The Gauteng department of local government is hoping that the Zimbabwean unity government agreement will lead to an outflow of the people still living in camps for those displaced by xenophobic violence.

"As a result of the settlement that has been reached in Zimbabwe, there may certainly be a substantial outflow of the refugees from those camps," said the department's advocate Quintus Pelser.

He said the Gauteng government wanted the process of consolidating and finally closing the camps to continue, and would not consider evicting anyone until Sept 30.

If it did have to evict people, it would be in terms of a court order. He said that besides people who were afraid to return to the communities in case they were attacked again, there would also be some people who simply had no plans to leave.

The refugees' lawyer Andrew Breytenbach has asked for a postponement of an expected hearing in the Constitutional Court on what will happen to the people remaining in the camps after xenophobic attacks in May and progress and comments on a reintegration plan because he needed more time to prepare.

He had asked for a postponement to Thursday, but Pelser said he would not be available.

Most of the approximately 20,000 displaced have left the camps and consolidation has begun, but some still remain in the camps in conditions that Breytenbach described as "dire".

Breytenbach said he needed more time to reply to an affidavit the government filed on Monday.

The judges were unhappy about the late filing of the papers in the case and said he had had enough time to prepare given that their original orders to come back with progress report were made in August.

They complained that Breytenbach and his clients did not consider their busy schedule of writing judgments for recent cases, which include a challenge to legislation on the Scorpions, an extradition case and the divorce settlement of a woman not entitled to any of her
husband's property in terms of customary law. They also said that the papers were "in a mess", not indexed or
numbered.

Breytenbach wants the government's undertakings to the refugees to be more specific than merely "providing shelter".

This is to cater for problems that have arisen at meetings and that everybody understands what is required in the situation.

Lawyers for the displaced are challenging the Pretoria High Court's refusal to keep the shelters open beyond the original closing date of August 15.

The Constitutional Court gave the parties time to work out a proper reintegration plan and the parties agreed that the shelters would remain open until at least September.