Sitting on a step near a rubbish bin inside the KwaMai-Mai Hostel and Traditional Market in Johannesburg, Zweli Ndaba admits he’s feeling angry and frustrated.
He insists that it was never meant to be xenophobic, but the grossly anti-immigrant rhetoric that has emerged from the violence in Gauteng in early September is irrefutable. The shutdown claimed at least 12 lives as the xenophobic violence spread across Johannesburg. Livelihoods have been destroyed and people have been displaced in the areas where the violence has been most rampant.
The flyer called for the blocking of access to communities and industrial areas “until our voices is heard”. It concluded with: “South Africa for South Africans. This is not xenophobia but the truth.” Vusumuzi Sibanda, the chairperson of the Africa Diaspora Forum, said they handed over this and other flyers containing xenophobic messages to the police days before violence broke out but no action was taken.
Residents from the Wolhuter, George Goch, Denver and Cleveland men’s hostels came to make their voices heard, hoping Buthelezi would accept their demands. Marching to the park at which the meeting was held, they sang: “Awahambe amakwerekwere, awabuyele emuva. [Foreigners must go, they must go back.]”
One man said: “People of South Africa, there is only one thing that we have come for here today. Kuzabakho uxolo mhla ugovernment lo usiphetheyo wathatha amaforeyna wawabeka lapho asuka khona. [There will only be peace when the government in charge of us deports all the foreigners back to their countries.]
“When are we getting our houses?” he continued. “When is government going to take a stand and give us our houses? Many of the hostel residents were talking about the same issues: housing shortages, unemployment, inequality and the proliferation of drugs in their communities. But their extreme xenophobia played on dangerous and chauvinistic stereotypes of migrants from other African countries.
“We are condemning this violence. We want it to stop.” But Mhlongo said hostel residents were furious when Cele postponed the imbizo and government failed to meet with them. “They are angry because they don’t have answers. We must stop this thing now,” he said.Cele’s spokesperson, Lirandzu Themba, said: “The minister wants to see an end to the violence and also have more permanent solutions to the unrest. As we speak, discussions are ongoing to get finality on a new date.
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