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Thupeyo Muleya
IN many parts of the world, marriages are considered sacred and especially so in tradition-steeped Africa.
African marriages usually involve not just the coming together of the couple in question, but their extended families and sometimes entire communities, although traditions vary vastly across the continent.
In essence, family plays a crucial role and is considered a basic cell of society.
As the world gradually becomes a global village, marriages between people from different villages, races and countries have been on the rise.
This has also been the case with immigrants from across the world working in South Africa with a good example being the marriage of Zimbabwean politician, Professor Welshmen Ncube’s son, Wesley to Gugulethu, the daughter of South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma in December 2008.
The marriage institution between foreign immigrants and South African women has come under threat as a result of the xenophobia motivated attacks which broke out recently in Durban.
The skirmishes left close to 5,000 people mainly Mozambicans, Malawians, Kenyans, Batswana and Zimbabweans displaced.
Zimbabwe’s envoy to South Africa, Isaac Moyo, said during the repatriation of the xenophobia victims from south of the Limpopo River they had challenges in cases where women from that country without passports wanted to travel to Zimbabwe with their displaced husbands.
“I had interactions with most of the women and they stuck to their guns. Some of them were heavily pregnant while others indicated that their children were already in Zimbabwe.
“We tried to help them in consultation with the host government though others left the camps and found new places to stay,” said the ambassador.
Some of the affected couples decided to leave Durban for other towns while others crossed the border to Zimbabwe illegally.
One couple at Chatsworth Transitional Camp in Durban had a sad story to tell.
Tinashe Museva of Chiredzi, who used to stay in 1104 area of Durban, said he was not leaving his South African wife Nomaswazi Ngcobo behind.
Museva was supposed to be part of over 800 Zimbabweans who were evacuated from Durban in government hired buses through the Beitbridge border post.
“I’m employed as a welder in Durban and we have been married for three years. My wife has no passport and I can’t go back to Zimbabwe leaving her behind. I have already paid the bride price and she is now five months pregnant.
“My repatriation documents have been sorted by the embassy staff but the challenge is that they cannot allow us to travel together,” Museva said.
He said they had approached the South African Home Affairs Department with a view to getting an emergency travel document for Ngcobo without success.
“The staff at Home Affairs say we should apply for a passport which will be out in three weeks. At the moment I don’t have the R400 (required to process a passport) since I cannot go to work under these conditions. I love my wife, she is very supportive and there are very few people who stick by you during such hard times,” said a dejected Museva.
He said they would stay at the transitional camp as long as it takes until the situation normalised.
“I have thought of leaving her behind at some point, but I realised we have a strong bond that is unbreakable,” Museva said.
Ngcobo declared that nothing would separate her from the love of her life adding that she would not go back to the same community which wanted to harm them.
“When we heard people singing anti-immigrants songs, I hid him (Museva) in the wardrobe until the next morning when we sought refuge at the police who took us to this camp. The mob threatened to beat me up if ever they saw me in the company of Tinashe.
“He is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me and I won’t leave him because of selfish people. We will stay together in this camp until we find a solution to our problem” she said.
Ngcobo said she preferred to marry Museva because he was not abusive like some men from her country.
She said marriage was by design and that no one should be forced to settle with someone they don’t like because of ethnicity.
“It’s by choice to marry whoever one wants regardless of their nationality or ethnicity,” Ngcobo said.
As the xenophobia attacks on immigrants reached fever pitch, another South African woman, Nokuthula Mabaso was assaulted and robbed by a mob when she visited her Zimbabwean boyfriend Elias Chauke.
Mabaso, who is from Harismith area in Free State province, escaped the attack with minor injuries.
She said she was assaulted in Makause area in Germiston by men who accused her of shunning them in preference for immigrants.
“They kicked the door open and assaulted me for dating foreigners at the expense of local men” she said.
Mabaso is now seeking refuge at the Primrose Transitional Camp in Johannesburg which is housing close to 500 immigrants.
The situation has calmed down in most parts of South Africa after the government deployed soldiers to assist the police in volatile areas where the police were being overwhelmed.
South Africa’s minister of Social Development, Bathabile Olive Dlamini, told journalists during a tour of Primrose camp in Johannesburg recently that they had agreed with community leaders to re-integrate those who had been displaced.
The transitional centres in Durban and Johannesburg are gradually closing down as many countries are in the midst of evacuating their citizens from South Africa.
Online Reporter