NO to 'Beheading', 'Slaying', 'Hacking' & 'Bricking' fellow Human Beings - STOP Xenophobia

Armed with knives, machetes, wrenches, knobkerries, bricks, guns - they mobilised each other in their numbers with the intention to take the lives of their fellow brothers and sisters. They are thirsty for human blood to spill in-front of their homes with no fear of how their children might feel about it. They yearn to see dead bodies lying about, they long to take human life with the least remorse. 

Naume Garusa (www.herald.co.zw)

41 year old Zimbabwean woman Naume Garusa has become the latest victim of the xenophobia attacks in South Africa as her body was found in a bush with her head decapitated. Garusa had been working legally in South Africa since 2002 and was the sole breadwinner for her family. She is said to have been targeted on her way from work. 

What kind of a person would actually slit another human being’s head from end to end till it detaches from the body? When the blood is gutting out and spilling all over the murderer, what kind of feelings are going through his spirit? As Garusa was struggling, grappling for life, groaning as life left her – what kind of sound was the murderer making? Was he laughing? Was he talking? Was he shouting? Was he smiling?

This is not a nightmare, nooooooooo and neither is it a horror movie – it is the act of a demonic people clothed in human skin and it's happening in broad daylight as the world watches in dire disgust. These people are beyond barbaric and sub-headed because of such ghastly, vile, diabolic acts. If you look at the so called stones they are holding – they are big enough to be bricks and it should be called ‘bricking’ of immigrants in the strictest sense.

What crime did Garusa commit?

407 Zimbabweans have returned home with the assistance of the Zimbabwe government following the attacks. A local newspaper The Herald reports that of the 407, 92 are children and 112 are women.  More buses will be returning to Zimbabwe in the next couple of days. Interviewed by Aljazeera, Brenda Mamvenge a returnee from South Africa spoke of how children were being beaten and thrown into storm drains full of water. She decided to leave South Africa but her husband decided to stay behind. Another returnee Climate Muhanga said he had to flee leaving his South African wife and two kids. He felt his wife would be safe because of her nationality – but feared for the children. On Tuesday last week, Muhanga witnessed his cousin Pepukai Museyi being beheaded.

Other governments have also started repatriating their nationals from South Africa which include Malawi and Somalia. 

Sithole being attacked in Johannesburg (www.bbc.co.uk/news)

Still on the recent spates of xenophobic attacks, a Mozambican migrant Emmanuel Sithole was stabbed and clubbed by these men in Johannesburg’s Alexandra township. Looking at the murderer’s faces – one can notice the determination to cause some form of grievous body harm. In the picture above and below, members of the community look on and do not attempt to help Sithole.

Sithole being attacked with a wrench (www.bbc.co.uk/news)

Thugs surround Sithole as they continue to assault him (www.bbc.co.uk/news)

The murderous men surround Sithole whom they have brought down to the rubbish-strewn ground. One of them is holding a shovel – Heaven knows for what!! In the eyes of man, Sithole doesn’t stand a chance. The murderers faces depict young men who should be doing much better things with their lives – men who should be aspiring to be the next Southern Africa Development Community president, young men who should channel their energy in studying to become engineers, medical doctors, accountants, businessmen. But alas - what a shame it is for their fate is not less than 15 years in prison for first degree murder.

Sithole being taken to the hospital (www.bbc.co.uk/news)

After the incident, Sithole is lifted into reporters’ car and taken to hospital where paramedics administered CPR but failed to resuscitate him. Photographer James Oatway who managed to witness these unfortunate events described how Sithole stared at him in the car with shock at what had just taken place. These people committing theses killings are not thugs because by the time Sithole died at the hospital, he still had his cellphone and R285 in his pockets, said Oatway. These people are possessed by demons who seek to kill, and for no reason at all.

What crime did Sithole commit?

A 14 year old teenager who was shot dead in the KwaZulu-Natal town of Ntuzuma is one of the victims of these senseless attacks on fellow human beings.

At least seven people have died and thousands displaced in the latest xenophobic attacks. African foreigners have been targeted in the attacks which have also seen immigrants businesses being attacked and looted. The locals attacking African immigrants are doing so for the reasons that they are causing social and economic harm and according to Bloomberg News, police say the attacks began after a group of Durban residents accused a supermarket of replacing its workers with foreigners. Some South Africans have accused immigrants for taking jobs and opportunities away from them.

Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini who is an influential figure in the Zulu ethnic group has been accused of causing these attacks as he was quoted saying foreigners must 'pack their bags' and leave. South African president Jacob Zuma's son, Edward has also been accused of inciting xenophobia by his comments about foreigners. 

"We need to be aware that as a country, we are sitting on a ticking time bomb of them (foreigners) taking over the country. The reason why I am saying that is because some of the foreigners are working for private security companies where they have been employed for cheap labour. These companies are running away from complying with South African labour laws," said the President's eldest son.

Jacob Zuma denounced these attacks on foreigners and assigned a team of three ministers to end the attacks and strongly condemned the violence but has however refused to call the attacks xenophobic because the attacks 'were not targeted at all nationalities.' Police Minister Nkosinathi Nhleko also echoed the same sentiments as the president, calling the attacks Afrophobia and that they were ideologically driven.

In as much as it is mostly Africans being targeted in these attacks, mainly those from Somalia, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Nigeria, Malawi and Zimbabwe often running shops, stalls and businesses - Pakistani and Indian nationals have also been targeted. These attacks are fueled by a sense of hatred, dislike and fear of foreigners and it's high time the South African government call a spade a spade - this is most Definitely Xenophobia.

Young women looting foreign-owned shops in Soweto - January this year (www.ibtimes.com)

South African police ignoring looting of a foreign-owned shop in White City Soweto - in January (www. timeslive.co.za)

The anti-foreigner violence is reminiscent of the 2008 attacks  which killed 62 people - 21 of which were South African citizens and about 50 000 were displaced from their homes. 

In 2013, a 25 year-old Somali man Abdi Nasir Mahmoud Good was found lying flat in a Port Elizabeth street after being stripped naked, his genitals pelted with rocks, stones smashed over his head all the while receiving kicks in the face. He died due to his injuries. Two Somali brothers were also allegedly hacked to death which led to public outcry and worldwide protests by the Somali diaspora in Cape Town, London and Minneapolis.  Five other Somalis were injured in the violence and almost every Somali-owned business in Port  Elizabeth’s Booysen Park was burned or looted. 

Afrophobia, Europhobia, Americaphobia makes noooooooo difference at all - its all Xenophobia. South African authorities should STOP trying to be clever in their terminology and deal with these inhuman barbaric acts and I surely hope to have seen and heard the last of them this year.