Expired food for foreigners

The Glenvista refugees camp is a camp where plus minus 2 300 foreigners have been displaced, following the recent xenophobic attacks that took place a month ago in Alexandra township North of Johannesburg. The attacks later stretched to other parts of South Africa. The camp is situated just next to the Rifle Range road here in Johannesburg, with a variety of 14 different nationals. Foreigners there say they really are very disappointed about how they have been treated, especially the kind of food they are been fed with. They say the food is often expired and six slices of brown bread and soup two times a day it is not enough.

Speaking to some of them why they say the food is expired they say it is because every time after they have eaten they go to the toilet because of the running stomach. This is just news to the assistant site manager Belinda Kontze, as she explains there is no such a thing as expired food. Kontze explained to us that every time food comes in, she and other volunteers are the first people to taste them. Now its surprising to hear the food is expired.

This led to some of the women foreigners ending up cooking their own food as they say they don't trust anything and anyone now. When you walk around the tents you could see prima stoves and pots - a clear sign that people have lost hope. But where do they get the money to buy their own food?


The foreign nationals are now calling on the South African government and the International Community to do everything in their power to make sure they will soon leave the camp.

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.