Watch: Mozambicans forced to sleep in police stations, pretending to be South Africans to avoid reprisals – report

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Watch: Mozambicans forced to sleep in police stations, pretending to be South Africans to avoid reprisals – report

5:43 CAT | 11 Sep 2019

Some Mozambicans living in South Africa say they are forced to sleep in police stations to escape the protesters decimating foreigners’ lives, or have to pretend to be South Africans to avoid reprisals. Some, not all, want to return to Mozambique.

Unemployment, impunity or crime wave?

What is the real motivation for the continuing xenophobic attacks that are tarnishing the name of South Africa? A country that has become the most beloved on the African continent for its post-apartheid democratic victories, but which is now the most hated for the sporadic killings of foreigners.

Mozambican citizens, also victims of these attacks, have taken shelter in police stations.

In fact, it was the police who warned the vendors that protesters were approaching.

Even aware of the danger they are in by residing in South Africa, unemployment in the home country is cited as the reason for staying.

But some Mozambicans think differently.

The outrage of those who know that they are part of a friendly and hospitable people is on the increase.

In the midst of the interview with the Mozambican community, a neighbour from another Southern African country interrupts and asks to speak.

South African Police Minister Bheki Cele recently said there was no need to deploy army units to contain the protesters, but videos on social networks show the metropolitan police apparently being ineffectual against demonstrators demanding the deportation of African foreigners.

“They passed here. But we had already left because the police told us we should leave. We left because they were on their way here. This happened on Monday, late at night, at around 10 p.m.. That was when all of this started. They burned down car ports, cars, whipped persons and broke into… like… they went from house to house. Like.. they promised, they made these audios, saying ‘I am going to go get inside each foreigners’ house, one by one’… because they know”.

Another woman suggests: “I don’t know if it’s true that the power here comes from there, in Mozambique. They ought to turn off that power, because we are paining here in South Africa.”