Johannesburg - Ebrahim Mohamed Ali spent this week comforting refugees fleeing violence in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Joburg, seeking refuge at his Mayfair coffee shop.
But he battles to face his own painful memories of South Africa’s deadly 2008 xenophobic attacks. That’s when a gang of locals stormed his panelbeating workshop, stripped it, and murdered his brother.
“They took everything from me and killed my brother because he was a Somali national.”
Now again, Ali feels hopeless amid the horrific resurgence of attacks.
“All of us, we are scared. This is a big problem, but the government does nothing. Nobody responds.”
No one was arrested for his brother’s murder.
In the years since 2008, xenophobic violence has claimed many more lives, according to Jean-Pierre Misago, a researcher at Wits University’s African Centre for Migration and Society.
Misago told the Saturday Star that because perpetrators of the 2008 attacks were never prosecuted, those involved in the continuing attacks “have a licence”.
“They know they can get away with it. What is happening now is not a surprise. Since 2008, there have been no mechanisms to put in place to prevent it. We only hear political pronouncements that are not accompanied by concrete measures.
“The perpetrators are not held accountable and a culture of impunity develops. We have places where the violence has happened three, four or five times and no one in is held accountable. The violence never stopped. The numbers suggest that the 62 people who died in 2008 does not compare to all the people who have died every year since.”
Misago noted that since the dawn of democracy, tens of thousands of people had been harassed, attacked or killed just because of their status as “outsiders” or foreign nationals.
While the May 2008 attacks and violence targeted almost all foreign nationals and South Africans deemed “outsiders”, targets this time appear to be Somali, Ethiopian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani nationals, operating small businesses in townships and informal settlements across the country, he said.
Rainbow nation’s statistics of shame
* Between mid-2009 and late 2010 – 20 deaths, 40 serious injuries, 200 foreign shops looted, 4 000 people displaced.
* 2011 – 120 foreign nationals killed – five burnt alive, 100 seriously injured, 1 000 displaced, 120 shops closed.
* 2012 – 140 deaths, 250 serious injuries.
* 2013 – An average of three major violent attacks recorded every week.
Source: Jean Pierre Misango, Wits
Saturday Star