Tag: South Africa

Tough homecoming for Zimbabwean migrants fleeing xenophobia

Zimbabwe migrants disembark from a bus on arrival at the International Organisation for Migration Reception and Support Centre in Beitbridge on April 20 2015. (Pic: AFP)

More than 2 000 Zimbabweans displaced by xenophobic attacks in South Africa have packed their bags for home. But Zimbabwe, a country teetering on the verge of economic collapse, is unlikely to offer them the means to restart their lives.

The attacks on foreigners – mainly Zimbabweans, Somalis, Malawians, Mozambicans and Nigerians – started in Durban more than two weeks ago following comments by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini, suggesting that African migrants in South Africa were criminals who should go back to their countries and stop stealing jobs and opportunities from locals.

Machete- and gun-wielding South Africans burned foreigners’ businesses and homes, looting goods, and forcing their inhabitants to flee. Six foreign nationals died in the attacks, which spread from Durban to other parts of the country, including Johannesburg. The worst of the violence has, for the most part, subsided, but African migrants are well aware that they could re-surface at any time.

Several countries, including Malawi, Mozambique and Nigeria, have tried to evacuate their citizens from affected areas, but Zimbabwe, which has by far the largest number of nationals living in South Africa, is faced with the biggest challenge. Over years of political and economic upheaval in Zimbabwe, some 1.5 million Zimbabweans are thought to have made the trek south in search of safety and better opportunities. Zimbabwe has set up an inter-ministerial rescue taskforce to repatriate several thousand of them.

Labour and Social Welfare Secretary Ngoni Masoka told IRIN that the Zimbabwean government expected to receive some 2 400 returnees who had opted to return home following the attacks, but added the actual numbers returning could be higher.

“We are getting constant updates from our embassy in South Africa. There could be Zimbabweans who might have decided not to approach us for help for various reasons, so it is difficult to know how many are coming back exactly,” he said.

The first batch of 433 returnees arrived last week in government-provided buses at Beitbridge border post from a Durban transit camp where they were being housed following the attacks. According to Masoka, the taskforce is determining their needs, qualifications and destinations so they can be referred to provincial and district welfare officers for help with reintegration. The Zimbabwe Red Cross Society and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) are providing returnees with food and other essentials, while specialists are offering counselling and medical attention.

Masoka declined to say whether the government had set aside a budget for the returnees.

Under no illusions

Jairos Mangwanya (36) is under no illusions that life back at home will be easy. He was among the first batch of returnees last week, but decided to hitchhike to Harare, the capital, after becoming impatient with delays getting on a government bus. He left his pregnant wife and two other children to follow on the government-provided transport and went ahead to organise them some temporary accommodation.

Mangwanya had worked in Durban as a teacher for the past eight years. He fled with his family when Zimbabweans at a neighbouring house were attacked and their belongings looted.

“We didn’t have the time to pack our belongings because the attackers were coming to our house. We only took some blankets and clothes and fled to the police station. We left our passports, educational certificates, money and other vital belongings behind,” Mangwanya told IRIN.

“That means we have virtually nowhere to start from. I can’t look for another job without my certificates and I know it will be a long time before the examinations authorities and birth registration officials here can replace my documents.”

Finding a place for him and his family to stay in Harare will be tough. Space at his two brothers’ homes is already limited.

“My brothers say my wife and the two children will go to one of the houses and I to the other. That must be for a short period, though, because they also have large families and dependants from the extended family,” said Mangwanya.

The other option is to take the family to their rural home in Mount Darwin, some 200km away from Harare. But going there will greatly reduce his chances of being able to provide for his family or of his two children being able to attend school.

Mangwanya left South Africa before receiving his April salary and is likely to forfeit his pension and other employment benefits.

Trynos Musumba (41), who was travelling from Beitbridge with Mangwanda, had been working as a plumber in Durban and sending part of his earnings to his 70-year-old mother and unemployed sisters in Zimbabwe. He left his South African wife and four-year-old child behind in Durban.

“With my return, it means no one will be able to fend for my family here. My wife is not employed and she will find life tough. I might have to look at ways of going back to a safe city in South Africa and looking for another job,” he told IRIN.

