South Africa: Reintegration with trepidation

CAPE TOWN, 23 June 2008 (IRIN) - Tens of thousands of foreign nationals displaced by South Africa's wave of xenophobic violence have returned to their home countries but those left behind, scared and robbed of every possession, are reluctant to go along with government plans to resettle them into the communities that drove them out.

Sarah, 29, a Ghanaian hairdresser whose business in Khayelitsha township, on the outskirts of Cape Town in Western Cape Province, was destroyed in the attacks, is one of the lucky ones: she still has some savings, a family willing to help and a safe country to go home to.

"Last week I decided to buy things and start again," she said. But her return to Khayelitsha would not be for good; "I have to work hard so I can get money and go home to Ghana."

She will follow the thousands who have left South Africa because they could, since the violence peaked in late May. According to the Mozambican national disaster management agency (INGC), over 40,000 Mozambicans had returned by mid June 2008.

But for most of the people that Sarah will leave behind in the 65 makeshift shelters throughout the Western Cape, where over half the 14,647 still displaced in South Africa have found refuge, repatriation is not an option.

Nothing to go back to

Having already fled appalling conditions at home - like the ongoing violence in Zimbabwe and Somalia, and to a lesser extent DRC and Burundi - and with no means left to restart a life in South Africa, the sense of hopelessness in the shelters is overwhelming.

"Considering what is happening at home in Zimbabwe, I prefer to stay here," said Qhawe Khumalo, living at the Site B Community Hall in Khayelitsha.

Most of those in the shelters, like Khumalo, who lost his home and little shop, said they had nothing left after the attacks. "They took everything, the zincs [corrugated iron sheets used for roofing], everything. So even if I want to go back, there's nothing to go to, we'd have to start from scratch. So we're left with no options - there's nowhere to go," he told IRIN.

But, unappealing as it may sound, reintegration is the only next step. The South African government has made it abundantly clear that the shelters are temporary and that foreign nationals will be expected to reintegrate with local communities.

"The problems that took us from Somalia are only getting worse. We have no other place to go. The South African government is telling us that it will do everything to reintegrate us," Mohammed Osman Jama, head of the Somali Community Board (SCB) of the Western Cape, told IRIN.

This will be no easy feat, considering the fear and resentment of those in the shelters. "My neighbour, who always said, 'Good morning', was the one who took my things, so I want to go to a different area," Khumalo said.

A few have taken the chance and returned to the townships. Ahmed Hassan reopened his shop in Khayelitsha on 6 June with credit from one of his suppliers. "Our people in Somalia are all suffering and need us to support them. We decided to come back without any help," he said.

A rough road to reintegration

According to Jeremy Michaels, Western Cape Provincial head of communications, of the 22,000 displaced in the province, some 1,500 had opted for repatriation to various destinations, and around 8,000 were still in the state's "safe sites" ? like camps, community halls, churches and mosques - or on the streets. The remaining 12,000 had returned to their communities under their own steam.

Teams of mediators have started targeting communities believed to be most receptive to accepting the foreign nationals back. "It can be quite a time-consuming, intensive and painstaking process, [but] it has happened quite successfully in a number of communities," Hildegard Fast, provincial head of the Disaster Management Centre, told IRIN.

The teams work with local leadership and community organisations to mediate between the community and the displaced, gauging acceptance and readiness on the part of both sides to live together again, Fast said. "But we also are carefully monitoring the safety and security aspect; we don't want to put people back in unsafe environments."

Khayelitsha has already been touted as a success in terms of reintegration but some observers, like Andile Madondile, the Khayelitsha-based Provincial Secretary of the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC), an AIDS activist organisation, remain sceptical and believe the government should not be solely responsible for the process.

"It is our responsibility - as a community, as TAC, as police officers, as ANC [African National Congress, the ruling party] leaders, as ward councillors ... everyone has a responsibility to take these people and make sure that they are safe. The landlords don't want those people to come back because they fear the community might go and break their houses," Madondile commented.

Marlene Don of the Poor People's Movement (PPM), a non-governmental organisation (NGO) that uses group savings and loans schemes as a foundation for social and economic mobilisation told IRIN: "Reintegration must start within the communities themselves. They need to make the first move because they were the ones who destroyed the relationship."

Mandla Majola, head of the TAC in Khayelitsha, also stressed the importance of justice. "Law must take its course, and punishment must be communicated so communities know that those who did this were punished, and anyone who thinks of doing what has happened here will think twice."

Although some of the perpetrators were known, so far, none no one has been convicted. "Most people will be reintegrated with the communities, but poverty is robbing us of love and caring for humanity," Majola said.

The SCB's Jama told IRIN: "Of course we are afraid to go back, but the biggest factor preventing our return is lack of capital to start up again." He said the SCB had requested start-up loans from the provincial and national governments.

But, as Hassan the shopkeeper suggested, deep-rooted problems, like lack of adequate housing, crime, poor service delivery and soaring unemployment, which plague all residents in the township, would have to be addressed if communities were to become more welcoming. "[The police] don't protect the South Africans, so they can't protect us," he pointed out.

A number of initiatives have been started in Khayelitsha without government assistance. Various groups, from the TAC to minibus-taxi associations, have engaged in door-to-door pamphlet distribution, educational sessions in schools, public meetings, and essential patrols to monitor safety.

Yet this is not enough to keep Sarah in South Africa. "I'm very scared. Yesterday I went to the shops and some ladies started to say things about 'makwerekwere' [a derogative term for African foreigners] ... so it makes you afraid. Before [the attacks] the attitude was the same, but I could speak back," she said. "Now, if you talk back they can say, 'I'll shoot you'."

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