We were chased like dogs ...

Anthony Muteti worked tirelessly to improve his community. He started a development forum to find jobs for young people and was instrumental in having the streets cleared of raw sewage. (from TimesLive)

But this week Muteti, his wife, children and about 70 other families who hail from Zimbabwe and Malawi were chased from their homes "like dogs".

The men and women lived in Hout Bay's Imizimo Yethu informal settlement near Cape Town. After three Malawian men were arrested for the rape of a three-year-old girl last Friday, people turned on the families. They were given a few hours to pack their bags and "get lost".

De Doorns simmers

The keeping of 23 De Doorns people in custody has intensified the anger of locals towards Zimbabwean refugees, with some blaming the foreigners for the arrests.

Residents of De Doorns, near Worcester, left the Magistrate's Court fuming after the 23 held on public violence charges were remanded until Monday.

"Our people are in jail, but the Zimbabweans are at work," said one of them.

'Our people are in jail, but the Zimbabweans are at work'

One community leader said yesterday that the locals were so furious they did not want to see the foreigners in Stofland informal settlement.

Another, Mlungisi Funyanwa, who is also deputy chairman of the Community Policing Forum, said while the community was willing to meet the authorities to discuss the crisis, it would be difficult to consider reintegration "while people are in jail".

The 23 appeared in court on Monday. It is expected about 1 500 people will march to the court in a show of support.

De Doorns police station commissioner Desmond van der Westhuizen said community leaders had been granted permission to lead a march.

He said it had been quiet in De Doorns since the court proceedings, but police continued to maintain a visible presence.

Mayor Charles Ntsomi said there would be a meeting today to discuss the plight of the refugees, who were being accommodated in tents on a sports field.

They were driven out of Stofland and their shacks torn down last Tuesday by South Africans who accused them of stealing their jobs.

A number of organisations and including political parties have condemned the violence.

The Women on Farms Project called on the government to launch an immediate investigation into the living and working conditions of the area's farm workers.

The ACDP said unemployment and the influx of refugees needed to be addressed, while Cope said the government had not learnt from last year's xenophobic attacks.

A prayer meeting is to be held on the sports field on Sunday. - Cape Times

Foreigners given ultimatum

Foreign nationals have been given until tonight to move out of two streets in a Cape Town informal settlement - or, warn local residents, their homes will be broken apart.

The ultimatum came about after three Malawians were arrested at the weekend in connection with the rape of a three-year-old girl from the area.

During a street committee meeting last night, one resident from Imizamo Yethu informal settlement, Sonwabo Bazi, said: "This is not xenophobia, it is about the rape of a little girl and we are saying their ethics and morals are not the same as ours, they must therefore leave peacefully because we do not want them here."

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What's next for De Doorns migrants?

Cape Town - Up to 2 700 Zimbabwean asylum seekers have set up a temporary "safety camp" in a rural South African town following attacks on their shacks in a dispute about jobs, a human rights group said on Wednesday.

South African police fired rubber bullets on Tuesday to disperse a mob who attacked shacks belonging to hundreds of migrants following several days of tension.

The attacks in De Doorns, a town 150 km from Cape Town, was reminiscent of 2008 riots in which foreigners were targeted. At least 42 people died and tens of thousands were displaced across South Africa.

"At the moment between 1 300 and 2 700 people, mostly Zimbabwean asylum seekers, have set up an internally displaced persons camp site or safety site, at De Doorns sports ground," Braam Hanekom, co-ordinator of People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (PASSOP), told Reuters.

Hanekom said the asylum seekers were housed in two large tents. There was limited water, poor security and a few portable toilets, he added.

"Today all the displaced asylum seekers refused to go to work for fear of being attacked," Hanekom said.

The attacks flared over competition for seasonal jobs at farms in the area, with local people arguing that Zimbabweans were "stealing jobs" by agreeing to work longer hours for less pay than locals were prepared to do.

The De Doorns police station commander, Superintendent Desmond van der Westhuizen, told Reuters the displaced migrants would probably be held in tents for the next week, as discussions about their future continued with authorities.

"There were no new incidents reported over the last 24 hours," he said. He estimated 3 000 were affected by Tuesday's attacks.

