‘Why do you breed in our land?’
STRUGGLING: Bibsha Kamagaso of Burundi and threeyear-old Michaela Alexandra at a shelter in Durban A STALE smell inside a dimly-lit room on the third floor of a decrepit building in JN Singh Street in the Durban CBD assails the senses.
The five-storey Shirley Chambers building, which belongs to the International Refugee Service, recently became home to 101 foreigners who were among those displaced during the wave of xenophobic violence a year ago.
It’s just after 6.30pm and the tenants have made their way back into their rooms after eating bread and soup for supper in the hall downstairs.
Accessing the third floor requires careful navigation up a poorly-lit staircase.
“This is our new home, but the conditions are disgusting,” said Mauma Kyubwa.
The unemployed mother of three young children said having no income has “stripped me of all my dignity as a human being”.
She has vivid memories of March 30 last year when she was attacked by sjambok- and panga-wielding people baying for the blood of foreigners.
“They were shouting ‘ awahambe [go away] amakwerekwere ’ [a derogatory term for foreigners]. It was a chilling sight,” recalled Kyumba, who speaks fluent Zulu and has been living in South Africa since 2006.
She and her family ended up in transit camps after police came to their rescue and told them to take only their travel documents.
“I have never had my own place after that. I have lived in camps, in open fields and now I’m cramped in this small room,” she said.
After battling legal troubles, she and 137 others were eventually moved to Hope Farm in Killarney Valley near Cato Ridge, west of Durban, where farmers Andrew and Rae Wartnaby allowed them to live on the 20ha farm.
However, following fights among the group and constant clashes with the Wartnabys, the KwaZulu-Natal Council of Churches intervened and
‘DISGUSTING’: Foreigners displaced by xenophobic violence take refuge in the Shirley Chambers building in Durban moved part of the group to Durban.
Kyumba said there was a general dislike of foreigners in South Africa.
“You go to public places and you have this constant reminder that you are foreign. Although subtle at times, it’s always there. Sometimes it is blatant. I remember three years ago when I went to Mshiyeni [Prince Mshiyeni Memorial Hospital] to give birth. Nurses were taunting me, asking why I kept breeding in a foreign land.
“When I was in labour, I remember crawling on the floor to the nurses asking for help and they said: ‘Go back to your bed.’ But the baby was coming out. I gave birth on the floor and the most shattering remark I heard was ‘ Hawu kanti nina makwerekwere nizala nimile njengezinkawu’ [Wow, you foreigners give birth while standing like monkeys],” she said.
Premier Senzo Mchunu’s spokesman, Ndabezinhle Sibiya, said the provincial government had tried everything to assist those foreigners who had not been integrated into communities, but their efforts had been resisted. “They have refused all the help and they just want to go to Canada,” he said.
SLEEPLESS: Children try to get some rest at the shelter