ZIMBABWE:NICOLAS AND his fellow Zimbabwean refugees knew trouble was brewing last Sunday afternoon when they saw a large crowd gather a block from the Central Methodist Church, where they sleep at night in downtown Johannesburg, writes Bill Corcoran.
Gunshots had been ringing out across the inner city for most of the day, and when the crowd began to move towards the church, which is home to some 350 Zimbabwean refugees, he says everyone ran inside.
"We locked the doors, armed ourselves with bricks and pieces of wood and waited. They attacked us, then we attacked them. It went on like this until early this morning [Monday]. We were OK because many people have come here for refuge, so they do not have the numbers to take over," Nicolas, who asked that his surname not be used, told The Irish Times outside the church's main entrance.
Over the past 10 days, South Africa's financial capital and nearly a dozen of its surrounding informal settlements have been engulfed by similar scenes of race-related violence and riots, which officials say have left 22 dead and scores more seriously injured.
Some of the attacks are reminiscent of the worst scenes of township violence witnessed during the apartheid era, when individuals accused of colluding with the racist regime were burned alive by mobs bent on revenge.
The Rev Paul Veryn of the Central Methodist Church told the state broadcaster yesterday: "We consider that the situation is getting so serious that the police can no longer control it," and he called for a state of emergency to be declared.
The director of Sangoco, the umbrella body of South African NGOs, Jacob Molapisi, said poverty was at the root of all the attacks and the foreigners, attracted in their millions to the city because of its wealth, were being used as scapegoats by frustrated locals who have remained impoverished since apartheid's demise in 1994.
"People are frustrated because no matter what they do and how they protest, their situation does not change. Food prices go up and up; they have no proper places to live and there are no services in their areas.
"They see more and more foreigners coming into their areas so they blame them for their poverty. They are venting their anger," he explained.
In the inner city yesterday the majority of the district's small shops, many of which are owned by Indian and Chinese immigrants, remained closed, and while there was little sign of the violence that occurred the night before, the tension was evident.
According to aid workers, up to 6,000 foreigners, the majority of whom are Zimbabweans fleeing the political turmoil at home, and Mozambicans, have sought refuge from the attacks in police stations and churches.
At the Cleveland police station just south of the city centre, a number of tents have been erected inside the compound to house about 600 refugees from the area. Here the people were pleading with the authorities to deport them back to their home countries.
President Thabo Mbeki and ANC leader Jacob Zuma have condemned the xenophobic violence, and the government has called on the intelligence services to uncover exactly what is behind the attacks. While the army has not been called in to help, the government set up a panel to investigate the issue.
Despite a large police presence mobs continued to target foreigners during the day yesterday at informal settlements in the Primrose and Boksburg districts, where officers came under fire as they tried to stop a group of about 500 people from looting shops.
A Mozambican national was also found dead in Makause informal settlement in Germiston, and the remains of another man, believed to be Malawian, was found in the Ramaphosa township near Reiger Park, in the East Rand.
One man arrested at the Ramaphosa township told local reporters as he was being led away by police: "We will burn the shangaans [foreigners] if they don't go back. We will fight for this country. We will keep on going, they can't stop us."
Back at the Central Methodist Church Zimbabwean refugees were preparing themselves for another night of attacks. Inside the building, piles of bricks had been gathered and pieces of wood lay around the floor.
"We have nowhere else to go," concluded Nicolas, "so as long as we stay together in big numbers and arm ourselves we think we will be safe. But it is no good, living in fear like this all the time. I left my country because of that and now it has followed me here."