JOHANNESBURG – A study into last month’s attacks on foreign nationals at De Doorns in the Western Cape has fingered labour brokers as directly responsible for the tensions that led to the violence.
Researcher Jean Pierre Misago of the University of the Witwatersrand's Forced Migration Studies Programme, who released the study on Thursday said Zimbabwean victims of the violence reported that the xenophobia was the culmination of tensions between Zimbabwean and South African labour brokers, known locally as contractors or "spanners".
He said there were up to 80 labour brokers in the grape-growing centre in the Hex River Valley area, supplying local farmers with workers at a cost to each labourer of R5 a day, plus commissions from the farmers.
"South African contractors, particularly those from the Xhosa community, report dissatisfaction at income losses due to Zimbabwean contractors," Misago said.
"Some (interviewees) report that dissatisfied labour brokers pressured local leaders and incited local residents to attack and chase Zimbabweans away. Such mobilisation was facilitated by the fact that some contractors are also ward committee members," he added.
Although, according to Misago, the study did not provide conclusive evidence of incitement to violence, it suggested that any investigation into labour brokers' role in the xenophobia should not be limited to exploitation of workers and the breaking of labour laws.
"It must also focus on labour brokers' direct involvement in fuelling tensions and triggering the violence by inciting local residents," he said.
The study dismissed locals' complaints that Zimbabweans were "stealing jobs", because according to Agri Wes-Cape De Doorns attracts migrant labourers because of the shortage of local labour and producers’ need for workers to prepare the crop for harvesting and South Africans occupy most seasonal jobs and almost all the better-paid permanent farmworker positions.
Farmers and the Zimbabweans themselves said everyone worked for the same seasonal wage of R60 a day.
The study cautioned against reintegration of displaced Zimbabweans into the communities they came from because South African residents and contractors did not want Zimbabweans back in the settlements.
Misago recommended that community-level action should not focus on reintegration, but "building sustained mechanisms for inclusive and non-violent conflict resolution".
Last month some 3 000 Zimbabweans fled informal settlements in the area as violence against foreign nationals flared up and have been living in tents on a sports field in the town.
Police say there were no reports of physical violence, allaying fears of a recurrence of last year’s xenophobic attacks that engulfed most of the country killing about 60 people and displacing thousands of foreign nationals. – ZimOnline
