5.
Where to next?
59 people have been in De Doorns for less than a year, and the vast majority do not have
any idea of where they would move on to now that the season was over.
38% of respondents reported that they would go back to Zimbabwe after the season.
However, most of these indicated that they would head from Zimbabwe back to De
Doorns for the next picking season. A further 40% indicated that they would like to
return to Zimbabwe not now, but some time in the future.
57% indicated that they thought that Zimbabwe was NOT a safe place to return to now.
10% indicated that they would remain in De Doorns throughout the year – several of
these have permanent jobs outside of the picking industry.
10% indicated they would move to other parts of the Cape to pick citrus fruits during
the winter months
9% indicated they would stay elsewhere in the Cape.
VI.
Conclusion: Case Study Four
The overriding sense conveyed after talking to people in De Doorns is of poverty, anxiety and
exhaustion. People are afraid of further xenophobic attacks, and since SPT was there in May
2010, this fear has become a reality, with a Zimbabwean thrown off a moving train in Cape
Town on 6 July. This appeared by mid July to be one of at least six xenophobic attacks
resulting in hospital treatment in Cape Town alone.74 The respondents in our study, in a
frantic bid to survive and to help their families survive, have been driven out of Zimbabwe.
OM was an initial preciptating factor in this regard, but the economic meltdown of 2008/9 has
been a bigger factor in the rate of diasporisation, and political persecution has also played a
role.
The majority in De Doorns do not consider Zimbabwe a safe place to return to, but also do not
consider South Africa a safe place at this time. Zimbabweans, often with high levels of skill and
qualifications, have seen themselves driven into poverty over the last five years, suffering
substantial losses in terms of livelihoods, housing, health and schooling. Many of these losses
have resulted in fatalities, obvious and hidden, and other consequences are likely to be
irreversible: children who have fallen out of school have lost that opportunity permanently.
Material and social losses during OM in Zimbabwe have been compounded by losses during
xenophobic attacks in South Africa. Families live divided, their social fabric severely fractured.
For the last five years, Zimbabweans have been hounded by officials both in Zimbabwe and in
South Africa. In both nations the police have been complicit to a greater or lesser degree in
aggravating the suffering and injustices experienced by ordinary people, either by being
actively involved in demolitions, or by deliberate failure to act to protect or bring about
justice during and after xenophobic attacks. It appears that in South Africa in July 2010,
official response and preparedness for attacks on foreigners has been much improved; this
apparent willingness to head off such attacks needs to be sustained for the next year, as South
Africa heads into local government elections, often a precipitating factor for xenophobia.
74 Underhill, Glynnis, “Train assault underscores xenophobia fears”, Mail and Guardian, 9 – 15 July 2010.
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