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| Stocking up: These men routinely cross into South Africa to buy food to resell in Zimbabwe where the economy has collapsed. Melanie Stetson Freeman – staff |
Zimbabweans face hate in South Africa
Attacks on foreigners have killed 22 and left more than 6,000 homeless in the past few days.
from the May 20, 2008 edition
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Reporter Scott Baldauf talks about recent violence between South Africans and Zimbabweans in Johannesburg.
"Unfortunately, this helps business but it doesn't help people," says Manny Dos Santos, owner of the Messina Groentemark, a supermarket, who has had to double his shipment of food stocks in order to keep pace with demand.
"People buy everything," he says, walking by a tall bread rack that has already been emptied by 10 a.m. on a recent Sunday morning. "They buy bread, vegetables, oils, sugar, coffee, mealie [corn] meal. They buy 100 kilogram bags of potatoes, onions." He sighs. "This is just an unreal situation."
Donald Ndou, manager of the Superspar supermarket in Musina, says that 70 percent of his customers come from Zimbabwe. "We used to know how to budget and prepare for the demand, but now it's crazy. They'll just come in with an order and buy everything off the racks."
"You can't buy anything in Zimbabwe now," says William, who, as a long-haul truck driver from Harare, has been able to earn his salary in foreign currency and to feed his family by buying monthly groceries in neighboring countries such as South Africa. "Nobody has money in Zimbabwe, and nobody outside of Zimbabwe is doing enough to help us out."
For their part, many South Africans view their Zimbabwean neighbors as a menace. Some complain that the flood of Zimbabweans has taken away jobs, while others blame the higher price of food on Zimbabwean buying sprees.
"Today a loaf of bread costs 8-1/2 rand ($1.13); before it was five rand (66 cents)," says Razwimisane, a South African from Musina. "It's because of this crisis."
As the violence against foreigners continues to spread in Johannesburg, Mr. Mashele of the ISS says that the government needs to reach out to community leaders and go beyond the usual high-profile calls for calm.
"There's no way the South African police can outnumber the South African public, so you need to not only be reactive, but also need proactive work of talking with community leaders about their concerns," says Mashele. But the problem is, very few top leaders live in the communities where the violence takes place, so they have little credibility. "Communities increasingly are not paying attention to political leaders."
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