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Thousands seek sanctuary

No one in Cleveland squatter camp seemed to know the names of the five burned or bludgeoned bodies. They were referred to simply as Zimbabweans, though no one could even be sure they were that.

It was enough that they were foreigners accused of taking jobs, houses and women — or of leading a crime wave — by the mobs that killed them and drove hundreds of others from their homes. About 50 people were taken to hospital with gunshot and stab wounds as the gangs smashed their way in to the dozen or so foreign-owned shops in Cleveland, in the south of Johannesburg.

“It is unfortunate that people got killed,” said one of a group of young men lounging on a main street who gave his name only as PK. “But they had to go. They do not belong here taking jobs. Let them go back to Zimbabwe and solve their own problems instead of bringing them here. We have enough problems of our own.”

The surviving foreign residents of Cleveland have joined at least 10,000 other immigrants seeking refuge in police stations and churches as xenophobic murders, rapes and other violence spread across the city and its satellite townships on Sunday.

In the city centre at the weekend, marauding gangs of men stopped people in the street or in minibus taxis to interrogate them about their origins.

Those who did not speak an indigenous language were beaten up.

Some South Africans in the afflicted areas have taken to painting their names on their doors so they are not mistaken for foreigners although some of the mobs have also targeted South Africans speaking minority languages such as Shangaans and Venda.

Much of the violence is driven by resentment of three million Zimbabweans who have fled the crisis in their own country in search of work. But the government’s critics say the attacks are also a result of its failure to deliver jobs and significantly better conditions for the mass of urban poor while a ruling elite has got rich — leaving black South Africans to compete with the flood immigrants from across the continent for jobs and housing.

Cleveland was a popular place for Zimbabweans to settle. Grace Muzenda arrived with her two young daughters three years ago. She left on Sunday.

Over the weekend, the violence spread to the heart of Johannesburg, including poorer residential areas crowded with African immigrants. Street traders were beaten up on the streets and their goods stolen. Gangs went through blocks of flats banging on doors, identifying foreigners and ordering them to leave without their belongings, which were then looted.

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