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JOHANNESBURG – More than 60 Zimbabwean immigrants who were left injured and homeless in xenophobic attacks in Johannesburg on Wednesday appealed to immigration authorities to send them back home to Zimbabwe, saying it was no longer safe for them to stay in South Africa.
“We are now appealing to Home Affairs to take us back. We want to go back to our country, it’s not easy to stay in South Africa. Anywhere in South Africa, we are not safe . . . we came here for jobs and this is what we get," said Tariro Mudavanhu, a victim of the xenophobic attacks.
She added, "They insulted us. They screamed, they shouted and said get out . . . they said leave everything. They demanded cellphones and money?.”
Xenophobic violence broke out in the Johannesburg township of Alexandra when a group of South African men attacked foreign nationals around midnight on Sunday setting off ugly scenes of assault, looting, rape and destruction of property.
Foreign nationals mostly from Mozambique, Malawi and Zimbabwe had to seek refuge at Alexandra police station after they were assaulted and driven off out of the shacks in which they were living.
A Zimbabwean pressure group National Constitution Assembly (NCA), which has an office in South Africa office, other human rights organisations and well wishers yesterday, distributed blankets, clothes and food to victims now based at the police station.
“The NCA is concerned over the failure by the local security authorities to protect both local and foreign nationals living in the country,” NCA coordinator Tapera Kapuya said yesterday in Alexandra.
“As we condemn the Ministry of Safety and Security's failure to put in place measures in townships where foreign nationals live despite early warnings over violence that took place in Pretoria, the NCA urges the South African government to urgently show political will in protecting the rights of non-nationals,” he added
South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) party urged the government to deploy the army to help calm the situation in Alexandra.
“The army should only be used in a civilian context in case of serious emergency. But I believe we may have reached that stage. They should either be reinforced so that they can, or the army should be brought in to back them up,” a DA provincial legislator John Moodey said after visiting some of the victims.
The violence in Alexandra is the latest in a series of attacks on foreigners in South Africa’s poor townships, where residents often struggle for scarce resources.
Gauteng Member of the Executive Committee for Finance and Economic Development Paul Mashatile, ruling African National Congress (ANC) party and Gautengprovincial leaders on Wednesday visited Alexandra and met with community leaders, ANC branch members and religious groups in an attempt to find a way of avoiding further violence.
Meanwhile South Africa’s National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) on Wednesday condemned the attacks on innocent immigrants labelling them as “anti-working class”.
NUM secretary general Frans Baleni said: “It is totally unacceptable and inexcusable that immigrants could be attacked for being immigrants in a country which purports to support human rights.
“The working class and the poor should be united against the common enemy such as oppressive regimes and capitalist exploitation. We cannot wage war against each other. Workers of the world should unite and therefore we must discourage this malady.”
NUM urged its members to take part in street marches called by the umbrella Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) later this week to protest against rising food prices in South Africa and against the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe, which was forcing many of that country’s citizens to flee to neighbouring countries.
An estimated three million Zimbabweans are living in South Africa and other neighbouring states – many of them illegally – after fleeing their home country because of political violence and worsening economic hardships. – ZimOnline
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