Foreigners in Cape fear they'll be next

Foreign nationals in Cape Town now live in fear that they will be next after a string of attacks in Gauteng which left at least two people dead and hundreds displaced.

Xenophobic raids took place in Alexandra, Diepsloot, Tembisa and Thokoza last week. And the past few years have seen a spate of xenophobic attacks on foreigners, especially Somalis, in the Western Cape. The attacks on Somalis also often include robberies.

A Somali shopkeeper was shot dead in Durbanville on Friday and in March, Somali-owned shops were looted by locals. This led to 11 shop owners closing down their business and fleeing the area.

People Against Suffering Suppression Oppression and Poverty (Passop) spokesperson Braam Hanekom said what foreigners in Alexandra had experienced was appalling.

Hanekom went as far as comparing the treatment foreigners received in parts of South Africa to the treatment the Jews suffered in the early years of "Hitler's rule in Germany".

"They are hunted down, searched for their IDs and chased away. The state needs to take a fair share of blame as they are the ones who do not give the immigrants the necessary documents they need to live in this country.

"By not giving these immigrants the necessary documents, communities interpret that as if they are criminals. We've got a huge problem of thousands of immigrants not having documents to be in this country."

He said he hoped the latest string of xenophobic attacks would not spread south, although he feared there was a good chance they would.

"I sincerely hope it doesn't happen but it's always a possibility when people see these actions occur. People will start to have an idea and I think we need to take it very seriously."

Hanekom urged political parties to not only condemn the xenophobic attacks in press statements.

"We need these parties to spread the condemnations by word of mouth into their branches, who are the people on the ground."

Shikuma Kati, an Angolan who has been staying in Philippi since 1995, said what he had seen on TV had left him shaken.

"What those people are doing is wrong, period. Why can't people learn to do things in a proper way and not kill others?"

Kati said people should not give feeble reasons such as a lack of jobs as an excuse for their "barbaric, xenophobic behaviour".

"When leaders of this country were being chased by the apartheid government to our countries and some studied abroad they never experienced the torture we are going through. Why are they doing this to us?"

Lucas Shimboneni, a Namibian has also stayed in Philippi since 1991 and said he has experienced first hand what has happened in Alexandra.

"During 94 and 97 we also encountered something like that here in Philippi. Our houses were burnt down and our property taken away," Shimboneni said.

"What has happened there (Alexandra) is very bad. It still baffles me why people can't see what they are doing to each other."

Ivorian Traore Ishmail, a trader at a Cape Town taxi rank, believes what has happened in Gauteng has already spread around the country.

"It might not be happening in a violent form but people have always been discriminating against us. Here in Cape Town it is the same, as you cannot spend a day without arguing with somebody, and most of the time we just keep quiet.

"I never had a problem with a white person since I came here, but our own brothers and sisters treat us badly. I have a bad feeling and I expect something could happen to me anytime. No one is talking but you can sense something could happen here."

Ishmail warned that tourists might be frightened off by the xenophobic attacks as the 2010 World Cup approaches.

"The world is watching every move we make and if they get all these negative messages about SA, we'll be the ones losing out. It is a minority of South Africans who are doing this and I think, as a human being, there is no one who deserves to be treated like this."

A Congolese, who only referred to himself as Mike, said the situation in Gauteng probably expressed what most South Africans felt about foreigners.

"They just did the action in Alexandra and we are left worried we might be next." - Cape Argus