His mother, who is diabetic, and the rest of the family live in rural Mhondoro, some 50km west of Harare. The area is one of many in the country to have suffered crop failure this year following poor rains.

“This is a very bad situation being made worse for the migrants,” said John Robertson, an independent economic analyst. “They fled Zimbabwe to look for better opportunities and are returning home to the very economic crisis they tried to run away from. The situation could actually be worse than when these people went away.”

He added that unofficially, unemployment in Zimbabwe is close to 80 percent, despite official figures putting it at 11 percent.

Japhet Moyo, secretary general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), told IRIN: “Most of the companies have closed down and the few that remain are struggling. Worse still, government cannot absorb [those being laid off] because it doesn’t have the money to employ more people.”

Government too broke to help

Robertson said it was unlikely that the social welfare department would help the returnees in any meaningful way. “Our government has never had an unemployment benefit scheme or social security policy and is too broke to fund any intervention to help the returning Zimbabweans re-integrate. It will thus leave everything to the extended family, hoping that relatives will cushion the returnees.”

Musumba said that on the bus he took home with other returnees “many said they will never return to South Africa to look for jobs, but I know as soon as there is peace, they will go back because the situation in our country is so bad.”

Gabriel Shumba, a South Africa-based human rights lawyer who heads the Zimbabwe Exiles Forum (ZEF), said some 2 000 Zimbabweans remained in camps near Durban. Although churches, NGOs and the South African government are providing some aid, many are still in need of food, clothing, counselling and medical attention.

“The situation remains precarious. There is need for the humanitarian community to scale up support for the people in camps,” he told IRIN.

Shumba said his organisation was working to provide legal assistance to those who had been attacked or their property looted in an effort to ensure perpetrators could be arrested and brought to justice. South African authorities have a poor record of prosecuting perpetrators of past attacks.

He added that he did not believe repatriating victims to Zimbabwe was the answer, arguing that it “would embolden the attackers and encourage more attacks”.

9 years ago

South Africans, explain your unforgivable actions

A foreign national walks with his children after clashes broke out between a group of locals and police on April 14 2015 in Durban. Hundreds of people have been displaced and forced to flee their homes. (Pic: AFP)

This week, media screens have flashed images of black South Africans executing violent acts on other blacks who are not South Africans. I have seen people petrol bombed in their shops. I have seen images of bloodied heads and faces. I have seen images of angry mobs walking through the streets, mpangas and other weapons in tow, ready to lash out at any foreigner. But more so the black foreigner.

These people have come to South Africa for a number of reasons – school, work, business, economic opportunity, refuge. They came to South Africa to live their lives, but are now being punished for making such a decision.

It’s black on black crime like we’ve never seen before. Actually, we’ve seen this before. In 2008, 2011, oh, 2014 and 2015. It happens year after year in South Africa with no end to this horrific attitude in sight.

It appears that black South Africans are angry because other Africans have come to South Africa to take away opportunities that rightfully ‘belong’ to them. This latest upsurge in violence is as a result of King Goodwill Zwelithini’s comments that foreigners must go back to their homelands. Of course, the Zulu king has denied it, claiming his comments have been distorted but the damage has been done, and one cannot deny that even if his comments have been taken wrongly, there is an amount of anti-foreign sentiment there.

Why? Why can a country like South Africa resort to these awful acts? In apartheid days, black South Africans were harboured in many African countries – Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi, Kenya. All the countries rallied together, sometimes at the peril of their own stability, to ensure South Africa’s freedom. Lives were lost in South Africa, fighting apartheid. Lives were lost outside of South Africa, too. And yet, these people, who have their political freedom because of us, are now beating and battering us as though none of that happened, but also as though it’s okay to treat humans like that. Black South Africans are attacking foreigners, burning their homes and businesses to make a point. And their point is this:

You are taking over our country.

You are taking our jobs.

You are taking what should be ours.

South Africans have found themselves competing with foreign nationals on a number of fronts and with the history of marginalisation, perhaps it was all too much. The government wasn’t protecting their jobs, houses or opportunities but bringing in even more foreigners. They took matters into their own hands. Regardless, it’s shocking. And I don’t understand it.

