Children playing in a township
The South African president says he is “deeply disturbed” by the abuses suffered by foreign nationals working in the country. This is a particular problem in the township of Alexandra, which was the center of xenophobic riots in 2008. Our correspondent Lebo Diseko spoke to immigrants there, who say they live in fear.
“When they first came here, there were seven of them. They made us all lie down. They took the machines, the hair dryers and the sprays. We had no choice but to let them take because they had guns”.
David – not his real name – sits nervously in front of me at his hairdresser’s in Alexandra township in Johannesburg.
The Mozambican looks down at his hands as he describes the many attacks he has been the target of, simply because he is a foreigner.
David says his attackers were South Africans, and each time they make the same demand: that he leaves the country.
“They tell us we have to go, close our business, but I don’t know where to go,” he says.
The cabin he uses as his living room is less than two meters long, but it’s clearly David’s pride and joy. Laminated pictures showing different hairstyles line the wall, and her clippers and other tools are neatly lined up to the side.
The money he earns here sustains his family back in Mozambique. But he says he is ready to brave any danger that may come their way.
“As long as my family eats, that’s all that matters to me,” he says.
“They could kill me at any time. I don’t know what will happen.”
Man walking in township
Alexandra is one of the poorest urban areas in the country
Recent clashes between South African residents of Alexandra and foreign business owners have raised fears of a new outbreak of anti-immigrant violence in the country. It was in this commune in 2008 that xenophobic violence began and then spread.
Nationwide, nearly three times as many foreigners were killed as a result of xenophobic violence in 2021 than the previous year, according to the African Center for Migration and Society.
Poverty is a major driver of these conflicts, with South Africans frequently accusing immigrants of taking away their jobs. One in three people in the labor force is currently unemployed, a figure that rises to nearly two in three among those under 24.
Agnes Malatjie (centre) says being called vigilantes won’t break the spirit of the Dudula movement
The issue of jobs and access to business opportunities in the township has been taken up by a group called the Alexandra Dudula movement. Dudula means “to push back” or “to drive away” in Zulu.
He has closed shops and stalls he claims are run by illegal immigrants. Foreigners like David say that it was people from the Dudula movement who carried out the violent attacks against them.
As our team crosses the township, we encounter a group of activists from Dudula preparing to conduct what they call patrols, where they demand to see people’s immigration papers.
I ask spokesperson Agnes Malatjie how the group justifies taking the law into their own hands.
“We won’t let those names you’ve called us — ‘hooligans, vigilantes’ — break the spirit of the community fighting for what’s rightfully theirs,” she tells me.
She accuses authorities of failing to enforce immigration law or failing to react when South Africans are attacked.
“If the government does things in the right way, there will be no self-defense. We are also harassed, we were attacked on March 7 by foreigners with sticks, weapons. So some things need a serious consideration.”
Alexandra is one of the poorest urban areas in the country, and it sits in the shadow of the gleaming skyscrapers of Sandton, Africa’s wealthiest square mile.
Its proximity to wealth and opportunity has long drawn newcomers to Johannesburg from across the country and the continent.
But as pressure on resources in this densely populated area increases, so does the potential for conflict between newcomers and existing residents who feel left out.
All of this largely explains its cycles of violence, says Dr. Lufuno Sadiki, a criminologist from the University of Pretoria. She explains it using what is called the “theory of constraints”.
“We all want a good life, and not all of us have access to a good life.”
“In Sandton, you don’t have to wake up in the morning to empty the bucket you use as a toilet. You turn on your tap, you have water. You have all these resources at your fingertips. And here you are just across the road in Alexandra, and every day is what you see.
“It’s like a mirror that magnifies your frustrations. Inequality is right in front of you. The thing you want is right across the road and yet you can’t access it. Sometimes when you don’t have no answers, the easiest way is to attack another person”.
John, 19 – alias – says he too has been the victim of several such attacks since arriving in Johannesburg from Mozambique last year.
He and his friends have a roadside stand where they prepare meat and porridge to sell to commuters in the township.
But he says South Africans claiming to be from the Dudula movement have repeatedly attacked them, stealing their stock.
“When Dudula arrives, they are armed with heavy leather whips, and they beat us. When they arrive, we have to run and leave our things”
For John, too, the dream was to support his family back in Mozambique. He even hoped he could save enough money to buy his first car.
Those dreams are now in tatters.
“I’m so scared that I’m even thinking of moving to another country,” he says. “At home in Mozambique, they know our situation in South Africa, and they pray for us.”