Fearing for their lives, hundreds of foreigners have taken shelter in community halls on South Africa's southern coast, saying mobs of locals have been going door to door telling them to leave the country.
Many, mostly citizens of Malawi and Mozambique, told AFP they had fled their homes over the weekend and spent nights in the mountains and bush, before moving to small town community centres.
“They said 'You're a foreigner, you're not from South Africa, so you have to leave',” Thomas Vincent Baloyi, a Mozambican, told AFP in Gansbaai, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) southeast of Cape Town.
“I said, 'No, I've got documents to live here in South Africa. They didn't want to know,'” said Baloyi, who has been working in construction and horticulture in the country for about 16 years.
“They chased us away like dogs… It's unfair because, actually, I'm a human being,” the 32-year-old said. “We stayed in the bushes until six in the morning.”
Weeks of small protests against illegal aliens across South Africa erupted into violence at the weekend in the town of Mossel Bay, 250 kilometers up the coast, where 55 huts were set on fire.
South African police said two Mozambicans were killed “during activities related to anti-foreigner protests”.
He rejected the Mozambican government's statement that five of its citizens were killed as “a direct result of xenophobic attacks”.
Mozambique also said about 300 of its citizens fled back across the border on Saturday and hundreds more would follow.
The deaths are linked to a new wave of anti-immigrant protests by fringe groups who accuse undocumented foreign nationals of committing crimes and taking away scarce jobs and resources from locals.
After an anti-illegal migration group set a June 30 deadline for undocumented migrants to go home, small groups of people brandishing whips, sticks, wooden clubs and sometimes axes have been reported to have taken to the streets at various locations to reinforce the ultimatum.
Ghana has already repatriated 300 of its citizens, with hundreds more set to leave this weekend, and Nigeria has also announced emergency repatriation flights.
– 'Dragged out' –
“They were pulling people out of their homes…Whether you are legal or illegal, they say they don't want any foreign nationals in the township,” local councilor MSA Nomatiti told AFP.
On Monday, locals attacked foreigners in an informal settlement in Gansbaai, he said, alleging that police accompanied some groups going door-to-door to search for foreign nationals.
More than 500 people had fled their homes on Monday, he said.
By late Tuesday night, small groups could still be seen moving out of informal settlements in the area, carrying their belongings through the dark night and light rain to safer places.
“Some of them lost their passports because of being beaten and driven out of their homes,” Nomatiti said. Government officials were sent to assist with documentation and voluntary repatriation.
About 50 people gathered on large buckets of food in the small Gansbai mosque, which was filled with people and goods, sharing one toilet and a single tap.
– 'It's better to go home alive' –
In the small coastal town of Kleinmond, 40 kilometers from Cape Town, about 100 foreigners, most of whom were Malawians, sought shelter at a local community hall.
Large bags of clothes and blankets were spread across the walls and chairs were the only furniture. Volunteers served hot meals and received donations from local residents.
Malawi's Michael Markson told AFP that landlords on Saturday told non-South Africans to leave immediately as locals went door to door looking for foreign nationals.
“So we came out at night, we went into the bushes. There's a mountain up there, we slept there,” the 31-year-old man said, his eyes bloodshot.
“They're carrying dangerous equipment. They could hunt someone down,” he said.
Less than 20 kilometers away in the town of Standford, another Malawian national, Talibo Mbewe, said he had been sheltering in a community hall for two days.
He said, “The thieves have already taken away all the household items, so we have nothing. But it is better to go home without anything than to lose our lives.”
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