Four in court for xenophobic violence

Two of the immigrants and one of them from Zimbabwe died during the xenophobic attacks last January. Zimbabwean Victor Zowa (24) and Tanzanian Omar Said (25) died when they were forced to jump out of a high-rise building by people wielding bush knives, while another Zimbabwean, Eugene Madondo, miraculously survived after he was also forced to jump from the fifth floor of the same building. The ANCs eThekwini Municipality ward councillor, Vusi Khoza and two accomplices, Patricia Ballantyne and Mzokuthoba Mngonyama, were charged with public violence and conspiracy to commit assault, while another South African, Sean Jacobs was charged with attempted murder.

Madondo, who survived because he landed on the body of one of the deceased victims, testified on Thursday that the South Africans pushed him out of the building, after complaining that they were tired of Amakwerekwere, a derisive term used by to describe immigrants from African countries. When they forced me to jump from the fifth floor, I saw two bodies lying motionless on the pavement, said Madondo. They pushed me and I landed on one of the bodies. Madondo said he lost consciousness after the fall and when he awoke, he was in hospital. He recounted in court how he heard a crowd of about 100 people singing, we are tired of foreigners, as they approached the building. They said that the foreigners must be taught a lesson and sent back to their homes.

Madondo said he had at first felt safe, as he thought that the security guard would not allow the crowd to enter the building. I became very scared when I heard them kicking doors and singing inside the apartment block. They forced me to open my door and a short man with long hair asked me which country I came from. When I told him that I was from Zimbabwe and looking for a job in Durban, they started beating me with knobkerries and later pushed me from the fifth floor. Madondo added that before he was pushed, the four accused persons also punched him in the stomach and pulled his genitals. All four accused persons pleaded not guilty, saying they were at their homes on the day of the incident. In a statement read in court, Khoza claimed he was with Ballantyne and Mngonyama at his home when the building was attacked. Jacobs, who claims to be homeless, said he was in the street where he usually slept.