Esnat Joseph fled her Durban home after South African men carrying machetes and whips told her to leave, with the 30 June deadline for undocumented migrants now closing in on families across RSA country. The 36-year-old Malawian mother said she was trying to comfort her crying one-year-old triplets when she said, "I am very scared and traumatised."
Joseph said the people who came to her house arrived in a group of 10 and threatened her family before attacking her husband. "They cut my husband on his head and his neck. They were holding his neck like they wanted to kill him. Because of God he still survived, but he's in the hospital," she said.
Durban migrants leave early
Up to 7,000 foreigners, mainly Malawians, were gathering with their belongings in an open field in Durban two weeks ago, as fear spread before the cutoff. About 3,500 foreigners have volunteered to leave so far, while Ghana, Mozambique, Nigeria and Zimbabwe have been arranging repatriations by air or bus over the last few weeks.
Benjamin returned to Lagos last week after nearly nine years in South Africa and described the pressure on migrants in blunt terms: "South Africans don't like foreigners, especially Nigerians. South Africa is not a place to be - it's a place you can lose your life at any time." The South African authorities said more than 500 Nigerians recently repatriated had been in the country illegally.
March and March protests
March and March, ActionSA and others have led mainly peaceful protests this year, and marchers have been chanting "Mabahambe". Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma has rejected accusations of xenophobia, saying migrants are "playing the victim card". At one protest in Durban, she said, "If you come into South Africa with a passport that allows you to stay for 30 days. When it's 50 days, when it's two years, when it's five years, you know you're breaking the law," and also said, "We can't have South Africa being turned into a refugee site for all failed African states… every country prioritises its citizens and we want the South African government to do the same."
Cyril Ramaphosa warned South Africans on Tuesday that the "scapegoating of vulnerable people" was not the solution to the country's complex economic challenges. South Africa has more than three million foreigners, about 5% of the population, and most foreigners in South Africa are from neighbouring countries in southern Africa. What happens before 30 June is now the immediate test: whether intimidation keeps driving departures from Durban, or whether South African authorities move to stop the threats at the doors where migrants say the pressure has already started.
