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Agence France-Presse

Families flee homes in face of xenophobic violence

GlobalPost
Updated on
The World

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — On July 8, three days before the end of the 2010 World Cup, a group of Zimbabweans stood on the side of a highway outside Cape Town, praying for a ride back to their home country.

“(The South Africans) say go back home, and so for the sake of my child, I’m going home. I don’t want to risk my life,” said Blessing Mutandiro, 38, who was waiting with her husband and 6-month-old daughter. “We really hope and pray that nothing happens to the ones that are staying behind."

Mutandiro is one of scores of Zimbabweans who fled South Africa before the end of the World Cup after South Africans personally threatened to attack them after the end of the games and fears of post-Cup anti-foreigner violence were reported in the press.

Xenophobic tension has long been an issue in South Africa and those tensions boiled over during the May 2008 attacks, which left more than 60 people dead and tens of thousands displaced. The wave of violence swept from Johannesburg down to Cape Town, where it was less bloody but still left thousands living in refugee camps during the bitterly cold winter.

Last December, more than 2,000 Zimbabweans were forced from their homes and their shacks were torn down after South Africans living in the township accused them of taking all the jobs in the small farm town of De Doorns, two hours outside Cape Town. More than 250 of the displaced are still staying at a refugee camp.

The xenophobia has been exacerbated by a country-wide frustration over the lack of jobs, housing and services, and by broken promises by the government. 24 percent of South Africans are unemployed and those numbers are significantly higher in the townships.

“They say maybe if we chase away the foreigners, then we will get a job,” Mutandiro said with a shrug. South Africans often threatened her while she was taking public transportation from her township on the way to work; they told her to go back to Zimbabwe before the Cup ends or face the consequences, she said.

In the months and years leading up to the games, there had been concern that xenophobia would once again rear its ugly head after the World Cup.

Some feared that as the World Cup high wore off, and the millions of poverty-stricken South African realized that the Cup had not, after all, changed their lives significantly for the better, violent protests, followed by xenophobic attacks, would result.

But threats against foreigners began even before the World Cup ended and violence began on the night of the final match.

Braam Hanekom, spokesman for the refugee advocacy NGO PASSOP, estimated that about 30 Somali-owned shops in the Western Cape have been looted and at least two set on fire. 
Since the attacks began on July 11, about 1,000 people, including Somalis, Zimbabweans, Congolese, Rwandans, Malawians and Zambians, have been displaced and have taken shelter at police stations and community halls. Some of the displaced have returned to their home countries, others have reintegrated back into the townships, and many are remaining in shelters in case the violence gets worse.
On July 18, Nelson Mandela Day, government and social agencies banded together to speak out against attacks on foreigners. Members of the African National Congress along with nongovernmental organizations coordinated a protest against xenophobia in a nearby township, marched down Cape Town’s Fan Walk in support of respect for foreigners and held a small vigil outside Parliament.
“It’s a small number of people that are engaging in such actions and giving the whole country a bad image,” said South African Leonard Barnes, 45, who attended the vigil at Parliament on the 18th.
“The Human Rights Commission says there is a target on Somali business people. If people target a specific nationality, there is an element of xenophobia, but it is rather criminality in this case,” said Maxwell Moss, a member of the leading party African National Congress’ Western Cape Province task team.
“The ANC was very clear in 2008, as well as this year. Whoever is engaged in xenophobic activity is people who are racist, who don’t love their brothers and sisters, who are selfish, who are taking the situation at hand and using it to their advantage,” Moss said. 
Somalis are targeted because they often own shops and are perceived to have greater financial means than other foreigners. “Xenophobia may be a complicated issue, but in the Western Cape we are seeing people take advantage of this to target those with money and stock,” he said.
Local media has reported five foreigners injured in areas around Johannesburg, which was the epicenter of the 2008 attacks, and additional tents, blankets and other supplies have been brought to Beit Bridge, the border post between South Africa and Zimbabwe, for fleeing foreigners.
Hanekom said that the situation still remains relatively volatile, but could have been worse. “For us, we’re very relieved that things didn’t erupt too badly,” he said.
Mutandiro, meanwhile, will come back to South Africa when it’s safe because she said there is nothing for her in Zimbabwe.
“I won’t (be able to) find a job there. But no one will kill me there, either” she said. She glanced down the road, toward the township and her home which she had just fled. “I can’t make them like me"
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