Living with South Africa’s foreign workers
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As South Africa prepares to host the World Cup in just under two months, it’s promising a warm welcome for tourists from around the globe.But the welcome mat isn’t out for everyone – particularly foreign workers from countries like Zimbabwe. The World’s Laura Lynch reports. (Photos: Laura Lynch)
About 70 miles north east of Cape Town, towering mountains give way to the Hex River Valley – home to some of the most productive vineyards in the country. Tourism officials tout it as a tranquil place. But what happened here a few months ago belies the image.
Hex Valley township
A generator powers a stereo in this township that houses local farmworkers. Zimbabwean migrants used to lived among the South Africans as uneasy neighbors. But one morning, tensions boiled over into violence. The South Africans gathered together and stopped the Zimbabweans from going to work in the fields. One of the foreign workers, Mike, says they surged forward toward him carrying clubs and machetes.
“All the foreigners were told to go back to our places and pack our bags and leave. We should go to Zimbabwe that very same day and then they came to our houses, destroying our houses taking our things some even grabbing what they can to take to our places.”
The South Africans living in the township readily admit that’s what happened. This woman says it’s because the farmers were giving jobs to the Zimbabweans who were willing to work for less than the standard 60 or 70 rand a day – about 8 – 9 dollars.
“We work for 70 rand. 60 rand a day and now the Zimbabweans come and the farmers say we dont want you people.”
It doesn’t take long for a small crowd to form and echo the kind of chant that frightened Zimbabweans heard last November as they were chased from their home.
“So are you glad the zimbabweans are gone?” “They must go, they must go… “
What happened that day was a reminder of the much more widespread xenophobic attacks in South Africa two years ago – when Zimbabweans were flooding across the border to escape poverty and violence back home. But this incident in the place known as De Doorns – Afrikaans for The Thorns – was the first to happen in a rural area.
Women bend over plastic washtubs scrubbing clothes in the midday sun. They are some of the 1,500 residents of what was supposed to be a temporary camp housing the Zimbabweans who fled in November. In this tent village, families are forced to share – a curtain divides their cramped quarters.
“How many are you in here?” “We are four, these ones they are twins. “How many are you on this side of the tent?” “We are two….we feel safer there.”
Security guards here have routinely denied access to journalists, but I’ve managed to gain entry. And Mike – one of the residents here – is eager to show me the deteriorating living conditions. First stop – the portable toilets.
“It’s not clean there’s feces all over it. The people who are hired to clean the toilets they empty the container then they don’t clearn this thing there.”
The tour takes me to areas of the camp that are strewn with garbage, where waste water from the toilets sits in puddles. Winter is coming and with it the rains – making things worse. Nearby, some of the men sit in bleachers, already drunk by early afternoon. Some complain the security is lax – which is probably how I got into the camp in the first place. But eventually, a guard catches up with me.
“I’m from the security. Tell me can i quickly speak to you?” “Sure.” “You are from which media?” “PRI, Public Radio International.” “Can i see your identification card?” “Sure….”
I’m told it’s time for me to leave. For those who have still managed to work, the picking season ends soon. They say there’s been no word on whether the residents will be relocated somewhere safer.
The provincial government hasn’t responded to requests for an interview for this story. The people here feel like they’re in limbo. On the road outside the camp, this man says he would go back to Zimbabwe if he could get back some of the savings and possessions he lost when he was chased out of his home.
“What I’ve worked for has been taken. So, how can I go without something? I have worked very hard in these farms and all my property was taken.” “So you’re saying you have no money?” “I don’t have anything. I need some sort of compensation so that I can restart my life.”
“They take our mothers’ jobs...”
Back in the townships where the foreign workers used to live, two men are rebuilding a shack Nearby, a group of boys watches – and they parrot the sentiments of their parents who blame the Zimbabweans for all their ills.
“You don’t like them why? “They take our jobs, our mothers’ jobs.” “They take your mothers’ jobs?”
The Zimbabweans deny that – they also say they didn’t work for less money. But that doesn’t seem to matter to the South Africans here – nor to some who live in the cities. There are reports that foreigners living in urban areas have been receiving anonymous letters threatening them with violence once the World Cup ends – if they too don’t pack up and go home.
For The World, I’m Laura Lynch in De Doorns, South Africa.
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