Rumours about xenophobic attacks being unleashed on foreigners soon after the world cup have been doing the rounds for a long time. Many Zimbabweans I know have been preparing to leave or at least move out of the townships into safer areas.
I never really took the threats seriously until I encountered what I consider xenophobic sentiments from the very people supposed to uphold the law and safety of every individual in South Africa, the police.
The first incident was when I went to obtain an affidavit from Kempton Park police station to allow my uncle to drive my car to Zimbabwe and back. I had two previous affidavits for the same car from the same police station, one of them authorizing my uncle to drive to Zimbabwe and back. It had expired.
Apparently there is a directive saying police station should no longer issue such affidavits. The reasons for the directive might be legitimate, but the response I got from the police officer sitting at the counter was decidedly xenophobic.
'You foreigners are stealing our cars and taking them over the borders. We are not going to give you those affidavits anymore?'
I produced the two previous affidavits, my traffic register certificate, and the registration book of the car. "These are the papers of the vehicle" I tried to explain. "As you can see I got affidavits from this same police station before."
"We are not giving foreigners affidavits anymore. You take our cars"
"How can I steal the same car three times with affidavits from the same police station" I asked.
The policeman simply turned away and started talking to his colleagues in Pedi or is it Sotho.
That there is a directive stopping police stations from signing affidavits authorizing people to take cars out of South Africa may be true. However I don't think such a directive would be specifically targeted at foreigners. I believe this was merely a case of the individual policeman's xenophobic sentiments coming to the surface, causing him to mis-explain an action that may have entirely valid reasons.
That same evening I drove to Ellim north of Polokwane in the Limpopo Province. As we were driving back at night we were stopped by policemen in a van. One of them, came to the passenger side where I was sitting and asked me for my papers. I gave him my passport. In the meantime my colleague went to the back to open the canopy for the other policeman.
When my friend came back the policeman standing beside me gruffly grunted to him, "Passport?"
My friend produced his asylum document.
"Oh you have got asylum." The policeman was looking visibly excitable. "Do you know we are going to stop this soon after world cup". He declared flailing the sheet of paper in his hand.
"After world cup no more!" spittle showered on my face as veins stood out on the policeman's forehead. "We at SAPS will work very hard." He declared. "We will bring buses, trucks, and trains and take you to the river" I presumed he meant the Limpopo. "Once across the river - once across that bridge - no more coming back for you guys. We will deploy helicopters, SAPS in full force, to stop you."
"No more!" He thundered as he threw the asylum document back at my colleague.
He glowered at us for a full half minute breathing heavily. The look on his face was scary. I don't know what was going on his mind, but the chances that it was sympathy or good intentions are about as high as those of finding a glacier in the Sahara.
"You can go." He finally declared. My colleague quickly started the car and drove off. We heaved huge sighs of relief as we left him walking back towards his patrol car.
The question that begs an answer is what are the chances of policemen, who express views such as the above, acting decisively to stop xenophobia motivated criminal rampages from ordinary members of the public. If the inspector at Kempton Park police station or the Polokwane patrolman had found me being neck-laced in the street would they have acted decisively to save me. Were they not going to dilly-dally and wait for the crowd to 'finish the job'.
It is perhaps educative that nobody was ever arrested or convicted for the 2008 xenophobic rampages despite scores of people being murdered. There was also plenty of evidence including photographs showing attackers. There were more than enough leads to allow any competent and correctly motivated police force to find plenty of the attackers and bring them to book. However after my weekend encounter with two police officers, I can't help but think that nothing decisive was done to bring the criminals to book because a lot of the officers are sympathetic to their xenophobic viewpoint.
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