Despite living in danger in South Africa, where they had come to seek a new life, many African migrants maintain that it is better to live here at the risk of being robbed in their businesses than returning home. This is also evident by the fact that large numbers of African migrants continue to flock to this country to be part of the rainbow nation.
South Africa is a haven for most migrants, because they believe that nothing that is happening to them here could be worse than life in their own country. Nkuruzinza Micheal, a Congolese national working as a security guard at a Cape Town hotel, told VOC he fled his home in Goma DRC after government forces there accused him of spying for Rebels. "I'm lucky to be alive today. My parents were killed by government forces when they came searching for me at our Goma house," he recalled.
Nkuruzinza is a Congolese of Tutsi origin and was accused by the government forces of spying for General Laurent Nkunda, leader of the strongest rebel group in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo. He related how he had trekked on foot for six days with friends until they reached the Ugandan boarder Town of Bunagana.
"We walked through the bushes fearing that at one point we could be captured by the ruthless Congolese military who hate us the Banyamulenge people (a tribe of Congolese Tutsi, which the rebel leader Gen Nkunda belongs to)." They were lucky. When they reached the Ugandan boarder the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) was there to receive them. They were offered food, medicine and temporary accommodation. But at the refugee camp life was difficult, so he decided to venture on a journey of hope to South Africa.
While, Abdullahi Tifo (seen here with VOC reporter Hassan Isilow on the right), a Somali refugee fled from Mogadishu - described as Africa 's death capital - in January after militants attacked his home. "The militants wanted me to join them. But I was not interested in killing people, so I decided to leave the country because they would kill me for refusing to join them."
But South Africa was not without its own dangers. "We know xenophobic elements don't welcome us here in South Africa. But we have no option but to come and seek refugee here," said the entrepreneurial refugee who operates a small business.
But for Zimbabwean born Martin Mazibuko, it wasn't war that brought him here. Wide scale poverty in Zimbabwe caused him to flee the former British colony governed by dictator Robert Mugabe. "Life in South Africa is good," he said. VOC (Hassan Isilow) |
