There is a welcoming atmosphere and the smell of warm stew at Susan and Michael Harris’ home, in Woodmead, the middle-class suburb near Alexandra township.
It is lunchtime and two police officers from the Alexandra station have arrived to collect 50 loaves of bread and four enormous plastic tubs filled with fresh stew for the refugees who have sought sanctuary at the police station from the violence.The officers pack the lunch into the back of a police van and drive off.
The Harrises go back to work immediately; they need to prepare dinner, which the police will be back to collect in a few hours’ time.
Since the attacks began in Alex almost two weeks ago, the police station has relied on Susan Harris to provide daily meals for the displaced foreigners under their protection. With the help of her mother Susan Lombard, her husband and five volunteers — some of them victims who escaped the violence to seek temporary refuge with the Harris family — she has turned her backyard into a second kitchen.
Food is prepared round the clock, and the volunteer refugees sleep in tents in the garden.
Susan (42) says: “I really couldn’t have done any of this without everyone that has been helping me. My family have all been doing something to ensure we have meals ready when the police come to pick them up.”
Susan and Michael Harris used to work in the hotel industry and Susan was an events coordinator. Now their full-time occupation is helping people in need, providing food hampers to poor families around Bramley and Alexandra.
Susan says: “We love people, we speak for those and help those that cannot help themselves, that’s our mission in life.”
Alexandra police spokesperson, Constable Neria Malefetse, calls Susan Harris “an angel”.
“Without her help, I really do not know how we could have fed all the people at the station.”
When Susan Harris heard radio reports about the unfolding attacks in Alex one morning almost two weeks ago, she got out of bed, went straight to the kitchen and started cooking soup. “We thought she was crazy,” says her husband. “There was so much soup we didn’t know what she was going to do with it.”
Susan Harris says she just “knew in my spirit I had to cook soup. I wasn’t sure where I would take the soup, but I was determined that we should cook lots of it.”
Later that day Harris received a call from a social worker in Alexandra asking for her help to feed increasing numbers of displaced foreigners coming to seek refuge at the police station, “I said yes and we’re still going.”
The Harrises rely on donations to keep supplying food — cans, mealie meal, bread — usually from people who know the family or have heard about the work they do.
“We have food for another two days right now, but I am sure food for the next few days is on its way,” says Susan.
Michael agrees: “The support we have been getting is phenomenal.”
The past fortnight has seen much hatred and violence directed at fellow human beings. But people like Susan Harris and her helpers have shown true humanity.