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SA church shelters Zimbabweans
30/07/2007 14:49 - (SA)
Johannesburg - His name is "Average" and the story of his desperate flight from the wreckage of President Robert Mugabe's Zimbabwe is an increasingly common one.
The tall 34-year-old, slouching exhausted in a Johannesburg church that had become a de facto transit camp, was one man in a tide of migrants washing up in South Africa.
He said: "There is nothing for me there in our country any more. I had no job and I could not afford anything. Even when I was working life was tough."
The former store clerk said: "It's hard for everyone ... I thought it was better for me here."
The tale told by Average - whose name was not unusual in Zimbabwe - was depressingly familiar to a people who had watched their once prosperous land spiral into economic disaster.
Britain 'run Zim's economy'
When Mugabe's government, facing inflation of close to 5 000%, ordered companies to halve prices of basic goods and services a month ago - effectively demanding that they operate at a loss - Average lost his job as the supermarket chain he worked for cut staff.
Facing the prospect of homelessness and hunger in his own country, he joined the estimated 4 000 Zimbabweans who headed south to South Africa, most of them illegally, every day.
Mugabe, 83, and in power since the country's independence from Britain in 1980, had been accused of running Zimbabwe's economy into the ground while implementing a draconian crackdown aimed at keeping power.
His decision to launch violent seizures of white-owned farms seven years ago was partly blamed for soaring unemployment and the highest inflation rate in the world.
900 Zimbabweans homeless
Average scraped together his last salary, some money he made from trading sugar bought at a discount from the supermarket where he worked, and funds borrowed from friends to secure a visitor's visa and bus ticket to Johannesburg.
A friend who promised to meet him on arrival failed to show up, leaving him stranded without a place to sleep.
On Wednesday evening, he walked into the Central Methodist Church in downtown Johannesburg and joined a long queue of people waiting for shelter and food.
The church's homeless shelter had become a virtual refugee camp for 800-900 Zimbabweans and a smaller number of migrants from other countries.
Bishop Paul Verryn said: "For the past three years, and more so over the past couple of months, I have noted an exponential increase in the number of people we have from Zimbabwe."
Outside his office the line of people waiting for help grew. Many of the new arrivals were asleep in their seats.
Verryn said: "We offer them a place off the streets, where they are protected and have warmth from the inclement streets of Johannesburg."
At sunset, the refugees crowd into the building and lay out reeking blankets.
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