What I do know is this should not be accepted. Governments are not taking a large enough stand against xenophobic attacks against their nationals, probably because the region depends so heavily on South African goods and investment that boycotting SA investments and products would cripple their own economies.

These are human rights violations on a grand scale and I would like to see South Africa penalised for this. I would also like to see the foreigners repatriated to their own countries. Get out. Malawi has begun bussing its people back to Nyasaland. Good. I hope they stay home.

Next should be Zambia, or Zimbabwe. And let all other African countries follow suit. Then we’ll see who’s left in South Africa. We’ll see how well their economy would run, how well their services will be managed and delivered.

And then we’ll see who will be targeted next.

Because it seems to me, these are just angry people who have the residues of apartheid left in their souls and cannot be freed from that grip.

But they don’t see it.

Mali Kambandu-Nkhoma is a writer living and working in Lusaka, Zambia. She writes on development issues, and creatively on films. She blogs at malikambandu.wordpress.com

9 years ago

Xenophobia in SA: Attacking each other won’t resolve our economic challenges

Foreign nationals gesture after clashes broke out between a group of locals and police in Durban on April 14 2015 in ongoing violence against foreign nationals in the city. (Pic: AFP)

In 2008 in Gauteng, fellow brothers and sisters from the continent were injured and killed in violent xenophobic attacks. In January this year, violence broke out between foreign nationals and locals in Alexandra after a Somali shop owner shot and killed a 14-year-old who tried to rob his shop. Looting followed. It then spread to Diepsloot and the West Rand. This week, xenophobic violence erupted in Kwa Zulu Natal and Johannesburg, leaving at least six people dead and displacing thousands.

We must never condone any form of violence. We must never celebrate when a fellow human being is killed or attacked simply because they are of a different nationality.

As Africans we need to ask ourselves why there is no peace and stability on the continent. Why is it that we as Africans are not benefiting from our own resources? South Africa is a young democracy and a lot still needs to be as we build a prosperous country with equal opportunities for all citizens. Many of our brothers and sisters from across the continent come to South Africa due to socioeconomic reasons, and seek to find a better life for themselves. Although all African countries are politically independent, many are still not economically independent.

While the ANC-led government has made significant achievements post-1994, South Africa is still not where it needs to be in terms of dealing with unemployment and poverty. One hopes that at the African Union summit due to be held in South Africa in June, our heads of states will have frank, robust, and constructive engagements on the economy of the continent and how to work together to fight our economic challenges. Migration needs to be looked from a very sober point of view that will help us to take the continent forward and guarantee peace and stability.

African people must never fight each other for economic space. Economic freedom is needed in the continent. This will reduce migration caused by poverty and political instability on the continent.

It is a big concern that African countries are unable to fully fund the AU’s budget. A situation where the West funds more than 70% of it is untenable. We get crumbs from our own resources and we are still divided according to who colonised us. Let us all reflect on why the AU budget is funded by the West when we have our own heads of states. To quote the great Thomas Sankara, “He who feeds you, controls you.” We have seen in the past how the West dictates how the AU budget must be used and for what programmes. We need the political will from our leaders to make sure that Africa is economically liberated. We need to get to the root cause of our problems and find lasting solutions that will make a difference to the people of this continent.

Attacks on each other will not resolve the economic challenges we are facing as Africans. Our leaders must work together in making sure that poverty is eliminated, and that we build a strong continent. Co-operation with other continents is important, but it must be on our terms in order to benefit the people of this continent and take us forward as Africans.

Rebone Tau is a former national task team member of the ANC Youth League and former chairperson of its international relations subcommittee. She writes in her personal capacity.

9 years ago

Mugabe lambasts West on visit to South Africa

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe (L) and South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma deliver a speech before the signing of various memorandum of understanding between the two countries at the Union Buildings in Pretoria on April 8 2015. (Pic: AFP)

Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe on Wednesday launched a wide-ranging attack on Western colonisation in Africa and recent intervention in the Arab world, as he made his first state visit to South Africa in 21 years.

