'It's better to be killed in SA'

2008-05-22 08:58

Walter Ka Nkosi

Beit Bridge - The xenophobic attacks on foreigners living in Gauteng has not led to a surge of Zimbabweans returning to their mother country, say police and customs officials at the Beit Bridge border post.

South African police spokesperson at Beit Bridge, Captain Dennis Adriao, said on Tuesday that there instead continued to be a steady stream of Zimbabweans immigrating, either legally or illegally, to South Africa to escape the collapse of their economy and increased violence on their own streets.

"Most are saying it's better to risk their lives here than go back home,? he said. He said border police were continuing to monitor border crossings closely.

Senior spokesperson for the SA Revenue Service (SARS) Malerato Sekha was also at Beit Bridge on Tuesday and said there weren't an extra-ordinary number of people crossing over to Zimbabwe. Most were travelling there for business reasons, she said.

'It's better to be killed by South Africans'

One Zimbabwean man, Chipangura Dzimu, 45, was waiting to be deported after being arrested while trying to cross illegally into SA through a cut part of the fence near the Beit Bridge border post.

He said it was better to be killed by South Africans than "starve to death and rot" back home. He said Zimbabweans were also living under the threat of violence from President Robert Mugabe's regime.

"What more do you need than food on your table and to be together with your wife and young children," he asked.

His wife and two children, who are aged 13 and eight, had already entered SA illegally and had already settled with a relative on a farm near Thohoyandou.

He was arrested while returning to SA after going home to collect some of belongings. He was confident his family was safe in Thohoyandou and that he would soon be back with them.

'I'd rather die here'

He said: "I am here to stay. I'll never go to my country of birth to be butchered and die a painful death at the hands of Mugabe's vigilantes."

Shirley Mncube, 40, who stays in Sabie, Mpumalanga, and works as a domestic worker in Nelspruit says she would also rather die in at the hands of xenophobic South Africans than return to Zimbabwe.

She had been living in SA for 25 years, had become a South African citizen, and has two children aged 15 and eight. "This is my home," she said.

Thousands of foreigners, mostly Mozambicans and Zimbabweans, had been attacked since May 11 in Gauteng. Some 22 people had been killed, seven of whom were killed in the past two days.

On Monday, violence broke out at Kyasands, Reiger Park, Primrose and the Bree taxi rank in Johannesburg. About 6 000 foreigners had taken refuge at police stations, churches and community halls around Gauteng.

Police had arrested about 220 people since the xenophobic unrest began, sparked by accusations that foreigners were stealing jobs from South Africans, illegally occupying RDP houses and contributing to the high crime rate.

- African Eye