Hundreds of refugees of xenophobic violence in Grahamstown are living in desperate conditions and terror in an old refurbished hotel 10km outside the academic town.
Some of the 268 foreign nationals fled their homes and shops in such haste they had no time to put on their shoes and were still wandering around the local hotel barefoot yesterday.
A Grahamstown anti-xenophobic group has sprung up to respond to the sudden outbreak of violence against foreign nationals on Wednesday which took police by surprise.
Police said 200 homes and shops were stoned, burned and damaged, but a doctor said up to 300 were destroyed.
Grahamstown anti-xenophobic group spokesman Matthew Mpahlwa said a total of 456 foreign nationals were displaced from Grahamstown, but 188 had been taken in by friends and family from elsewhere.
Another member of the anti-xenophobic group, Dr Anjum Naveed, a medical doctor who practises mainly in Alice, said threats that mobs would move on the hotel had forced some refugees to relocate their families to other towns and cities.
At the hotel, blankets are running short and meals for people from Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Mali, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh had been cut from three to two meals a day after food started running out, Mpahlwa said.
Rhodes journalism student Lucy Grinker, 19, who visited the refugees on Sunday, said she found people still wearing the same clothes they put on five days ago.
She said: “The hotel owner was feeding people from his own pocket. People need clothes, food, toiletries and soap.”
There were up to 20 children who were fed and sheltered at the hotel.
“They were stressing about their small businesses and how to feed people back home in Africa and Bangladesh.”
On Wednesday, looting started on the corner of Beaufort and Bathurst streets near Grahamstown’s CBD and spread to the townships.
Violence broke out when locals falsely accused a foreign businessman of being a “serial killer” who had targeted people for muthi purposes.
Grahamstown police strenuously denied the claim.
Mpahlwa said it was still not clear when the foreign nationals would be reintegrated into their communities since they feared for their lives.
Police were at the hotel interviewing those whose homes and shops had been looted and destroyed.
Dr Naveed made an impassioned plea to community leaders, church leaders, civic groups, schools and political leaders to assist in informing, educating and confronting false rumours with fact and to assist with the reintegration of the foreign nationals back into the community.
“We are desperate for any donations. We are also thankful to the many people, businesses and organisations who already donated.” — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
G’town xenophobia refugees living in fear
Some of the 268 foreign nationals fled their homes and shops in such haste they had no time to put on their shoes and were still wandering around the local hotel barefoot yesterday.
A Grahamstown anti-xenophobic group has sprung up to respond to the sudden outbreak of violence against foreign nationals on Wednesday which took police by surprise.
Police said 200 homes and shops were stoned, burned and damaged, but a doctor said up to 300 were destroyed.
Grahamstown anti-xenophobic group spokesman Matthew Mpahlwa said a total of 456 foreign nationals were displaced from Grahamstown, but 188 had been taken in by friends and family from elsewhere.
Another member of the anti-xenophobic group, Dr Anjum Naveed, a medical doctor who practises mainly in Alice, said threats that mobs would move on the hotel had forced some refugees to relocate their families to other towns and cities.
At the hotel, blankets are running short and meals for people from Ghana, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Mali, Somalia, Pakistan and Bangladesh had been cut from three to two meals a day after food started running out, Mpahlwa said.
Rhodes journalism student Lucy Grinker, 19, who visited the refugees on Sunday, said she found people still wearing the same clothes they put on five days ago.
She said: “The hotel owner was feeding people from his own pocket. People need clothes, food, toiletries and soap.”
There were up to 20 children who were fed and sheltered at the hotel.
“They were stressing about their small businesses and how to feed people back home in Africa and Bangladesh.”
On Wednesday, looting started on the corner of Beaufort and Bathurst streets near Grahamstown’s CBD and spread to the townships.
Violence broke out when locals falsely accused a foreign businessman of being a “serial killer” who had targeted people for muthi purposes.
Grahamstown police strenuously denied the claim.
Mpahlwa said it was still not clear when the foreign nationals would be reintegrated into their communities since they feared for their lives.
Police were at the hotel interviewing those whose homes and shops had been looted and destroyed.
Dr Naveed made an impassioned plea to community leaders, church leaders, civic groups, schools and political leaders to assist in informing, educating and confronting false rumours with fact and to assist with the reintegration of the foreign nationals back into the community.
“We are desperate for any donations. We are also thankful to the many people, businesses and organisations who already donated.” — zwangam@dispatch.co.za
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