There are five Zimbabweans visiting my house; they’ve come for a shower after spending a night at the Claremont Methodist Church in Cape Town’s southern suburbs. It’s too dangerous for them to return home. 25 000 others like them have also been forced to flee for their lives while barbaric attacks rage and immigrants are hunted down, their clothes, and furniture stolen.
South Africa has shown its guests the finger. Who knows how long it will be before life can return back to normal for these poor people – how long will it be before the madness fades away and sanity and tolerance can once again prevail?
Speaking from Harare, Cathy Buckle has the following to say in her latest newsletter:
How can it be, that without warning and when Zimbabweans need support and refuge more than ever before, this can be happening across the border. Our temporary sanctuary, the place where we felt safe and could find food, friendship and compassion has suddenly gone. Which way now for our poor people? Too frightened to stay, too frightened to go.
Will immigrants be allowed back into the communities they have recently become a part of? Will the looting, beatings and burglaries come to an end?
I certainly hope so.
1 Comment
May 25, 2008 at 9:28 pm
So do I!