Most Rev Thabo Makgoba and other church leaders asked some of the migrants to leave Cape Town’s Methodist Church on Friday due to overcrowding.
The migrants, mostly from other African countries, were staging a sit-in in the church after being forced to leave the offices of the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) in Cape Town two weeks prior.
The crowd demanded that they be resettled in another country and be given refugee status as they don’t feel safe in South Africa due to a recent spike in xenophobic violence.
JP Balous, a man speaking on behalf of the refugees told a local news channel that they have “been treated like rubbish”.
“We are human beings, we came here to seek refuge… The human rights commission is actually the human rights abuse in South Africa,” he said.
Video aired by broadcaster eNCA showed a fight breaking out in the church, injuring Archbishop Thabo and South Africa’s Human Rights Commissioner Chris Nissen.
Anglican Archbishop Thabo Makgoba says he bears no ill-feelings to refugees who attacked him in Cape Town today. #Refugees #Upfront with @FaithMangope Courtesy #DStv403 pic.twitter.com/vsVt2WQF6g
— eNCA (@eNCA) November 15, 2019
Witnesses said the fight started after a Congolese church leader had the microphone snatched out of his hand and was beaten up by an angry crowd.
“They started throwing papers at me when I was trying to calm them…
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