Monday, May 26, 2008
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In their first clear stand against the xenophobic attacks that have driven them from their homes and businesses, thousands of African foreigners, except for a handful, have rejected an apology by the Masiphumelele community for viciously driving them out the township.Somali shops in the area were looted on Thursday night, and foreigners were threatened, pelted with stones and forced, in fear of their lives, to leave.
The community made a public apology to its foreign residents on Sunday.
During a meeting with Premier Ebrahim Rasool in Masiphumelele on Sunday afternoon, the locals agreed to fully reintegrate foreigners back into the community.
A small group proceeded to Soetwater, where thousands of foreign nationals have been put up in the biggest refugee camp after the attacks, to personally say sorry and invite them back.
Rasool praised the leadership of Masiphumelele on Sunday, saying they had "restored our dignity and our honour".
At the meeting in Masiphumelele, community leader Mzuvukile Nikelo said that at the weekend a group of representatives, along with police, had gone door to door as part of Operation Gqogqa, in which goods that had been looted are being recovered.
Foreigners refused to accept the apology, saying they would sooner return to their war and poverty-stricken home countries than go back to their homes in Cape Town.
It is not clear whether any have made their way back to Masiphumelele, although Rasool's spokesperson, Jeremy Michaels, said on Sunday night that 76 foreigners had returned to the settlement.
A group of about 200 Somalis went on a hunger strike until there was an intervention by the UN.
Masiphumelele's Nikelo said: "We are humbling ourselves, we are apologising.
"We want the (foreign) people to know that as long as the people of Masiphumelele are around, this will never happen again."
One Masiphumelele local, Zoleka Njalisa, believed the apology had been made because the community was suffering without the Somali shops. All of the small shops around here are owned by foreigners.
"We are suffering because now they are all gone and we are forced to go to (the big chain stores) - they are much more expensive," she said.
Rasool encouraged other areas that had been badly hit by xenophobic attacks to also apologise.
However, among those who did not accept the apology at Soetwater was a group of Congolese nationals, who told Rasool that the attacks would happen again when they returned to their homes and businesses.
Source: Capr Argus, May 26, 2008