"Why are we being treated like animals?"

THE first thing one senses when entering the refugee camp at the Glenvista rifle range in Johannesburg is, isolation. Here is a group of destitute foreigners who are in South Africa because they fled their respective countries because of either war, famine or whatever other problem that the African continent has inherited, and they come to our country, only to be treated like a distant cousin.
When the xenophobic attacks first broke out, I felt ashamed as a South African, but when I visited the camp and saw a one month old baby wrapped in nothing but a dirty rag, I felt ashamed as a human being. As I was walking around the camp I was drawn by the sound of a crying infant and upon further inspection I saw a mother and her three infants sitting around a camp fire with two pots on the fire. The mother told me that she’s preparing their first meal of the day (it was approximately 11am) and her infant was crying because she was hungry. It took everything in me not to break out in a sob right there in front of them, so I just walked away. The majority of the people said they had opted to cooking their own food because the food provided at the camp gave them diarrhea.
I came across a teenager who was carrying two knitting needles and wool. She’s a grade 8 student in a school in Pretoria and she said they were given the needles and wool by the Red Cross to keep them busy. She was knitting herself a scarf for winter. But before I could escape she asked me, “Why are they doing this to us? Why are they treating us like animals?” I didn’t know what to say, so I just looked at her and assured her that things will get better and everything will be back to normal soon and she could go back to school.
I certainly hope that something will be done to remedy the situation; either by being integrated back to their old communities or improving their current living conditions.

Who are we or who are we not?

I ask this question because my soul is shocked to its core because of what we do as so called African.
When visiting the glen vista rifle range refugee camp near Booysens in Johannesburg I felt stripped naked with the feeling of someone staring at me. Fellow Africans that have been relocated from places they once called home,to tents we call shelters.
Forcing them 14 different nationalities to stay together, men women and children
people full of anger and fear, fear for being treated like animals that are being led for slaughter by the once nation that brought hope to them.

Rows of tents opposite the mansions.




We fellow country men and women say,we don't want the kwere kweres here and at the same time its them crying saying we don't want them here!!!

Have we forgotten about the time when our own country did not want us?
stop and think of these times,think who reached out welcoming us in their countries
fellow south Africans,it is said you don't bite the hand that feeds you.
we have bitten the hands that fed us when our motherland was not ready to feed us.
when we were orphaned by south Africa because of the apartheid!!!


This brings me to my contention that our souls have been bared,our consciences need cleansing as we question our motives,should we love our brothers and sisters or should we hate them!!!


We grabbed in to assist by providing food and aid to those displaced!

However amid all of this it was disheartening, I felt as if I could have been someone else except me when i heard the cry of these people.

David Shabani from the war torn Burundi whom i spoke to ,told me with tears in his eyes that as we were pushed away in the past the only place he had to call home pushed him away now. Telling me that since he came into life he never had to queue for food neither had he to fight over two slices of bread.



People at the shelter are receiving bread, polony, and some juice as well as chicken which might not be ideal for those of them who established themselves well in the communities that now don't want them there.

David Shabani still remains positive saying unlike other refugees who demands to be deported he would still like to stay in south Africa. If they still do not want me i will kill my children and myself. was the words of Shabani, a man that is as broken as the branch of a tree by an elephant.

Who will take responsibility for the blood of these people and on whose hands will it be!!!

It is said that our people should be educated to accept foreign nationals the same should be extended to those we shelter,their situation is painful!!! Something is seriously wrong in our country. The killings of our cousins from all over Africa have resulted in friction that we, with our children and their children will be confronted with for many years to come.

During my visit to the camp I noticed that many of these people were full of fear - hardly saying anything - extremely quiet in fear of being asked to say elbow in Zulu which means indololwane fearing as they are not zulu for failing to say it correct and being attacked again.

I am not comfortable with the idea that these people saw me and my fellow journalistic friends as monsters asking me upon entry at the refugee camp,are you coming to kill us again.


Let us remember that these people are our brothers and sisters from our other mothers.