Durban Refugees' Relocation to Lindela Expected Tuesday
The group, made up largely of people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Burundi, and Rwanda, has been living on the pavement outside the Home Affairs refugee reception centre since being displaced from their home communities earlier this year, amid threats and intimidation linked to a wave of anti-migrant mobilization. Home Affairs has recorded 309 families at the site; an earlier verification process by eThekwini Municipality checked 457 individuals, finding only three without valid documentation.
- Relocation to Lindela Repatriation Centre: expected Tuesday, 15 September 2026
- People affected: 309 families recorded by Home Affairs; 457 individuals previously verified
- Site: outside Home Affairs' Durban refugee reception centre, since May 2026
- Group's spokesperson has not confirmed the relocation arrangement
This isn't the first time relocation has been on the table. Back in June, an Inter-Ministerial Committee offered the group two options, reintegration into their former communities or accommodation at Lindela, and the group declined both, saying home wasn't safe and Lindela, a facility more commonly associated with detention and deportation processing, wasn't a long-term solution either.
That position appears to have shifted, multiple reports say the group agreed on September 11 to accept the Lindela transfer. Notably, though, Bishop Raphael Bahebwa, identified as the group's spokesperson, did not confirm that arrangement when asked, suggesting the picture on the ground may be less settled than official statements indicate.
Why the timeline moved up
The relocation timeline itself moved up abruptly. Ntuli said the transfer, originally expected sometime next week, was brought forward to Tuesday after March and March, the anti-migrant group that has staged repeated protests and a violent confrontation at the site on September 3, threatened court action if the government didn't act. Police used crowd-control measures during that clash, and an officer was reportedly struck by a stone; refugees say they were pelted with objects again on September 10.
Ntuli, who visited the site personally, said the only outstanding issue was completing verification for a handful of remaining families, and separately questioned why foreign governments, including the DRC's ambassador to South Africa, had not engaged more directly with a crisis affecting their own citizens.
Whatever happens tomorrow, it closes one chapter of a monthslong standoff without fully resolving the underlying question the refugees have raised from the start: whether a repatriation-linked facility can actually substitute for the safe, community-based shelter they say they've been asking for since May.
What do you think the right balance is between offering displaced people immediate shelter versus a longer-term path back into their communities? Let us know in the comments.
Sources: News24; IOL; EWN - September 11–13, 2026.
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