adminFarai Matondo
The April madness shall be remembered by many who in their millions had glimpses of the drama that tore the fabric of our society in the world’s most multi-ethnic and diverse community widely known as the Rainbow Nation, South Africa.
Everywhere in South Africa, normalcy seems to have slowly returned as people are going through their everyday life routines.
Revisiting the ordeals, surely for all majority foreigners pains, traumas, fears still haunt us after the ‘burial’ of Mr X to an ‘unknown’ graveyard somewhere in the Republic.
Hoping he does not resurrect!
The attack on foreigners was arguably the most popular news globally in 2015 so far and it received the strongest condemnation from all spheres of life.
Xenophobic violence in 2008 claimed 62 lives then.
The recent xenophobic attacks left hundreds traumatised, injured, displaced millions of worthy properties and stock destroyed.
I stay in Kempton Park, which is very close to Alexandra township where one Emmanuel Sithole was brutally killed. This terrified foreigners as the fatal attack truly showed the other side of the Rainbow Nation.
The country is indeed going through a phase of instability.
“The violence as we saw it, was totally out of control, but what is worse is the lack of leadership to stop it,” said Esaie Prince of the Congolese community after the ghastly murder of the Mozambican, Sithole.
In an open letter addressed to the President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, Mia Couto a Mozambican had this to say: ” . . . It is impossible to imagine that these same South African brothers have chosen us as targets for hatred and persecution . . . Mr President, The xenophobia expressed today in South Africa is not merely a barbaric and cowardly attack against fellow Africans. It is also aggression against South Africa itself. It is an attack against the Rainbow Nation, which South Africa proudly proclaimed a decade or more years ago. Some South Africans are staining the name of their motherland.”
However, myself and many other foreigners believed the violence might have been orchestrated by the enemy inside the nation with still-to-be established motives.
We hardly slept in April for fear of being attacked during the night, walking freely and talking our vernacular languages could easily have put your life at risk.
But the call for integration, peace, tolerance became a hit classic song from the church’s voice, civic organisations, political parties, government heads, musicians, sportsmen, in public transport, ordinary man in the streets and all over the media. It was unanimous and it appears had a positive impact.
At our local Kempton Park church, Our Lady of Loreto Catholic Church, which we attend to with a diverse number of foreigners, we were embraced by the community.
The church does have a large number of immigrants from Zimbabwe, Malawi, Nigeria, Congo and Mozambique amongst its unique cultural background.
Father Patrick Mphepho’s message on the 19th of April touched on the heated social ills of xenophobia violence, inequalities and boundary issues.
The paradox of life such as birth choice, there is no need to question it, he preached.
“We are one people there is no need to retaliate, violence will never bring a solution to anyone, anywhere in the world,” said Father Patrick.
Fr Peter Robello commented on the statement letter from Southern African Catholic Bishops’ Conference, (SACBC) which read in part:
“Our charter, the bible, is very clear “When a foreigner lives with you in your land, don’t take advantage of him. Treat the foreigner the same as a native. Love him like one of your own. Remember that you were once foreigners in Egypt. I am God, your God”.(Leviticus 19:33-34).
“We understand the anger that the people may be feeling towards the foreigners for various legitimate reasons.
“However, we are a nation of peace, we are a rainbow nation.
“We conquered apartheid with very little use of violence and a settlement was reached peacefully.
“The same principle of Ubuntu needs to be applied in order to calm the recent spates of violence and unrest.
“While we acknowledge that the utterance by His Majesty, the King of the Zulu nation (King Goodwill Zwelithini), never meant nor was intended to cause violence, we categorically condemn this violence and publicly propagate the value of hospitality entrenched in Zulu worldview “isisu somhabi asingakanani singangenso yenyoni, he said”.
Nduduzo Zwane, a South African living in troubled Jeppestown, said he believed opportunists were misconstruing comments by King Zwelithini in a bid to justify the deadly violence.
And Justice and Peace department representative, Mr Felix Mashaba a South African addressed more than 400 people including Zimbabweans in the congregation.
“…we apologize unconditionally to all foreign nationals for the attacks and crime being committed by a few individuals. Not all South Africans support this, we condemn these acts of xenophobia…” he said.
Mashaba, a member of African National Congress, reiterated that the leadership of South Africa did not accept xenophobia and encouraged everyone to remain calm.
Mr Fanuel Nyambuya, the chairperson of the Zimbabwe community at Kempton Park Centre gave a historical overview of the political, cultural diversity and mineral richness which Zimbabwe possesses, and said Zimbabweans were there to help South Africa develop.
At the gathering during the peak of Afrophobia at a local church, the national anthems of Zimbabwe and South Africa were sang as a way of bonding the two countries.
Mrs Rudo Munyai explained the meaning of the Zimbabwean national flag to the South Africans and other foreign nationals at the event.
On the other hand the social media was abuzz, l discovered to some extent fabrications of misinformation and crazy photo shopped images.
The instilling of fear was rife that I could not believe the messages on WhatsApp, Youtube and Facebook, information paddlers were busy confusing people and largely instigating violence and hatred.
But thank God, the SA Government’s security agencies were on high alert considering the huge geographic nature of South Africa.
The anarchy in some places resembled real war torn countries and these included burnt motor vehicles and foreign owned shops, battling people with security in Johannesburg, Durban CBD and at various mostly African communities. Hundreds of men, women and children deserted homes to live in refugee camps established at Primrose Methodist Church, Chatsworth just to mention but a few.
The Malawian and Zimbabwean Governments repatriated hundreds back home as the mayhem reached the boiling point of pure madness.
As tension subsided ,many are slowly returning to their homes, back to greet, see face to face some of the instigators and perpetrators of xenophobic violence.
I hope Mr Xenophobia is “laid” to rest, hopefully for good this time!
Farayi Matondo is a budding writer on current affairs and creative writing, born in Sakubva township.
Online Reporter