School bullies, xenophobia and threats of arrest are better than home

School bullies, xenophobia and the constant threat of arrest haunt him daily, but for a 16-year-old boy from Pretoria, all of these are better than being home.

Aged 13, the teenager fled the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo in 2011 after losing his mother, father and grandmother to horrific deaths.

His first month in the world was the last he had with his family. Too young to remember, the boy recalls being told that in 1998 his parents were among 13 people abducted by Banyamulenge soldiers, who “brutally stabbed” them to death.

In 2011 he lost his grandmother, who was beheaded in field near her home. Soon after burying her, the home he shared with his aunt, 25, was ambushed by five men, who gang-raped her, leaving her pregnant.

The two jumped at the opportunity to escape when a relative truck driver offered them a lift to South Africa. The journey was long, but they were fuelled by their hope for a better life.

But they have fought a constant battle for survival since arriving in Johannesburg in May 2011. The teen has no temporary asylum permit because he did not arrive in the country with his parents and has no death certificates for them.

As he gets older, being undocumented comes with the risk of arbitrary arrest, detention and being deported back to Congo, where poverty and attacks on civilians remain rife.

The teen, who lives with his older aunt, 32 and her family in Pretoria West, says its tough making ends meet. Like many foreigners in South Africa, his aunt, a street vendor, complains of frequent victimisation and attacks for being a “makwerekwere”- slang for foreigners.

As the broken family’s hopes rest on the boy, he is determined to get an education. But this has been difficult. Schools turned him away, not willing to risk a stiff fine for enrolling an undocumented child.

Having missed more than a year of school, the boy, together with seven other Congolese children, took various government ministers and officials to court.

As a result, he has been temporarily enrolled in a local school. He is much older than his peers in Grade 8, but this has not stopped them bullying him for being different. Last month he says he was beaten by his “gangster” classmates, who stole his school books, bag and jersey.

After school, he hides indoors, fearing for his safety.

But, he would still choose this life over one in Congo.

“I didn't feel safe back home, there was so much fighting,” he said.

His 25-year-old aunt adds: “I don't think I can go back there, those who … raped us, they can't touch us now ... . But living here in SA is … very difficult.”

The little hope the family has left lies with their nephew, who enjoys learning English in school.