For many immigrants, economic and political desperation is a more powerful motive than fear of xenophobia. Foreigners interviewed in strife-torn settlements this week either refused to flee the violence or have drifted back.
In interviews, Zimbabwean nationals insisted they would neither move to camps nor return to their home country, where there was nothing for them.
They and the Pakistani traders said they wanted to the right choose whether they moved to government-created places of safety.
Zimbabwean national Macmillan Shereni said keeping foreigners in camps would only worsen friction with local people, and that he was not interested in living on government handouts. ”Some of us are not in South Africa to beg; we are here to work for our families. Staying in the camps is not an option because we understand the idea of ‘no sweat, no sweet’,” he said.
Although hundreds of foreigners were driven from Diepsloot, taking refuge in camps set up in Rabie Ridge, Shereni and a few other Zimbabweans and Pakistani immigrants survived the attacks and stayed put.
If the mob had stormed his house, Shereni emphasised, he might have ”killed at least one or two of them”.
”We’re worried that people lost their lives. But we now know that the government is aware of us and it will help us when we need it,” he said.
Another Zimbabwean immigrant, Wayne Mangundhla, described the attacks as ”a tsotsi process” where some locals wanted to enrich themselves by stealing what foreigners had worked hard to achieve.
”I’m an economic refugee; if things were fine back home I wouldn’t be here,” said Mangundhla, a psychology major who dropped out of university because of his family’s financial woes.
He said it was easier for undocumented immigrants to find jobs in South Africa than legal immigrants, because they accepted lower wages and did not complain about their conditions.
Azmiat Nabaaz, a Pakistani street vendor who last saw his wife and two children in 2002, has no plans to return to the volatile political conditions in Pakistan. Nabaaz said his business is the only thing that keeps him going. ”But I’m proud of most of the people in Diepsloot. They hate what happened and they’re sorry for the attacks,” he said.
Most Mozambicans interviewed said they wanted to go home. However a Mozambican woman who fled Ramaphosaville with her family at the height of the violence has since returned to re-establish her ransacked spaza shop. Tinyiko (not her real name) said she had to ”run for my life. But I’m back now because the violence is over.
”Our relationship with the people here is good; we never expected to be attacked,” she said.
One of Tinyiko’s reasons for staying may be more common than generally recognised — she is married to a South African.
Dosso Ndessomin, of the Coordinating Body for Refugee Communities, an NGO, agreed that camps would only hamper the development of the refugees.
He said camps should be used only for receiving immigrants and sorting out their documentation.