Local residents are being asked to contribute to the legal costs.

Papers are expected to be served today on the mainly Congolese refugees engaged in the sit-in.

This will give them time to respond before the urgent action in the Pretoria High Court next week.

The refugees are demanding to be moved to safety away from the xenopbobic attacks  they have suffered in South Africa.

Home Affairs Minister Aaron Motsoaledi told a Parliamentary portfolio committee meeting this week that the sit-in outside the UNHCR offices in Cape Town and Pretoria are a matter for the South African Police Services.

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More than 1000 mainly Congolese refugees have been staging the  protest for a fortnight demanding the world organization move them away from the xenophobic attacks they have suffered in South Africa.

The United Nations High Commission for Refugees has closed its doors to the refugees and failed to return calls from the media.

Democratic Alliance MP Adrian Roos says the UNHCR has confirmed that the matter should be dealt with by local law enforcement.

Police are reluctant to move in because of the large number of mothers and  babies among the protestors

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Scientists have traced the food of origin of the strain of the 948 cases of listeriosis mostly in the most populous province of  Gauteng.

South Africa’s National Consumer  Commission has ordered the urgent recall of polony and smoked sausages from Enterprise’s Germiston factory and  vienna sausages from Rainbow chicken’s Wolwehoek plant.

This includes immediately removing and quarantine the named products from its sales channels and notifying all the trading partners and the appropriate authorities locally and internationally.

The commission urges consumers who have bought the products to quarantine them to avoid cross contamination and to return  them to the place of purchase for refund.

Listeria bacteria survives in fridges and an open pack of polony or sausages could contaminate other food nearby.

Immediately after Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi’s briefing yesterday, Pick n Pay and Checkers ,which are two  of the largest supermarkets in South Africa, announced the  removal the products that may be linked to the listeriosis outbreak from their stores.

The fridges and preparation areas where the food had been stored  would be thoroughly cleaned before being used again.

The contaminated meat would be safely destroyed.

The stores which have more than 3 000 outlets in South Africa say a broad range of retailers could be affected.

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Aaron Motsoaledi was speaking at a World Health Organization conference at Zimbabwe’s Victoria Falls where the host 93-year-old President Robert Mugabe frequently travels visits eye specialists in  Singapore.

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Health Minister Aaron Motsoaledi says African leaders travel abroad for medical attention because they are not confident of receiving adequate treatment at home.

Because they can afford to do this, they are not motivated to provide the resources to improve domestic medical services and infrastructure.

He says Africa’s the only continent where leaders travel abroad for health reasons.

They should be ashamed of this and should be promoting their own hospitals, clinics and specialist doctors.

This year, Nigeria’s Muhamadu Buhari has spent no less than five months in British hospitals. He still has not revealed to his people what ails him.

Last year, Buhari rounded on wealthy compatriots  going to European, Asian or American hospitals, dismissing them as health tourists.

Outgoing Angola President Jose Eduardo Dos Santos has fallen into this category.

So have Presidents Patrice Talon of Benin and Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe officially opened the conference addressed by Motsoaledi.

He was not at the gathering at Victoria Falls when the South African minister spoke.

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