By day the 26-year-old South African woman sells vetkoek, crisps and apples on a bustling street in Cape Town’s Du Noon informal settlement and, since the close of the 2010 Fifa World Cup, she has spent nights sleeping at the home of her Malawian friend.
“My friend is so scared because of the threats of violence and she has no family here. So when I pack up the stall, I go and sleep at her place to try to protect her,” she said. “People are stupid when they fight with one another. But this time it has been quiet.”
She asked not to be named for fear that locals who are angry with foreigners “will come and find me”.
The densely populated Du Noon is a hotspot, as it was the scene of violence during the xenophobic attacks in 2008. This time around the police presence is highly visible and Casspirs drive up and down the streets, proving a strong deterrent against violence.
Cape Town’s civil society groups are aiming to collect a million signed pledges against xenophobia by October 17 and have begun going door to door in places like Du Noon to explain their “national unity campaign”.
One of the organisations involved in the campaign is People Against Suffering, Suppression, Oppression and Poverty (Passop), which is providing “humanitarian assistance” to unemployed 26-year-old Zimbabwean Enias Reason Wandi, who was admitted to hospital after claiming he had been thrown off a Âmoving train in Cape Town earlier this month.
Wandi is back home in the impoverished Khayelitsha township and has been unable to look for work because of the injuries to his ankles.
On the morning he was attacked, he caught a train to look for work in Cape Town.
Unexpectedly surrounded by more than 10 people in his carriage, he was called a makwerekwere (a derogatory term for foreigners) and lifted out of his seat and thrown out of the train. Wandi has laid charges and is now concerned that police might be neglecting his case.
“The police contacted me and they asked me if I remembered the faces of the people who pushed me from the train,” said Wandi. “They said they have some suspects and they would fetch me later to check out the suspects. They did not get back to me about this.”
Western Cape police liaison officer Colonel Billy Jones said no suspects had been linked to the incident yet.
Braam Hanekom, founder and chairperson of Passop, said police had responded swiftly to the outbreaks of xenophobia in the province after the World Cup.
“The police in the Western Cape went beyond their ordinary duties to not only ensure that people were protected, but also assist them to return and collect their belongings,” said Hanekom.
“I have never seen police act with such efficiency as they did in Mbekweni [a township near Paarl]. They prevented much damage and showed that attacks on foreign nationals would not be tolerated.”
In the past three weeks police said there had been sporadic incidents of looting at shops belonging to foreigners in Nyanga, Philippi East, Khayelitsha, Paarl East, Wellington, Mbekweni, Franschhoek and Klapmuts. “People were arrested in most of these areas for public violence, theft, robbery, attempted murder and malicious damage to property,” said Jones.
Abdi Aden, spokesperson for the Somali Retailers’ Association, said that police had been quick to respond to the recent attacks in Cape Town areas and had saved a lot of lives.
“But the capacity of the police is very limited. It is very hard to know the number of attacks on Somalis since the World Cup, as there are Somali shops everywhere,” said Aden.
“It is a crisis for us. People just want to be safe.”
About 10 people were arrested last week after violent clashes at the Kya Sands informal settlement in Gauteng. Four of the five people injured were foreign nationals.
Zweli Mnisi, the spokesperson for Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa, told the Mail & Guardian it was not difficult to police mob violence. “Police have demonstrated their ability to deal with any form of violence, whether one looks from a viewpoint of mass demonstrations, service delivery protests and any sporting event where there may be potential anarchy.”
Mnisi said that in Kya Sands the police and the army were immediately deployed to ensure the Âcriminals were bought to book.
“We promised swift policing and justice operations during the World Cup and criminals felt the pinch,” said Mnisi.
“Government will continue with these operations in acting speedily and decisively against anyone found to be breaking the law.”