The eThekwini municipality has revealed it was unprepared for the scale of the humanitarian operation at Durban’s Drive-In transit camp, where about 9,000 undocumented migrants have been processed and transported to Musina in part by the municipality for repatriation.Executive director for operations management Lindokuhle Mkhize said the municipality had been forced to rapidly convert the commercial events venue into a temporary holding facility as thousands of undocumented migrants, most of them Malawians, gathered while awaiting transport home.“I don’t think we were necessarily ready for what has happened. Nobody saw it coming,” Mkhize told journalists on Monday.She said the municipality had introduced fixed daily opening times to better manage the influx of people.Mkhize estimated more than 9,000 people had passed through the Durban site. Home affairs in the province has, however, indicated more than 15,000 had been repatriated from the site on Sunday. The municipality faced the challenge of accommodating thousands of people at a venue normally used for commercial events, while ensuring access to food, sanitation, water, electricity and security.“It is a commercial site that is booked regularly,” Mkhize said.She stressed the operation was not solely the municipality’s responsibility.“There is a perception this is a municipal issue and a municipal problem. It’s not. We cannot spend ratepayers’ money on repatriating people.”Instead, the city has worked with the department of home affairs and other government departments while businesses, churches and private individuals have stepped in to provide meals for migrants through donation drives.Mkhize said there had been daily logistical challenges.Municipal teams had to respond to repeated incidents of electricity being deliberately disconnected at night, water supply interruptions and damaged fencing as people waiting outside attempted to gain access to the camp.“We had plumbers on site to deal with maintenance issues, and when the fence was cut our teams responded quickly to repair it,” she said.Despite the challenges, Mkhize said the municipality’s staff had “risen to the occasion”.With anti-illegal immigration protests planned across KwaZulu-Natal, she said law enforcement agencies had developed security plans in conjunction with the SA Police Service, metro police and provincial public safety authorities.“There are plans but we’re not at liberty to discuss them,” she said, adding intelligence had identified several hotspots and authorities had been on heightened alert throughout the weekend.TimesLIVE