Foreign nationals in Diepsloot living in fear, seek help to return home amid violence

Foundation for Human Rights said migrants living in and around Diepsloot have been gripped by fear and are seeking assistance to go back after the callous murder of Zimbabwean Elvis Nyathi by vigilantes. File Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA

Foundation for Human Rights said migrants living in and around Diepsloot have been gripped by fear and are seeking assistance to go back after the callous murder of Zimbabwean Elvis Nyathi by vigilantes. File Picture: Werner Beukes/SAPA

Published Apr 13, 2022

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Pretoria – Given the volatile situation, coupled with the violence targeting foreign nationals around Diepsloot, the Foundation for Human Rights said it is receiving numerous calls for assistance from migrants who want to be repatriated back to their countries of origin.

The foundation’s programme manager Sarah Motha told broadcaster eNCA that some of the migrants have, however, lived in South Africa for decades.

“The situation continues to be tense and volatile on the ground. We have some of our monitors in the civil society sector looking into the situation. We have quite a few migrants that have been living in South Africa for more than 20 years, and they don’t have the means now to return to their home countries,” said Motha.

She said the desperate foreign nationals have been asking for support from the international community and their embassies “to see if they cannot be repatriated back to their home countries”.

In 2020, during the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic, hundreds of Zimbabwean nationals, who had become destitute in South Africa, were repatriated back home through an initiative run by Pretoria-based businessman and philanthropist Justice Maphosa, in conjunction with the Embassy of Zimbabwe.

Maphosa hired several buses and provided trucks carrying food to support the displaced families to settle in Zimbabwe, as they had lost their sources of income in South Africa.

On Wednesday, Motha said in terms of the legal frameworks in South Africa, refugees, in particular, and asylum seekers come under a certain provision that stipulates that they should not be forced to go back to their home countries until the situation has stabilised in those nations.

The United Nations in South Africa has joined several international organisations condemning the violent attacks on foreign nationals after a Zimbabwean man, Elvis Nyathi, was severely assaulted and set alight in Diepsloot recently.

Motha said the immigrant community living in Diepsloot were living in fear since the callous murder of Nyathi, a father of four.

“We know last week Mr Nyathi was brutally murdered and the wave in the community that he has been living in has been of fear and harassment certainly, hence they (the migrants) have called for support to get some of the migrants repatriated,” she said.

“As the Foundation for Human Rights, we play an important role in promoting the protection of people’s lives, especially with regards to our Constitution which promotes the right to life to be upheld for everyone. We do not have the resources.”

President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday condemned the murder of Nyathi by the vigilantes in Diesploot.

“It is deeply disturbing how the recent incidents of anti-foreigner sentiment in parts of the country echo our apartheid past. We have seen people being stopped on the street by private citizens and being forced to produce identification to verify their immigration status. We have seen some political leaders making unscientific statements about immigrants to exploit people’s grievances for political gain,” said Ramaphosa in his weekly newsletter.

“The events in the Gauteng township of Diepsloot last week were a tragedy. In the course of a single weekend, seven people were killed, sparking protests. This loss of life is deplorable, as is the killing of a fellow African from Zimbabwe allegedly at the hands of vigilantes. Crime is a serious problem in this country.”

Ramaphosa said crime in South Africa affects all communities, and people are justifiably tired of living in fear of criminals.

“Contrary to what is claimed by some anti-immigration groupings and individuals, the perpetrators of crime are both black and white, male and female, foreigner and citizen. Crime, not migrants, is the common enemy we must work together to defeat,” he said.

“We cannot defeat crime through incitement, violence, intimidation and vigilantism aimed at foreign nationals, and specifically nationals from other African countries.”

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