On a vast rubbish-strewn field in a mining area east of Johannesburg, hundreds of destitute Africans who have fled their makeshift homes in nearby slums shiver in the morning cold.
The land, covered in white tents donated by aid groups, resembles the all-too-familiar refugee camps seen across this violence-hit continent as children fill bottles from a water truck and camp fires smoulder.
”These clothes I’m wearing are all I’ve got left,” says 33-year-old Lucas Sitoe, his eyes heavy from another night spent sleeping rough in the near-freezing temperatures of South Africa’s approaching winter.
”They burnt everything else,” he adds.
Sitoe is one of an estimated 35 000 people who have been displaced in a wave of anti-immigrant violence that has wracked the country for the last two weeks, leaving 56 dead and hundreds injured.
The area of Primrose has been one of the worst affected areas. Gangs of armed thugs have conducted door-to-door searches in local informal settlements, looking for the foreigners they blame for high crime and unemployment.
With nowhere else to go, the persecuted fled to the Primrose police station for protection and the field next door has now become home.
”These South Africans told us to leave. It’s not fair!” complains Egnes Ncube (31), who sleeps on a bed of cardboard boxes but still finds the energy to wash a few items of clothing in cold water.
”My husband, a Mozambican, was running his own business selling pieces of chicken. He took the job of nobody,” says the Zimbabwean, who arrived in South Africa shortly after the end of apartheid in 1994.
”They took all his stuff. His money. Everything.”
‘We can’t keep on like this’
The scene of misery in Primrose is repeated all around Johannesburg and the capital, Pretoria, the hot spot of recent violence where the Red Cross says it is caring for about 25 000 people in more than 20 centres.
Aid groups in the Cape Tow are also struggling to feed and care for another 10 000 who have left their homes in fear of looting, beatings and rape.
”We can’t keep on like this,” says Jannie Potgieter from the Red Cross at the Primrose camp as she distributes blankets and food.
”People are coming here from all over, from all over Johannesburg’s townships and we are giving three meals a day to 3 000 people.”
Amid mounting criticism nationwide of the official response to what has become a national crisis, she says she hasn’t seen anyone from the ruling African National Party and ”not even the mayor”.
The local authority has sent about thirty portable toilets, all filthy and of an unbearable smell, which are cleaned from time to time by workers wearing masks.
The latest addition is a water lorry where children gather to fill water bottles from its tap while a furniture maker hands out offcuts for use as a fire wood.
In queues, with women one side and men the other, South Africa’s new army of homeless wait for their breakfast: a cup of tea, a bowl of porridge and four slices of bread.
Potgieter worries that illness and disease is just round the corner.
”We have a very sick man lying under a tent. We are waiting for the doctor. But with this cold we have, more and more people are coughing or have diarrhoea,” she says.
‘Under control’
Meanwhile, the xenophobic violence against foreign nationals has been brought under control, Safety and Security Minister Charles Nqakula said on Monday.
”I do believe the situation is under control … the violence has subsided,” he said at a briefing at the Union Buildings in Pretoria following an inter-governmental task team meeting with President Thabo Mbeki.
The team was established shortly after the attacks erupted in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township.
Nqakula said the briefing with Mbeki was to discuss the progress made following the attacks as well as to deal with welfare issues and national security resulting from the attacks.
”To date, 1 384 suspects have been arrested. Many of them were involved in violence and robbery,” he said.
He added that 342 shops belonging to foreign nationals across the country had been looted, while 213 had been burnt down. The death toll following the attacks stood at 56.
The minister said health issues had also surfaced as those seeking asylum (which included children and pregnant women) had to be housed at various city halls and police stations.
On whether the government had responded timeously following the attacks, Nqakula said government had done so.
”Nobody can say we didn’t respond. At local level the leadership responded. There has been response from security services, provincial legislation; there has not been a void,” he said.
Rain expected to clear
A forecaster for the South African Weather Service told the Mail & Guardian Online on Tuesday that the rain is expected to clear by the evening.
”This type of weather is expected for this time of the year. Winter traditionally starts on June 1, which is in a week’s time,” said Jan Vermeulen.
Vermeulen said there was a lot of moist air in circulation, which had caused the rain.
He said he expected Gauteng to be partly cloudy on Wednesday, but warned that a cold front was approaching the Western Cape. – Sapa, AFP