Inside the mob
Wandile Langa (20) says he is a proud xenophobe whose greatest satisfaction would be to see all “Shangaans go back to where they came from”.
He means Mozambican Shangaans.
Langa is sitting in the back seat of our car as we speed through the rubble and ash from burnt tyres in the Ramaphosa informal settlement, near Reiger Park on the East Rand.
He is one of the machete-wielding, gun-toting youngsters who have taken over the shacktown’s maze of alleyways in a campaign of terror against makwerekwere.
On Wednesday evening Ramaphosa exploded in flames once again, bringing the total number of deaths since the spate of xenophobic attacks started to 42.
During the day they keep a low profile, hiding among the crowds and avoiding the attention of the large police contingent.
The battles begin at night. Langa says he and his friends have not slept since last Friday, “when the war began”.
He explains that on May 6 it was discovered that two women residents had been “killed by foreigners”. The community called a meeting to discuss the deaths and decided to act.
“We hadn’t planned to launch an attack on foreigners like the people in Alexandra did, but this incident made us very angry,” he said, clutching a hammer under his torn shirt.
Langa said Ramaphosa has always had a problem with makwerekwere, who are taking people’s jobs and reaping the benefits of “our freedom”.
Every evening community members meet to share ideas on which homes to raid and burn. “We go out together in groups, men and women, break into the Shangaans’ houses and we beat them and take what we want. If it’s a shack we burn it; if it’s a house we take the keys.
“These people own RDP houses, which some of us don’t even have,” he complained. He had moved into a house formerly owned by a Mozambican national.
“I’ve put a ‘for sale’ sign on it and I’ll sell it for R3, 000.”
Langa claimed he could tell the difference between a Shangaan-speaker from Mozambique and one from Giyani in Limpopo. “We just ask them Zulu words that any South African knows. If they get it wrong we hit them.”
Another lynch-mob leader, Thabang Mokolane (21), told the Mail & Guardian that foreigners are more criminally inclined than South Africans and they get away with crime because they can afford to pay chocho (bribes).
“We’re afraid to walk at night because we fear being mugged by these people,” said Mokolane. “We’re also tired of white people thinking that we’re criminals when these people are worse than us.”
Mokolane said residents from the neighbouring Slovo squatter camp are rallying behind the Ramaphosa mobs and have joined forces with them in carrying out attacks.
The M&G also interviewed migrant workers living in the Madala hostel in Alexandra and the Wolhuter hostel in Jeppe, from where attacks on foreigners have been widely reported.
In Alexandra Shangaan, Venda and Pedi residents said they were attacked by “Zulus”. The same claim was made by immigrants assaulted in Jeppe and the Johannesburg CBD over the weekend. Jeppe Station commander Danie Louw told the M&G on Sunday that the violence appeared to be emanating from the George Goch, Wolhuter and Denver hostels.
Hostel indunas angrily denied that “the Zulus are behind the xenophobic attacks”. But Duma Mncube, an induna at Madala, said that certain young hostel-dwellers might have taken matters into their own hands after being falsely accused.
Despite the denials the hostellers’ intense hatred of foreigners, coupled with their fortress mentality and sense of being victimised, was clear.
“South Africans have come out to express themselves against overcrowding and the loss of jobs because of the growing number of foreigners. It’s not a Zulu matter, it’s for all South Africans,” said Mncube.
Mncube said immigrants had taken over the jobs Zulus traditionally dominated, such as security. Many Zimbabweans had military experience, which gave them an advantage in that industry.
He also said that foreigners were moving into the taxi trade, where many Zulu speakers work. “But that does not mean they should be beaten up or killed,” he said.
Mncube hinted at the hostel-dwellers’ deep sense of grievance, saying their lives had not changed since the fall of apartheid and government upliftment projects had not borne fruit.
The Alexandra renewal project had not affected their living conditions and they were angry at being left out. “We’re being treated like foreigners in our own country while the foreigners are having a nice time,” he said.
Bheki Ntshangase, a Madala resident who works as a security guard, said the hostels forced people to live in isolation from the surrounding community. The Alexandra community regarded the hostel as an “island” and none of them dared venture into it.
“Zulus are treated like outcasts and the whole nation is undermining us. That’s why they say we’re behind the xenophobic attacks,” he said.
Jeppe hostel induna Simon Mvelase said hostel residents are perturbed that the media is defending foreigners while South African locals are strangers in their own country.
“We condemn the killings and beatings, but at the same time we condemn the government for allowing foreigners to do as they please in our land.
“The people of South Africa have spoken, Zulu, Xhosa or Sotho. They are revolting against foreigners who are making their lives difficult by taking jobs and increasing crime and corruption.
“What makes the foreigner so lucky and special? How do they get the houses, the jobs, the cars and the businesses?” Mvelase raged.
He said the government should have woken up a long time ago. If the maize price increased and people lost their jobs to foreigners, there had to be a revolt.
“Our fellow South Africans are busy calling us hostel-dwellers. We aren’t—we’re South African citizens like them.”
The toll as it stands
Since the xenophobic attacks in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township on May 11, violence has cut a swathe through Gauteng and spread to other provinces. The toll to date includes:
