SA refugee group slams political leaders over xenophobia

By Alex Bell
20 November 2009

South African refugee rights group, PASSOP, has slammed local government officials for their handling of this week’s outbreak of xenophobic violence near Cape Town, which saw more than 3000 foreigners, mainly Zimbabweans, flee their homes.

22 South African nationals have been arrested after scores of residents from the De Doorns farming town in the Western Cape went on the rampage, driving out foreigners in at least two informal settlements in the area. The foreigners were forced to pack up their belongings and flee after tensions over jobs and pay in the area boiled over on Tuesday. The groups of South Africans, armed with sticks and rocks, tore down makeshift houses and forced the foreigners to flee the settlements, accusing them of “stealing our jobs.”

Earlier in the day, residents had physically prevented the foreigners from climbing on to trucks used by local farmers to fetch casual workers for daily labour. Many of the Zimbabwean workers, who are alleged to accept work for less pay than South African workers, immediately fled the settlements, fearing a similar uprising of xenophobic violence that last year resulted in the deaths of more than 60 people across the country. By Tuesday evening close to 2000 foreigners, mostly Zimbabwean, were taking shelter in De Doorns town, where local police had set up a refugee camp at a sports field. By Friday, more than 3000 foreigners were camped at the sports field, too afraid to return to the communities that drove them out.
At the same time, many local farmers who helped the displaced workers, this week received threats for aiding foreigners. The threats came on the same day that the South Africa Minister of Labour, Membathisi Mdladlana, threatened to come down ‘like a ton of bricks’ on farmers who employed illegal immigrants, saying they fanned xenophobic violence. The threats were apparently made by local workers, who have previously complained that farmers are “excluding the local community,” because they did not want to pay them the daily wage the locals demand from the employers. The Zimbabweans are said to accept about half of this amount, but the farmers deny this.

PASSOP’s Braam Hanekom on Friday lashed out at local authorities, accusing them of not doing enough to prevent the attacks. He said the tensions in the local worker communities have been building since last week, tensions he said police and government officials were “more than aware of.” Hanekom explained that the government has since been more interested in “hiding how serious this problem is ahead of the World Cup next year than actually dealing with it.”

Hanekom also described the dire situation facing the mainly Zimbabwean population now taking refuge at the makeshift camp in De Doorns. He explained how the conditions are becoming more unsanitary by the hour, because there are not enough toilets or showers for the thousands of foreigners camped there. He also explained how most people in the camp are battling with hunger, because the food and clean water promised by aid groups and the government, has not been arriving.

“There is no will to help these people and the government only seems concerned in protecting its international reputation,” Hanekom said.

PASSOP has also lashed out at the government’s plans to reintegrate the foreigners has soon as possible, a move that Hanekom explained does not take into account the safety and security of the refugees. He said it was ‘alarming’ and ‘insulting’ that the officials are planning reintegration without consulting the group of foreigners, who Hanekom explained are still angry and afraid.

“No community which has been forcefully displaced can possibly reintegrate successfully in such a short time without a proper process for healing, counselling, and negotiations,” Hanekom said.