'I want to go home'
2008-05-14 10:32
Special Report
Zimbabwe has suspended 29 non-governmental organisations in one of its province including Care International, a report says, raising worries of a crackdown similar to one that preceded elections in 2008.
A dusty road leads to the village of Wedza, where veterans of Zimbabwe's liberation war eke out a meagre living on their farm cooperative, which after a promising start now brings only despair.
Johannesburg - "I want to go home." This is the appeal of a Zimbabwean woman who fought to prevent her little sister from being raped during xenophobic attacks on Monday night.
Willet Sibanda who also has an eight-year-old daughter received blankets and clothes at the Alexandra police station on Tuesday afternoon.
These possessions are all she has left after xenophobic violence broke out on Sunday and she became a victim of it on Monday night.
Sibanda told how men she described as 'Zulus' from a hostel in Alexandra kicked down her door around 22:00 and told her to leave everything behind and get out.
"They insulted us. They screamed, they shouted and said get out... they said leave everything. They demanded my cellphone and money... [they] touched me all over," she said.
Sibanda described how the group of men told her to stand behind a curtain because they wanted to rape her little sister.
She refused and fought and pleaded with them not to do so.
"I said 'rather shoot us'."
After a while the men relented and allowed them to leave. They shouted at Sibanda and her sister to go back to Zimbabwe because they wanted her house and were tired of living in a hostel.
When the 28-year-old and her younger sister arrived at the police station they were told by officers that they would be taken to Doornfontein.
Sibanda, who is in South Africa illegally, said she did not want this but wanted to go home.
"I want to go back to my country, it's not easy to stay in South Africa.
"Anywhere in South Africa, we are not safe... we came here for jobs and this is what we get," she said.
Sibanda and dozens of other foreigners who were displaced by the xenophobic attacks in the last two days remained at the police station seeking safety and shelter.
Gauteng Safety and Security MEC Firoz Cachalia remained locked in a meeting at the police station while aid workers continued to distribute blankets and clothes to the displaced people.
- SAPA