Fear, hope and a one-way ticket home

Almost two weeks after the June 30 protests, a migrant camp has been set up outside the Malawian consulate in Sandton, where hundreds of people have gathered.

Entirely operated and stocked by volunteers, who take shifts to sleep over at the temporary settlement, it has become a beacon of light for Malawians who are frightened and desperate to get home.

The camp has portable toilets, a mobile clinic, cellphone charging ports hooked up to a generator, private security, mobile cooking stations, food supplies, drinking water, piles of nappies, infant formula, sanitary pads and toilet paper, a registration office, night-time fires that offer respite from the near-freezing weather conditions, and a well-ordered queuing system.

For days, Malawian nationals have kept coming to the settlement. Some turn up on foot and injured, and many of them are frightened. Whole families arrive together, some having travelled by Uber, while busloads of people are dropped off from around the country. The camp numbers continually rise and fall as buses leave for repatriation camps and more people arrive.

Some of the people here are asylum seekers, some are undocumented, and some have been living legally in South Africa for years

—  Rivonia Pillay, Siyafana Sonke founder

Rivonia Pillay, one of the founders of Siyafana Sonke, an umbrella structure representing 160 NGOs and individuals from surrounding communities, said the organisation had been formed weeks before the March and March campaign.

“We pulled in [people with] different resources and skill sets, including government officials, [embassy employees] and even political-party representatives. Our main aim was to be able to show up at crisis points — anywhere people had gathered to be processed during forced dispersals,” Pillay said.

They started by helping at a church in Newlands before moving to Brixton and into the Johannesburg CBD. They organised food and shelter, brought in doctors and social workers, transported pregnant women to clinics, and called on the home affairs department to co-ordinate operations.

In recent weeks, their efforts have focused on the situation outside the Malawian consulate, where people have gathered to take refuge from the brutality they say they have experienced in South Africa.

The camp receives aid from humanitarian organisations, local residents and businesses.

“I arrived here to drop off some food nine days ago and haven’t slept at home since,” said Sandton resident Caroline Bauthier, who runs the “front office”, where new arrivals are registered for bus transport to repatriation camps.

“Some of the people here are asylum seekers, some are undocumented, and some have been living legally in South Africa for years,” Pillay said, adding that what they had in common was deep uncertainty and fear.

People come here after they have been assaulted. We’ve had a woman with severe head injuries and a man with burns who was attacked with a gas burner. It’s terrible

—  Dadi Mwamadi, Malawian volunteer

Humanitarian organisation Ashraful Aid International assisted with food and supplies. Radio Islam arranged a mobile clinic.

Malawian volunteer Dadi Mwamadi co-ordinates the clinic, which he said mostly treated people suffering from colds, flu and pregnancy-related conditions.

“But we have also seen some terrible things,” he said. “People come here after they have been assaulted. We’ve had a woman with severe head injuries and a man with burns who was attacked with a gas burner. It’s terrible.”

At the serving tables, volunteers work side by side, dishing out meals and taking turns to sleep at the camp overnight to ensure stability and safety.

On Thursday, Absa banker Gulshan Chouragade, Siyafana Sonke volunteer Jeff Luk and human rights law student Jessica Fearnhead exchanged friendly banter as they served plates of food to those in the silent lunch queue.

“Oh, we don’t know each other at all. We only met three days ago,” said Fearnhead when she was asked how long they had been working together.

Volunteer Cleopatra Buthelezi also joined the effort, travelling from the inner city after being inspired by her church to assist vulnerable people.

“I was here on Sunday when a woman named Marion, who said she was a nurse from the UN, helped to deliver a baby in the middle of the night,” she said.

People came to the farm and told me I would be hurt if I didn’t leave. They said I was taking their jobs

—  Lazak Makunganya, Malawian livestock farmer

For Malawian livestock farmer Lazak Makunganya, the decision to leave South Africa was driven by fear. He said he had abandoned his job on the farm in Randfontein where he also lived after receiving repeated threats.

“People came to the farm and told me I would be hurt if I didn’t leave. They said I was taking their jobs,” he told the Sunday Times.

Makunganya said he had spent the previous three days at the consulate waiting for a chance to board one of the buses arranged to repatriate Malawian citizens.

“I won’t be coming back. I want to start my own business back home and live a peaceful life with my family,” he said.

Construction worker Kenneth Tshikamela, who had been employed in Westonaria, said he had not personally been threatened, but the growing climate of uncertainty and anti-foreigner sentiment had convinced him it was time to return home.

“The people I work for are actually sad that I want to go back home,” he said.

He could not afford transport back to Malawi and welcomed the assistance provided through the repatriation programme.

Despite not having been personally targeted, he said images and videos circulating on social media had heightened his fears.

“I do feel fearful because of the things I see on social media. I have a family back home depending on me,” he said.

The Sunday Times also visited the Zimbabwean consulate in Johannesburg, where about 100 Zimbabwean nationals waited patiently with bags and suitcases for buses to take them home.

However, journalists were not permitted to interview them.

Zimbabwean consulate representative Frankton Murinyu said the Zimbabwean government had arranged buses for its citizens.

“People are complaining about the bad treatment they received here in South Africa, so they say they would rather go back home, start something of their own, and earn an income,” he said.

Murinyu said not everyone returning had fled violence or intimidation. Some, he explained, simply lacked the financial means to travel home without government assistance.