concerning Zimbabweans attacked in Johannesburg

* Originally by Shirley DeWolf, [email protected]
* Originally to badaddress edicesa, 5:7211/1.98
* Originally dated Tue 30 Oct 2001 8:53A

-*- Forwarded message follows: -*-

From: "Shirley DeWolf"
To: "Council of Churches, Zimbabwe" ,
"Bishop AM" , "EDICESA" ,
"Bishop Ambrose Moyo"

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Friends: I am copying to you below commentary sent to me by Rev White
Rakuba
of the SACC who is working with victims (both Zimbabwean and South African)
of
the violent clashes in the Johannesburg area last week. If we have not
already
done so, may I suggest that the ZCC urgently contacts the SACC to find out
whether there is anything the Zimbabwean churches could do to help the
mediation
process. Best reagrds, Shirley DeWolf

From: White Rakube
To: Shirley DeWolf
Cc: [email protected] ; Bishop Gerard Mpango
Sent: Friday, October 26, 2001 1:32 PM
Subject: Re: from Shirley

Hi Shirley,

I hope you have heard about the current xenophobic attacks on the Zimbabwean
citizens in one of the informal settlements, to be exact, in Zandspruit, in
Honeydew, north of Randburg. The situation was allegedly sparked by the
murder
of a young woman on the 8th of September and the culprit was identified as a
Zimbabwean. The South African residents in the camp then retaliated by
burning
some of the shacks belonging to Zimbabweans. The Zimbabweans retaliated and
burned about six shacks. The situation became serious early this week and a
total of 130 shacks belonging to the Zimbabweans were gutted by fire and
they
were driven out of the settlement.

We have been working under extremely dangerous conditions to try to assist
the
victims. On Wednesday a general meeting was called to try to settle the
matter
and it was then that we realized how serious the situation was. The South
African residents refused to attend the meeting and nothing could be done.
The
meeting then decided to work out a strategy to try to resolve the matter.
Three
committees were established: the Relief Committee to look at the immediate
needs
of the victims, the Mediation Committee and the Long Term Development
committee.

Our office is coordinating the Relief Committee, and the Mediation Committee
is
coordinated by SACC's Provincial Council of Churches in Gauteng in
collaboration
with the Human Rights Commission. Besides the Relief Committee, no break
through
has been made so far. The situation is extremely volatile. We currently have
641
men at one of the disused mine hostel in Roodepoort and about 80 women in a
shelter in the Johannesburg city centre. Many have scattered into the
townships
and surburbs. Our major fear is that if this is spreads throughout the
Johannesburg area we shall have serious problems. The SACC church leaders
are in
the process of negotiating with the local structures so that the violence
can be
contained before it spreads further.

The situation is made difficult by the pouring rains since the beginning of
this week and the weather forecast predicts that we shall have rains until
mid
next week.

Regards
_________
JOHANNESBURG, 24 October (IRIN) -
Dennis Dube was in his one-room shack sorting out Christmas gifts for his
eight
children back in Zimbabwe when they threw the first petrol bomb through his
open
door last Sunday evening.

A legal Zimbabwe immigrant, Dennis has been living and working in
Johannesburg
since 1976. When he got his resident's papers five years ago he bought a
plot at
Zandspruit informal settlement northwest of Johannesburg and built a house
for
himself and his South African wife.

Now he sits on a steel bench munching donated biscuits in a church hall.
Dennis
lost everything when his neighbours torched his home and threatened to kill
him
if he was seen in the area again. "I'm just so sad that they (South
Africans)
can treat me like this, I've never known anything like this," he told IRIN
on
Wednesday.

Local residents of the impoverished Zandspruit settlement decided at the
weekend to expel the hundreds of Zimbabweans living among them and destroy
their
homes. They accuse them of involvement in violent crime and taking the jobs
of
South Africans.

"Because they (Zimbabweans) are desperate, they work for less, it's driving
down wages, we're sick of them," one resident shouted. Trouble had been
brewing
since the murders last month of two South Africans, both blamed on
Zimbabweans.
Locals with Zimbabwean friends were also targeted. A still-smoking ruin was
all
that remained of Mary Tlou's shack - somebody said she had a foreign
boyfriend.

"The Zimbabwe people must go back, we don't want them in South Africa, we
don't
have anything for them here," one Zandspruit resident told IRIN. Others at
the
settlement said they had no problem with other immigrants like Malawians and
Mozambicans, "they are cool, it's the Zimbabweans who do all the crime, and
most
are illegals" one unemployed youth said.

Police spokeswoman Terry-Anne Booyse said more than 20 people have been
arrested for public violence over the past two days and they would appear in
court in Johannesburg on Wednesday. The Zandspruit squatter camp has about
15,000 shacks and some 50,000 residents living there.

"We desperately need blankets, food and clothing for these people, they've
come
here with nothing," Pauline Piert, a Johannesburg charity worker, told IRIN
from
the church hall where the Zimbabweans are being temporarily housed. Most of
those chased out of Zandspruit said they were too scared to ever go back.
"I'm
actually going to go back to Bulawayo (Zimbabwe's second city), I'd rather
starve there than be murdered here," John Sibongo, a gardener, told IRIN.

Attacks on African non-nationals are on the increase in South Africa. The
latest violence that left at least 10 people injured and about a thousand
homeless, came barely a month after South Africa hosted the UN-sponsored
world
racism conference at which solutions to the rise in xenophobia worldwide
were
sought.

The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) - which has tried to
tackle
the problem of racial intolerance in poor communities through its Roll Back
Xenophobia Campaign - condemned the "racial cleansing" at Zandspruit.
"Whilst we
acknowledge the dire economic situation faced by many South Africans,
actions
such as those in Zandspruit merely fuel xenophobic hatred rather than
address
the core issues of economic underdevelopment", SAHRC's Phumla Mthala told
IRIN.

The steady flow of migrants from Zimbabwe into South Africa has increased
significantly in recent months as drought, flooding, economic decline and
the
government's chaotic land reform programme have all stimulated emigration
south.

"I'm here quite simply because there is nothing for me at home," Jonas, a
migrant carpenter from Chiredzi, close to the common border, told IRIN. Some
observers believe economic meltdown and food shortages in Zimbabwe will lead
to
a flood of migrants into South Africa and a rise in the kind of
anti-foreigner
violence seen at Zandspruit over the past few days.

[ENDS]