Durban - As Zimbabweans got ready to leave Durban on Sunday, some foreigners remained hopeful that King Goodwill Zwelithini’s imbizo in Durban on Monday would help stop the xenophobic attacks and restore peace in KwaZulu-Natal.
Thousands of people are expected to converge on Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium on Monday morning to listen to the king speak about the attacks on foreigners. KwaZulu-Natal Premier Senzo Mchunu, who will also attend the imbizo, announced the event on Friday.
The city released a press statement on Sunday saying 10 000 people including the Amakhosi, Izinduna and Amabutho (regiments) were expected to attend the imbizo.
On Sunday buses transported hundreds of Zimbabweans from the Chatsworth transit camp where most had been living for two weeks.
The people The Mercury spoke to said they planned to return as soon as possible.
Speaking about the imbizo, Nigerian national Thomas Gaye, who lives in the Point area, said: “The king has to talk to his people because we do not want this fight. We want to live in peace.”
In a speech in Pongola last month, the king called for foreigners to be repatriated. He was reported to have said there were too many foreigners and accused them of changing the culture of South African society and taking economic opportunities from South Africans.
The king has since accused the media of misquoting him.
During a press briefing in Durban on Sunday, Police Minister Nathi Nhleko suggested that the king’s message was lost in the translation from Zulu to English.
Nhleko and Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC Willies Mchunu were present in Pongola when the king spoke.
“He was referring to the deportation of illegals because the way he started off was a question of carelessness of our borders,” said Nhleko.
He said it was illegal for any individual to call for the deportation of immigrants “because that is governed by law”.
However, when asked if the king would be held accountable for breaking the law, Nhleko said: “You want a headline. I am not going to say that.”
* Listen to the audio and translation of the king's speech below:
When The Mercury visited the Point area at the weekend, foreign men were standing on street corners on the lookout for attackers.
City manager S’bu Sithole said they should not pay attention to propaganda circulated on social networks about the possible attacks.
Liberian Austin Teage said: “I think the ANC can solve the problems. They should hold more meetings to help us integrate.”
There was a sombre mood at the Chatsworth transit camp on Sunday.
“Everything I had worked hard for was taken from me. I am left with only the clothes I have just been given as a donation,” said Memory Zhou, 40, who had been working as a maid in Pinetown for the past six years.
She said her family in Zimbabwe had asked her to come back because “they said they need my life.”.
“I understand they (South Africans) do not want us here, but they should have demonstrated and told us to leave, not take our stuff,” she said.
Zhou said her employer told her she could have her job back when she returned.
Sylvia Mangezi, 22, mother of 2-year-old Prudence Masava, had been a maid since she arrived in 2013 and her partner Lovemore Masava, 25, had been working as a gardener.
She said their house was looted. They could only save their baby and a few clothes.
“I am coming back. My boss said she would give me my job back. I can’t stay in Zimbabwe – there are no jobs there,” she said.
Climate Mushanga, 48, who has been a pastor in Chatsworth, said he was leaving his family behind. His wife and two children, aged 3 and 1, bid farewell to their father, “who is not safe in South Africa”.
Mushanga, who has been in the country for 18 years, has also worked as a mechanic.
“I am coming back to SA. My family is here and I have children to look after,” he said.
Clement Mapundu, 23, is a long-distance truck driver.
“My parents advised me to come home. I told them that I will have to come back because I have a job here,” he said.
Last week, buses, organised by the Department of Home Affairs transported foreigners to Malawi and Mozambique.
The Mercury