Omari’s crime was that she had returned to her home after being run out
of the community in May, along with thousands of other foreigners. The
men outside made their point by firing two shots into the house she had
lived in for five years.
The xenophobic attacks in May killed over 60 foreign nationals across
the country and displaced some 20,000 in Western Cape. A week after the
violence, the government established "safety camps" around the country,
offering safe haven to foreigners.
From the outset it was made clear the camps would be temporary, and the
displaced would need to choose between reintegration into their local
communities, or repatriation to their country of origin.
By late June, provincial officials claimed that some 12,000 of the
22,000 displaced had voluntarily returned to their neighbourhoods. Many
foreigners said they had faced dire conditions in the camps – lack of
food, poor sanitation and, in wintry Cape Town, insufficient protection
from the elements.
Still not safe
An unknown number have continued to be victimised after returning to
their communities, typically without an official programme of
protection or monitoring by the government or police.
"I know at least 20 people who went to be reintegrated and were raped
or killed or attacked," Asad Abdullahi, a Somali leader in Cape Town’s
Blue Waters Security Site, told IRIN. "I’ve attended their funerals,
and still have their documentation for asylum seeking."
Now they’re talking about evicting us from the camp. I don’t know which
place I’m going to go. I’m looking everywhere for where I’m going to be
safe
Like the other 650 people still in Blue Waters Site C, Abdullahi has
refused to leave despite the camp’s official closure over a week ago,
because he fears for his life.
Omari, a Tutsi who fled ethnic violence in the eastern Democratic
Republic of Congo, said she decided to return to her community in July,
after a month in the camp, so that her five children could go back to
school.
The first night back the shots were fired, and she and her husband
filed a police report the next day. "I told my husband, ‘Let’s go the
police station, because this bullet is proof, and maybe they’ll come to
make an investigation’."
They reported the incident. Omari, who speaks Xhosa, one of South
Africa’s main languages, said the officer called a colleague on the
police radio, but she heard him decline to investigate the case.
"The police asked which kind of people it was for, and said, ‘Oh, it’s
makwerikweri [derogatory term for a foreigner], I don’t want to come.
They want to prove why they don’t want to go back to community. If I
make an investigation for them, maybe that paper [document opening a
case] will be that proof [evidence of the incident]’," Omari alleged.
She and her husband subsequently returned to Blue Waters Camp, where
they have stayed despite the likelihood of imminent eviction. Her story
was mirrored by many others who said they had attempted to return to
their communities but were threatened or assaulted within a day or two,
and had fled back to the camps.
Xenophobia or crime?
"When these killings take place, the police say it’s crime, not
xenophobia. But to us, we see another tactic, which is that the people
who created the xenophobic attacks are now trying to scare us away, one
by one, so we’ll get scared and run away. It’s another form of
xenophobia, but not like the one in May," Mohammed Osman Jamma, leader
of the Somali Community Board, a self-help association, told IRIN.
Photo: Tebogo Letsie/IRINÂ
Residents of Ramaphosa informal settlement, Johannesburg, hunting for foreigners
Responding by email to allegations that over 10 people had been killed
in xenophobic attacks around Cape Town over the last month, the South
African Police Service wrote: "We do not have any record of the
existence of xenophobia in the Western Cape for that period. Be advised
that several cases of crime however were reported."
The question is: where is the line drawn between "common" crime and
xenophobia? "I’m not sure anyone has a clear answer to that," said
Hildegard Fast, head of the province’s disaster management authority.
"We have to note that there is a problem with crime generally, and
sometimes those victims will be foreigners.
"Sometimes there may be elements of xenophobia in a criminal incident,
and in other cases it may be the motivation for the incident. But
rather than having a strict methodology to define that this is or is
not xenophobia, we have to recognise that our number one goal, as a
society, is to create safer communities for everyone, and creating
safer communities for foreigners is part of that goal."
Fast also pointed out that foreigners, who are often unable to open
bank accounts because of documentation problems, are targeted because
of their vulnerability.
According to the police, "Circumstances will dictate whether it will be
classified as a xenophobic attack or as an act of crime. Usually an
attack on an individual is regarded as crime, while several attacks
against foreign persons by locals will be regarded as xenophobia, if
evidence of this nature exists."
Some foreigners question police willingness to look for evidence. A
Congolese man at Blue Waters, who wanted to be identified as Matagera,
said a police officer had urinated on the tap where residents bathe.
When confronted, the officer allegedly said that he was in his country
and could do whatever he liked. "If the police, who are supposed to
protect you, say things like that, and you’re still pressing me to go
reintegrate, I ask you, who is going to protect me there?"
Norbert Ndagijimana, a Rwandan, said he and his wife had returned to
their community. A few days later his wife, Agathe, was on her way home
from church when she was told: "They’re coming."
That night a small mob pushed Ndagijimana’s car away from their house
and smashed all its windows. When the police came they told him he was
lucky that he still had his car. When he asked them to take
fingerprints, they allegedly declined to do so.
Whether these incidents constitute hate crime or not, it is clear that
foreigners are vulnerable. "For me, there’s no chance to stay here,"
said Abdallah Aman Afrah. He was shot in the arm and witnessed his
brother being killed by armed robbers in their shop on 9 November.
"Now my other brothers and I are preparing to go back to our country.
There’s a war there, but that war is better than this one, because that
is my country. I’ll leave as soon as I have money to go home."
The Somali Community Board is encouraging people to stay. "The
situation in Somalia at the moment is appalling. Some of our community
want to return, but it’s not a good idea. But I understand their
desire, because a lot of Somalis have lost everything here. It’s out of
frustration that they ask for repatriation."
Others like Aunesi Omari – who, in her five years in South Africa has
seen her brother killed, her daughter raped, and her home taken away
from her – seem to have fallen into passive desperation.
"Now they’re talking about evicting us from the camp. I don’t know
which place I’m going to go. I’m looking everywhere for where I’m going
to be safe. In South Africa I’m not safe, and in my country I’m not
safe. Where can I go with five children? I really don’t know what I’m
going to do."