The veteran leader, 91, seized the opportunity of a televised press conference with President Jacob Zuma in Pretoria to lambast the United Nations Security Council, the United States and former colonial power Britain.

“We want a political environment in which we are not interfered with by outsiders and we become masters of ourselves in Africa,” Mugabe told reporters.

“We don’t think we are getting a fair deal at the United Nations.

“The five countries there who are permanent members… control the entire system.”

Mugabe said the developing world should stand together against the US, France and Britain, who make up three of five permanent members of the UN security council.

“They disturb the Arab world and leave (it) torn apart. Look at what they did to Libya,” he said, adding that US-led wars in Iraq revealed the “messy, reckless, brutal approach of the West”.

Mugabe, who is often accused of human rights abuses in Zimbabwe, said his state visit to Pretoria represented Africa’s victory over colonialists.

“Now we are our own people, and we have President Zuma here and President Mugabe in Zimbabwe – that is what what you fought for,” he said.

“African resources belong to Africa. Others may come to assist as our friends and allies but no longer as colonisers or oppressors, no longer as racists.”

Seeking investment

Mugabe provoked laughter from some officials when he spoke about a statue of British colonialist Cecil Rhodes in Cape Town that has been vandalised in recent student protests.

Rhodes is buried in Zimbabwe, which was called Rhodesia until independence in 1980 when Mugabe came to power.

“We are looking after the corpse. You have the statue of him,” Mugabe said. “I don’t know what you think we should do – dig him up? Perhaps his spirit might rise again.”

Mugabe, who was accompanied by his wife Grace, hopes his visit to South Africa will drum up foreign investment to revive his nation’s moribund economy.

Zimbabwe has been on a downturn for more than a decade due to low growth and high unemployment.

Zimbabwe’s economy entered a tailspin after the launch of controversial land reforms 14 years ago. By 2008, inflation had officially peaked at 231 million percent before the government stopped counting.

Zuma said a series of agreements signed on Wednesday would help both nations.

“The economies of the two countries are historically and inextricably linked,” he said. “Opportunities for deeper economic cooperation exist.”

Mugabe, who is the current chairman of the African Union, has visited South Africa in the past on working trips but has made no state visit since 1994.

His wife Grace is seen as one possible successor to her husband.

Former vice-president Joice Mujuru was long considered likely to take over, but she fell out with the veteran leader late last year and was sacked in December.

Mugabe will attend a bilateral business forum in Pretoria on Thursday.

9 years ago

South African doctors perform world’s first penis transplant

(Pic: Flickr / James Mutter)

South African doctors have successfully performed the world’s first penis transplant on a young man who had his organ amputated after a botched circumcision ritual, a hospital said on Friday.

The nine-hour transplant, which occurred in December last year, was part of a pilot study by Tygerberg Hospital in Cape Town and the University of Stellenbosch to help scores of initiates who either die or lose their penises in botched circumcisions each year.

“This is a very serious situation. For a young man of 18 or 19 years the loss of his penis can be deeply traumatic,” said Andre van der Merwe, head of the university’s urology unit and who led the operation said in a statement.

The young patient had recovered full use of his manhood, doctors said, adding that the procedure could eventually be extended to men who have lost their penises to cancer or as a last resort for severe erectile dysfunction.

“There is a greater need in South Africa for this type of procedure than elsewhere in the world, as many young men lose their penises every year due to complications from traditional circumcision,” Van der Merwe said.

The patient, who is not being named for ethical reasons, was 18 years old when his penis was amputated three years ago after he developed severe complications due to a traditional circumcision as a rite of passage into manhood.

Finding a donor organ was one of the major challenges of the study, a statement by the university said.

The donor was a deceased person who donated his organs for transplant, doctors said without elaborating.

Each year thousands of young men, mainly from the Xhosa tribe in South Africa, have their foreskins removed in traditional rituals, with experts estimating around 250 losing their penises each year to medical complications.

Initiates are required to live in special huts away from the community for several weeks, have their heads shaved and smear white clay from head to toe and they move into adulthood.

Another nine patients will receive penile transplants as part of the study, doctors said, but it was not clear when the operations could be carried out.