By David Lumu
If you are a black foreigner living in South Africa, it is now safer to
stay within the white neighborhood than mingle with fellow blacks. At
least this is the assessment of David William Rukanshonga, a Ugandan who
has lived and worked in South Africa for fifteen years.
Riot South Africa
Ever since xenophobic attacks started, the safest way out has been to
cautiously mingle with black South Africans or completely avoid
predominantly dominated black areas.
“The best way is to stay away from townships predominantly black
dominated. Most of the youths in these townships are unemployed and feel
foreigners go there to sell drugs, open shops and take their jobs,” he
said.
Rukanshonga, a committee member of the Association of Ugandan
Professionals in South Africa (AUPSA) lives in Pretoria. Pretoria is
about 600km from Durban (about 6 hours’ drive), a place where the wave
of anti-immigrant violence started and later spread to Johannesburg.
Uganda’s High Commissioner to South Africa, Julius Peter Moto on Tuesday
said: “The situation is returning to calm in Durban following the
address by the Zulu king. Some businesses have re-opened. We visited
three camps in Johannesburg yesterday. No Ugandan is in the camp. So
far, no Ugandan has been killed nor harmed in the violence. They are
safe”.
Yet for Rukanshonga, a number of foreign nationals are still living in
fear for their lives. Ugandans in South Africa, Rukanshonga said, have
largely suspended work and outings.
“It is only those who stay in white neighborhoods who can afford to stay
out or at least go to work and take their children to school,” he said.
“I am in touch with a few Ugandans all over the country and we are
discussing means as to how we can assist Ugandans here and victims from
other countries with donations, food and any other help necessary,” he
added.
Rukanshonga is married to a Uganda and they have three children—two boys
and a girl. He said that when he wakes up every day, he doesn’t think
about his life—but how his children can go through the day in the face
of these gruesome images—depicting hatred for black foreigners.
But luckily for him, the first xenophobic attacks on foreigners in 2008
also found him in South Africa. And to some Ugandans, he is a source of
comfort, especially on how to deal with the recent attacks, which have
left six people killed, scores injured and several committed in camps as
the Government of South Africa seeks avenues to cool-off the tension.
“I can’t say I am used but at least I have an idea on what to do. One
has to take extreme caution every day. I advise Ugandans who come to me
to stay away from the city center, avoid going to predominantly
dominated black areas which harbour unemployed youths mainly townships
and also avoid unnecessary interactions with angry blacks,” he said.
Rukanshonga’s children are in nursery school. He said that as he drives
to work, his wife drops the children. He works for a transport company
as a logistics manager.
Luckily it is in a predominantly white neighborhood and the owners are
white. So I know they (children) are safe under whites,” he said.
In the 1980s, several South Africans were hosted as political refugees
by African states due to apartheid and other racial discrimination vices
committed by whites on black South Africans. However, today Ugandans
living in South Africa argue that it is safer to be in the white
neighborhood than interacting with fellow black South Africans.
Source, The New Vision
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