More than two weeks after the attacks that drove some 3,000 Zimbabwean migrant workers from their homes in an informal settlement called Stofland, outside De Doorns, a farming town about 140km from Cape Town, South Africa, the mood among the displaced remains grim. (from IRINNews)
"The situation seems like we must go back to Zimbabwe," farm worker Taphiwa Mheva told IRIN. "You don't know with these people - maybe one of these days they think about killing us. We would go now, but we have no money."
Mheva is one of the lucky ones. She is one of 282 Zimbabweans given accommodation on the farm where she works, and plans to return to Zimbabwe after the grape harvesting season ends in April.
Another 1,200 Zimbabweans are living in 190 tents provided by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR), pitched on the De Doorns sports field. On weekends that number swells to around 1,600, when spouses and partners working in other areas come to visit. Almost all the displaced are seasonal labourers on the area's wine farms, an industry worth over US$400 million annually.
Every evening hundreds of workers disembark from trucks returning from the farms and wait while security guards check their papers and possessions before entering the safety site. Red Cross volunteers check registration lists, and distribute food around the camp.
"We are trying to avoid a situation where this becomes an overcrowded area, and where people are coming from other areas," said UNHCR Regional Protection Officer Monique Ekoko.
More worrying is that people are coming from as far away as Port Elizabeth, in South Africa's Eastern Cape Province, and even straight from Zimbabwe. "People are coming to take advantage of what is happening here - that itself will create a problem. We want to maintain the temporary nature of this site, and to ensure that people move as soon as the conditions are right," Ekoko told IRIN.
She also noted the importance of dealing swiftly and effectively with the situation. "The longer we keep this site here, the chances increase that it might spur other people to take similar actions [xenophobic attacks]. Integration efforts are key, and not only to send a message that people have to live side by side."
According to Martin van Rooyen, a member of the De Doorns Displacement Crisis Committee, 11 December has been set as the starting date for reintegrating displaced people into their original communities.
"We have various processes unfolding to create an enabling environment," Van Rooyen said, citing an interfaith prayer service on 29 November, and ongoing meetings with local government, religious ministers, and the police.
The people living in the camp have given no indication of being willing to leave. "For me there is no option to go back in the community. I've got three kids and a wife - I managed to escape with only a few blankets," Doubt Chinomera, a Zimbabwean labour contractor, told IRIN.
"It's only an option if our security is guaranteed ... because last time when they attacked us the police were there." Chinomera's sentiment was echoed by many, and the perception that the police did nothing to protect them remains vivid.
"The police were just accompanying the South African people. When they were busy destroying the shacks the police were there behind them, looking at them, not arresting them," said farm worker Siyabonga Nkomo.
Superintendent Desmond van der Westhuizen, commander of the De Doorns police station, said the police had been aware that some people in the townships of Stofland and Ekuphumleni had intended some kind of action against the Zimbabweans.
"It was established that the community wanted to stop [Zimbabweans] to go to work the next day, and then they indicated that they would try to dismantle some of the shacks," he told IRIN.
Van der Westhuizen said he had requested support from Worcester, the nearest large town, and Cape Town, as his force was too small to handle the situation, but the distance of those stations from De Doorns meant the additional police officers did not arrive until it was too late.
"At that stage [when the Zimbabweans were blocked from going to work and the looting began] we were trying to do it on our own. It was not obvious whose property was whose. There were 12 officers; police had to use discretion. The crowd was so big - there was chaos, actually - they didn't make arrests earlier because of the manpower shortage."
"There is still resentment on the part of South Africans," committee member Van Rooyen said, referring to allegations that the Zimbabweans worked for less than the minimum wage of R60 ($8) per day, thus "robbing" South Africans of jobs.
"Now, the latest resentment is that you're getting services on this site, when we are told to be patient [and to wait for water, sanitation and electricity] by our same government," Van Rooyen said.
People were also angry about the 24 arrests after the attacks - 12 of those arrested were released for lack of evidence, and a bail hearing has been set for the remaining 12 on 5 December.
The Zimbabweans insist that they are not working for less, a claim strongly supported by Agri Western Cape and the Hex River Valley Table Grape Association, umbrella associations to which all the producers in the region belong.
"With regards to the allegations that workers are paid less than minimum wage, Agri Wes-Cape would like to challenge the organisations and individuals that are making these allegations to provide the Department of Labour with the necessary proof, so that those allegedly responsible can be investigated," the association said in a recent press release.
According to Agri Wes-Cape statistics, during the harvest season nearly 9,000 seasonal workers swell the ranks of 5,337 permanent workers; of the total workforce of some 14,000, just over 1,500 are Zimbabwean.
Agri Wes-Cape also noted an independent study in 2008 by the Labour and Enterprise Policy Research Group at the University of Cape Town, whose findings indicated that most workers in the De Doorns area, including the Zimbabweans, were earning R10 ($1.40) a day above the minimum wage.
Nonetheless, local South Africans persist in their belief that Zimbabweans are taking their jobs. "The farmer comes with a truck, says, 'I need 100 people.' Those Zimbabweans, they go like sheep; so our citizens stay behind and don't have bread in their house," Manghozi, a resident of Stofland, told IRIN.
Manghozi and his friends also complained that the Zimbabweans worked on Sundays and holidays. "They must respect our labour rules," he said. Then we can live together."
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