reason of xenophobic attack, the UK Guardian has
reported on how the attack has affected several
families, with special emphasis on one Fungai
Chopo's family.
The paper reported that Chopo was working as a
builder while his wife, Memory, was hired as a maid,
and they shared a decent house with their two
children. With their new job; joblessness, hunger and
poverty that had confronted them from their home in
Zimbabwe came to an abrupt end.
This however could not last for too long due to the
ongoing xenophobic attack in South Africa.
According to the report, few minutes before midnight
of a particular day, about 15 men burst into Chopo's
family home, punched him to the point of death and
blood gushed out of him. They threatened to kill the
family. They equally stole all they had.With the
development, they are now like other unfortunate
blacks resident in South Africa who are taking refuge
in crowded tents in heavily guarded transit camp.
It would be recalled that following xenophobic
violence in the country where at least five people
have so far been killed, many foreigners have
abandoned their shops in fear.
Report says shops have been looted and torched, and
South Africa's image may have been dented.
The situation according to report is worst in Durban,
South Africa's third-biggest city, to where the Chopos
moved three years ago. "They beat my husband with
sticks, they took everything, money, food, clothes for
the baby," said Memory, 31, wearing her last
remaining T-shirt and protecting her children Mercy,
four, and one-year-old John.
"They said 'if you don't give us these things, we will
kill you. We want your shoes, remove your T-shirt.'
They took everything, even passports and IDs. The
police came but they didn't do anything because they
are afraid of those boys."
The Chopos now reside at a transit camp opened a
week ago. The camp is located off Florence
Nightingale Road in the suburb of Chatsworth. As at
Thursday, it was already accommodating about 1,200
immigrants, and the area is reportedly manned by
armed guards and steel crowd-control fencing
draped with drying blankets and clothes.
Because, Memory's antiretroviral drugs were taken
by the invaders, she is hopeful that she will resume
antiretroviral drug treatment for HIV soon as the
governmnet offers treatment at the temporary camp.
But the most pathetic situation is that she and her
children now sleep on the cold floor of a crowded
tent. "The conditions here are basic. We are in mixed
tents with men, women and children; some are
taking clothes off. The toilets are few and very dirty
and people are getting sick," she said. "I feel scared. I
can't sleep at night because the dreams are very bad,
always seeing these visions from that night. They
don't have ears, they don't have eyes."
With the development, the Chopos are now planning
and aspiring to take a bus back to Zimbabwe. "I came
to South Africa for a better life and I worked for
everything," Memory said. "But we are going home
empty-handed, without funds, without passports,
without the kids' birth certificates.
Now, we have to
wait for the transport provided by the government to
take us home."
Beside Memory was another victim of the attack,
Joanna Moyo, 32, with a sick, sleeping baby tied to
her back. She said: "I was robbed and now I don't
have anything, only my kids. I'm still worried those
guys will come here and attack us.
We want to go
home. Even though there is nothing there, our lives
are more important. I don't think South Africa will
welcome us again – they hate us now."
While reacting to the development, Paul Manhica, 34,
a car mechanic from Mozambique, said: "I chose
South Africa because the living conditions are better
than any other country. I believed in the rainbow
nation and the peace created since the apartheid
system failed. It's a shock for me that it's not the
democratic country that I thought.
I'm disappointed
that an African brother could do this. It's a lack of
love in their hearts."
Narrating further, he said he had lived in South Africa
for 13 years and was leaving behind a South African
wife and child. He said, "I came here for work to
pursue a better life for myself and my family
"I got a small business, but it has all stopped since
the attacks began.
"A group of people shouted at me: 'There's one of
them. Catch him and torture him.'
Some of them
were people I've known many years. But I believe the
Lord looked after me: I ran to the mall and phoned
the police. Later the attackers went from home to
home and there was great destruction. I couldn't
sleep. At 1am I heard neighbours being tortured,
screaming and running for their lives."
Another Aaron Lavu, 39, a Zimbabwean who
migrated 15 years ago and opened a small business,
said, "South Africa is close to us and we were looking
for greener pastures than the regime of Robert
Mugabe. At first South Africans were friendly and we
thought we would integrate. Then last week eight
guys came and hit me with a hammer. They said: 'You
must pack your things and go home.
We don't need
you here.' It makes you feel lost, you can't do
anything anymore, you're not part of the society. We
feel hurt because we thought we were going to our
brothers."
Some South Africans have however supported the
attacks and are calling on the affected persons to
leave for their countries, blaming lack of job for their
action. One Nana Mkhonde, 29 said, "Our citizens
took action because they wouldn't leave and they
were being told they must leave.
They came with
nothing, they can go with nothing as well. I feel bad
because they left crying, but we have no choice.
"They should go because we have no jobs. I'm a
citizen and want to work for 150 rand a day but
foreigners will do it for 70 rand a day. In the kitchens
and the factories, they are taking over our jobs. They
bring cheap goods and we don't know where from.
They leave their countries with a lot of skills and we
have nothing. Our education is not good enough."
Mkhonde, another unemployed single mother,
backed the ongoing attacks, saying: "The government
says it's wrong because when they give jobs they help
themselves. If you don't have friends in the ANC, you
get nothing. What about us? Our government is doing
nothing for us. The reason we're fighting foreigners is
because of our government."
Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini, also supported the
attacks, by calling on foreigners to pack their bags
and leave.
Meanwhile, the South African police minister, Nathi
Nhleko, has described the attacks as examples of
"Afrophobia", not xenophobia.
"What you don't see is
you don't see Australians being chased on the
streets, Britons being chased on the streets and
similar demands being placed on them that they
should leave the country and so on," he said.
"What you effectively see is largely Africans against
one another in a sense now. That's why I'm saying it
represents a certain type of political problem that
has got to be dealt with by ourselves as South
Africans. In a sense, what we are witnessing are
actually Afrophobic kind of activities and attacks,
resembling all elements of self-hate among Africans."
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