Enraged South Africans have called on all Zimbabweans, documented or otherwise, to immediately leave the country as soon as possible or face more xenophobic violence.
This is just as the Zimbabwean government through its embassy in South Africa has begun engaging authorities in Pretoria to immediately address the recent upsurge in xenophobic violence.
According to bulawayo24.com, the call by South Africans follows the callous murder of Zimbabwean father of four, Elvis Nyathi, Wednesday night.
A mob stormed his dwelling and pulled him from his hideout in Diepsloot, a massive slum settlement north of commercial capital Johannesburg, before stoning and setting him aflame to his gory death.
Speaking during an all stakeholders meeting co-chaired by police minister Bheki Cele and his home affairs counterpart Aaron Motsoaledi Friday, South Africans took turned to blame Zimbabweans as being responsible for all the crimes taking place in the shantytown.
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Words were not minced as they demanded that the police’s Special Tactics Response Teams (TRTs) should urgently search, arrest, detain and deport any Zimbabwean.
South Africa Police Services (SAPS) and immigration officers launched an operation targeted at illegal immigrants Friday morning, arresting some and detaining them at the Diepsloot police station for processing.
“South Africans must start walking around with identity cards, our police are failing us we demand the TRT to start a stop, search and arrest operation. They should be allowed to ask who you are, where you are from and for your documentation,” one visibly angry resident said.
“It is not bringing back apartheid, South Africa for South Africans, that is how we want it as residents of Diepsloot. The police should search everyone. A solution will come from South Africans, we do not want Zimbabweans to intervene or assist us in coming up with a solution. We are the solution and we are saying they must leave, they must fokof, that is all. We do not want them to be part of the stakeholders meeting,” the man, sporting an unkempt moustache, said.
He said other people from other countries are not committing crimes.
“We want all Zimbabweans to leave because the ones that are documented are the ones that are bringing the undocumented here. Zimbabweans are killing us, they are entering our houses, our shacks. I reside here and know what I am talking about,” he said.
Nyathi, a gardener, was killed as a result of the ongoing Nhlanhla Dlamini-led Operation Dudula which is calling on residents to remove foreigners from their homes.
His gory end was captured on video and shared on social media.
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Consul-General in South Africa Mrs Melody Chaurura said they were engaging “the South African government at all levels” to deal with the issue.
“I was able to visit the family of Elvis Nyathi yesterday (Friday) to pass our condolences. We have been able to get free repatriation of the body from a Zimbabwe-owned funeral parlour here in South Africa.
“We are very much concerned with this issue and we are talking to the South African government at all levels to see how the issue can be dealt with.”
In a statement released on Friday, the Zimbabwean Embassy urged Zimbabweans living in areas affected by the violence to remain calm.
“The Embassy of the Republic of Zimbabwe in Pretoria and the Consulates in Johannesburg and Cape Town have learnt with utmost revulsion the wanton and callous killing of a Zimbabwean national in Diepsloot, Johannesburg.
The victim, positively identified as Elvis Nyathi, met his untimely death on the evening of April 6, 2022. Elvis was gruesomely murdered by yet to be identified assailants who unlawfully demanded cash and travel documents from him before murdering him in cold blood.”
The South African Government, reads the statement, has been engaged in order to find a solution to the resurgence of violence against foreigners.
“The Embassy and Consulates wish to urge all Zimbabwe nationals, particularly those in Diepsloot to remain calm in the face of adversity. The Embassy and the Consulates are working with the host Government authorities to get to the root of the problem.
We continue to pin our hopes on the ability of the host government’s justice delivery system to bring the perpetrators to book.
We reiterate our call to all our nationals to immediately establish contact with the Embassy and two Consulates in times of distress.”
The attack came in the midst of renewed xenophobic sentiment in South Africa, with Operation Dudula, an anti-immigrant group spearheaded by Nhlanhla “Lux” Dlamini, continuing its controversial campaign in that country.
Speaking to eNCA, Nyathi’s widow Nomsa Tshuma said that when they saw “many people” enter their yard, they tried to run away and hide. She also told Sabc News in an interview that “a group of people came and asked them to produce their documents and she did so and her husband failed to produce his and ran out of the house and the mob attacked him.”