In 2008, a wave of attacks on foreigners in and around Johannesburg led to 15 000 migrants, most of them Zimbabweans, being forced into settlement camps.

The violence also spread to Cape Town, swelling the overall numbers of displaced, and was aimed mainly at the millions of Zimbabweans who fled their homeland in search of work and a better future.

The global economic downturn and the first recession in two decades have caused massive job losses in Africa's largest economy. Unemployment is officially close to a quarter of the country's population of 49 million. - Reuters

They said we must go!

"What will the future hold for us? They started destroying our houses and said we must go." (News24)

This was the feeling on Tuesday night of a weary Philip Chinomera, 46, one of 3 500 foreigners who fled their shacks in the township of De Doorns in the Western Cape because of angry locals.

On Tuesday morning locals tried to stop foreigners from getting onto the trucks of farmers coming to collect workers for the day. They had also demolished a number of shacks rented by foreign nationals. Luckily, they had already been vacated.

'They don't belong in SA'

Tensions began to flare up after 68 foreigners had slept at a municipal storeroom next to a police station at the weekend following a shebeen fight in which Zimbabweans were involved.

Rumours then began to circulate that action was to be taken against foreigners.

A local resident, Sibongiseni Makapela, 18, said South Africans are breaking down the homes of Zimbabweans because "they don't belong in South Africa".

About 1 800 of the foreign nationals who fled, including children, were escorted by police to a sports field where they will sleep in tents.

At the municipal storeroom, Nyasha Masayire described South Africans as "very rough".

"They treat us like shit."

Another Zimbabwean man came running up, holding out his work permit.

"Why do South Africans want to chase us away? We have work permits!" he called out.

More than 2,000 Zimbabweans flee, fearing attacks

Photo: Tebogo Letsie/IRIN

More than 100,000 people were displaced when xenophobic violence erupted in 2008

Fearing a resurgence of xenophobic attacks, around 2,500 Zimbabwean migrants have taken refuge in government buildings in De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, after some of their shacks in an informal settlement were attacked and demolished, said a police official.

The attacks took place early in the morning of 17 November in Stofland, meaning dustland in Afrikaans, the largest squatter camp in De Doorns. All the displaced Zimbabweans are documented.

The local police station commander, Superintendent Desmond van der Westhuizen, told IRIN the local residents were unhappy that farm owners had been employing Zimbabweans for "less money", and had complained that farmers were "excluding the local community".

But the residents threatened to prevent the Zimbabweans from going to work on 17 November [Monday morning

The global economic recession has hit South Africa hard; the government's latest labour force survey said 484,000 jobs had been lost in the last six months, and unemployment stood at 24.5 percent for the period July to September 2009, up from 23.2 percent during the same period in 2008.

Van der Westhuizen told IRIN that the situation had been tense since 13 November, when Zimbabweans had been involved in a violent spat in an informal tavern. "Following that incident, some 68 Zimbabweans" had fled the area, fearing a resurgence of xenophobic violence.

In May 2008 a tide of xenophobic violence erupted in Johannesburg and quickly spread through most parts of the country, killing more than 60 people and displacing about 100,000 others.

"The same area was affected in 2008," van der Westhuizen said. The 68 Zimbabweans took refuge in government buildings in De Doorns during Saturday and Sunday.

The police, accompanied by local government and disaster management officials, held a meeting with the informal settlement residents on the evening of 16 November to calm the situation. "But the residents threatened to prevent the Zimbabweans from going to work on 17 November [Monday morning]," van der Westhuizen told IRIN.

Police had to fire rubber bullets to disperse the residents, who attacked some more shacks in Stofland, forcing the Zimbabweans to flee. "Fortunately, none of the Zimbabweans were harmed and they all moved out with their personal belongings voluntarily," the police superintendent said.

The local authorities are trying to erect a tent shelter and provide portable toilets for the displaced people on the town's sports ground. Van der Westhuizen told IRIN: "We are making interim arrangements to keep them here for a week until we try and mediate with the local residents to get the Zimbabweans integrated back into the community." - IRIN

Foreigners flee xenophobia in the Boland

About 1 000 foreign nationals have evacuated informal settlements at De Doorns in the Western Cape following a flare-up of xenophobia, police said on Tuesday.

