Community To Help 500 Zimbabweans Left Homeless After Violent Clashes

Little children as young as one played in a parking lot in Robertson, oblivious to the 24 hours of violence that had left them homeless, while their parents waited in long lines for food and water.

On Thursday night, more than 500 Zimbabweans were displaced as a result of violent clashes with fellow seasonal farmworkers from Lesotho. Police Casspirs and a helicopter were dispatched to Nqubela, a small farming town, to quell the violence that erupted on Friday.

Langeberg mayor Schalk van Eeden said earlier this week that a Nkqubela community meeting was called where unemployed locals expressed their displeasure that labour brokers were hiring foreign nationals and taking their jobs. Farmworkers agreed to stage a protest during the meeting.

“The protest then turned into a fight between Lesotho and Zimbabwean nationals,” he said.

He said one person has been hospitalised, and 17 people sustained minor injuries, two of which were children. About 20 dwellings of foreign nationals had been broken into and some burned.

Since the riots, town residents, businesses, churches and organisations have come together to help those affected.

Phillip McMahon, the owner of the 4Cousins restaurant, said it was heartwarming to see how the community had come together to help the victims. “We managed to get blankets, food, nappies and even formula. This is all community effort.”

Princess Jakera, an 18-year-old Zimbawean, said she left Zimbabwe for greener pastures and a new life in South Africa.

She has no other family, so she appreciated the community’s help. “I don’t know what I would’ve done now without all these people helping. All I can do now is wait for my next pay cheque because I want to go back home. The grass turned out not to be as green as I thought.”

Geraldine Jansen-Willemse, owner of labor broker Farming Agriculture Woman Empowerment, defended her company’s employment policies. “This was totally uncalled for. When we employ people, we do it equally, every race, every nationality, every religion and we pay everyone the same, R23 per hour.

“Yes, there are farms that employ more foreigners and this is purely because they want to work, they work for a reason, for their families.

“We’ve received complaints that the Sotho people have their own way of doing things and do not want to follow instructions.”

But, as Jansen-Willemse pointed out, there were other ways for them to express their displeasure. “To attack woman, children and even go as far as to burn someone’s home, to set someone alight is uncalled for and inhumane, we hope these people lays criminal charges.”

Jansen-Willemse concluded that, despite the presence of police, people feared for their lives. “There will always be that trauma, and even though the man who was burnt has been sent home from the hospital, he will have that scars forever, and let me not get started on the children.”