Tide of Zimbabwean refugees swells
Amid allegations of torture and harassment, refugees say they had no choice but to flee.
By Scott Baldauf | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the April 16, 2007 edition
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JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - In the early hours of Jan. 11, Zimbabwean schoolteacher Sifanekiso Magwegwe reached the Limpopo River, which forms part of the border between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Behind her was a country whose security forces had already broken into her home and beaten her up because of her family's politics. Ahead of her was a country (South Africa) that didn't want another refugee. In the river itself were crocodiles.
But like dozens of other illegal refugees on that day and hundreds of thousands of other Zimbabweans, Magwegwe plunged into the river.
"There were hundreds of people doing it," she recalls, sitting in the office of an relief agency that helps Zimbabwean political victims. "I just told myself, what will happen will happen. I put myself in God's hands and swam."
The growing tide of refugees – and particularly torture victims like Ms. Magwegwe – raises uncomfortable questions for a South African government that came to power in the name of human rights but that has refused to criticize its hard-line neighbor, led by President Robert Mugabe. But as South African President Thabo Mbeki takes criticism for his "quiet diplomacy," hopes are being raised that Zimbabwe's government may finally be ready to talk with the opposition and that Mr. Mbeki's bid to mediate a political solution between Mr. Mugabe and the opposition will bear fruit.
"The South African government recognizes that the flood of refugees along their quite open border will occur, unless there is a political solution inside Zimbabwe," says Chris Maroleng, an expert on Zimbabwe for the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria (now known as Tshwane.) "But the problem for South Africa is that if they make provisions to allow Zimbabwe refugees in, they have to make a statement of why they are doing that, to criticize the Mugabe regime." That, he says, would scuttle Mbeki's chances of negotiating a settlement between the government and the opposition.
"The problem with the South African government is that it cannot effectively communicate their policy," says Mr. Maroleng. "It always ends up looking like the ... government supports Mugabe."
Zimbabwe is marking 27 years of independence from Britain this week – all under Mugabe's rule – but the celebration has been marred by the country's devastated economy and a political crisis sparked by Mugabe's plan to seek another five-year term in 2008. Zimbabwe's main opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, said last week that he would talk with Mugabe's party to try to end the crisis, which he says has resulted in the abduction and torture of 600 political activists this year.
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