldn't please everyone and that the Soetwater camp refugees had often been "difficult".

There have been earlier reports and television footage of food being dumped at the beach site by disgruntled Somalis.

With this week's floods - which affected nearly 40 000 people, according to the Western Cape disaster management centre - Mustadafin is currently cooking for about 15 000 people.

"All the NGOs are stretched at the moment," Limbada said, adding that health inspectors and UN officials had approved their operation.

Last month refugees at Soetwater went on a hunger strike and threatened to drown themselves in the sea because of conditions at the camp, which they said were intolerable.

Refugees in other camps have also complained about a lack of fruit and vegetables.

Volunteer helper Sam Pearce said the food was appalling and an "insult".

"It is contributing to the deterioration of the refugees' mental health. People are at the end of their tether."

At Youngsfield Military Base, home to 616 refugees including 40 babies, some just days old, a batch of sour milk arrived last week.

There have been many rumours about NGOs getting huge "admin fees" to provide the meals on top of the R11 per refugee per day - R4 for lunch and R7 for supper - that they are paid by the provincial government's social development department.

But Disaster Risk Management spokesperson Charlotte Powell said no administration fees were charged.

She said the NGOs used - Mustadafin, Sanzaf, HDI Support and the SA Red Cross Society - had well-established and transparent processes in place to distribute relief effectively. Powell said there were still 4 872 refugees displaced in the city.

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