Durban -
Born to a refugee mother in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1976, Burundian nurse Elvira Munezero has spent most of her life fleeing conflict.
“I was a year old when my family was able to go back to Burundi after fleeing to Congo due to the conflict between the Tutsis and Hutus - the conflict resulted in what most people know today as the Burundian genocide,” she said from the Chatsworth temporary camp where more than 400 immigrants spent their Africa Day on Monday.
Munezero came to South Africa with three young daughters and her husband in 2004, after being forced to give up her studies at the University of Burundi as her life had been threatened.
“The situation has never been stable in Burundi, so we got involved in politics at a young age. My husband and his family were also activists.
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They lived in rural Ixopo, selling second-hand clothing to make ends meet until Munezero got a foreign student loan to study at the University of KwaZulu-Natal.
“It was hard living in Ixopo because I didn’t know isiZulu and my English was poor. No one spoke French, but I eventually learnt the terms I needed to communicate.”
She said the loan only became accessible once she had been granted refugee status.
They moved to Durban in 2009, when she enrolled for a degree in nursing at the UKZN Howard College campus.
Her teacher husband got a job as a security guard, eventually finding a teaching post in Newlands East which lasted two years.
After doing community service at Addington Hospital in 2013 she battled to register with the SA Nursing Council because of her immigration status, but succeeded in September.
“Studying and working in this country is not easy for immigrants even if you have the ID documents from Home Affairs. You can’t open a bank account or buy a plane ticket, but the government says this ID should allow us access to everything except voting.”
Her husband sold clothes at The Workshop and his street vendor income kept them afloat.
After applying to more than 50 hospitals she was hired by St Mary’s Hospital in Mariannhill in November.
“The xenophobic attacks started where we lived at Empola, in Mariannhill, on the night of April 15, then two days later my husband’s stall was looted.”
She took leave and moved to the camp where she now lives with her 11-year old daughter and husband.
The other three children stay with friends near their schools.
The youngest travels from the camp to Addington Primary every day.
“There was a time when I thought South Africans had accepted us, but now I think we are better off in another country, so I have nothing to celebrate this Africa Day.”