Gallery: Xenophobia

De Doorns station commissioner Superintendent Desmond van der Westhuizen said, however, that he had had no reports of physical violence against foreigners. He said tensions had been building since last week.

On Tuesday morning, local residents had prevented foreigners from climbing onto the trucks of farmers coming into the town to collect seasonal workers for the day.

'It's a thing with a history'

The locals claimed the foreigners - mostly Zimbabweans, but including some Lesotho nationals - were accepting lower wages than locals and robbing them of jobs.

The locals had also demolished a number of shacks rented by the foreigners before police intervened, at one point firing rubber bullets.

The shacks had already been vacated, Van der Westhuizen said.

He said 68 foreigners had slept at a municipal storeroom next to the police station over the weekend following a shebeen fight on Friday night in which Zimbabweans were involved, and rumours that action was to be taken against foreigners.

By Tuesday afternoon about 1 000 people had gathered at the hall with their possessions.

'We must all come on board to solve this problem'

Officials and councillors from the Breede River municipality, as well as the Western Cape MECs for social development and safety, Ivan Meyer and Lennit Max, were on the scene to assess the situation.

The situation was quiet and police were monitoring the four informal settlements.

Van Der Westhuizen said he was, however, worried about what was going to happen under the cover of darkness.

He said most Zimbabweans stayed in a settlement named Stofland, and others in Ekuphumleni and Hasie Square, while the Lesotho nationals stayed in a settlement named Maseru.

He said the outbreak of xenophobia was not a one-off incident, but an annual occurrence.

"It's a thing with a history," he said. "We must all come on board to solve this problem." - Sapa

They hate us, says Zimbabwean woman

Scores of De Doorns residents, most of them farmworkers, ripped down shacks belonging to Zimbabweans this morning, accusing them of "stealing our jobs".

View the gallery

The Zimbabwean families were forced to pack up their belongings and seek refuge in a community hall in the Hex River Valley town, which is about two hours from Cape Town.

As residents, armed with sticks and stones, raced through the Ekuphumleni informal settlement tearing down makeshift homes, police fired rubber bullets and used a stun grenade to disperse them.

Angry residents said they wanted the Zimbabweans to leave De Doorns and that local farmers were opting to employ the Zimbabweans ahead of South Africans.

One Zimbabwean woman, who was too frightened to give her name, stood alongside the N2, which runs through De Doorns, her belongings stacked beside her.

"They hate us because we work harder than them and we work every day," the woman said.

- Cape Argus

Home affairs in the dark about number of illegal immigrants

The Department of Home Affairs has no idea how many illegal immigrants are in South Africa. (from the M&G)

Responding to a question at a parliamentary media briefing on Thursday, Home Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma said providing such a figure was "difficult".

Asked to give her department's latest estimate of the number of people illegally living and working in South Africa, she replied: "I don't know. If somebody's here illegally, how do I know they are here? I do not know, that's an honest answer."

Tthe South African Police Service, in its 2008/09 annual report, said there could be as many as six million "undocumented" foreigners in the country.

"According to various estimates, the number of undocumented immigrants in South Africa may vary between three and six million people," according to the report.

The police go on to say most of these illegal immigrants "may belong to the economically-active age group, as well as the high crime-risk age group".

Zimbabwean beaten to death in Diepsloot

A 22-year-old Zimbabwean man has been beaten to death by Diepsloot residents who accused him of robbery, said police. (from the M&G)

Two of his friends, aged 20 and 25, were severely assaulted in the attack on Saturday, said Captain Tessa Jansen.

The three men were walking in Extension One at 6pm when a man accosted them, she said.

"The South African man accused one of the three Zimbabweans of having robbed him of money in the past two weeks," she said.

"He then shouted and called for back up from the other residents.

"The residents came in big numbers and took the three men to a shack nearby, where they assaulted all of them with fists and everything they could lay their hands on."

Jansen said the police were called by a concerned member of the community.

"When the police arrived at the scene, the crowd quickly dispersed and no one was arrested.

"But the man who was accused of robbery was already dead. His two friends were rushed to Tembisa Hospital in a serious condition."

No arrests had yet been made.