Foreign nationals in Nompumelelo, Beacon Bay, say they are living in fear after residents gave them seven days to leave the area.
The warning was issued during a protest over an alleged assault — incorrectly blamed on a foreigner — that has heightened tensions in the community.
During a march on Sunday, residents handed pamphlets to foreign shop owners, instructing them to “pack all your things and go”.
A wider wave of unrest over the presence of foreign nationals has swept through KuGompo City in recent weeks.
In Nompumelelo, anger was triggered by a video circulating online showing a man, who the protesters incorrectly claimed was a foreign national, allegedly assaulting a woman.
The incident reportedly took place during a dispute over access to water at a communal tap.
The footage shows the woman being manhandled, kicked and shoved while her child cries nearby.
Residents said a complaint had been reported to the police.
However, police spokesperson Brigadier Nobuntu Gantana said the suspect was, in fact, not a foreign national.
“Regarding the viral assault video from Nompumelelo location, the incident occurred on April 11 and the case was opened on April 21.
“The suspect was subsequently arrested on charges of common assault and released on bail; the case is currently before the court.
“The suspect is not a foreign national,” Gantana said.
Local activist and Bright Life NPO founder Azola Mrano said the alleged assault was the tipping point for residents already frustrated by broader concerns.
“Both the woman and the man are renting where they stay and the man said that the woman will not pour water from the tap as she had poured water yesterday,” she said.
“What then caused us to stand up and march towards the removal of all foreign nationals was because of this and how most of them are undocumented, which causes the fear of when something like this does happen again, we can’t identify the person because they could be undocumented.
“As a community we were also sceptical of how there were too many foreign-owned shops in the area, with every street and turn with its own shop.”
Many foreigners operating shops in the area temporarily closed their premises when the warning notices were handed out.
When the Dispatch visited the area on Monday, several shops had reopened, though the owners said they were operating in a climate of fear.
However, many had nowhere else to go.
Almost all the people are welcoming and we have no problems. I am not doing anything wrong
— Barreismail Mohumed, shopkeeper
Somali shopkeeper Barreismail Mohumed said he feared for his safety, insisting he had done nothing wrong.
“They gave us these papers, but I don’t know what it means, I just heard that they said we must close the shops and we have seven days to leave.
“I am not doing anything illegally, I have asylum and I came into the country the right way.
“Almost all the people are welcoming and we have no problems. I am not doing anything wrong,” he said.
Peter, a salon owner from Burundi, said he believed he was being unfairly targeted.
“This thing has hurt me, because it is one person who has done something and we have done nothing wrong.
“It should not be that when one person does something we should all be roped in.
“We are trying to survive through our haircutting business.
“If other people do wrong things, they do it on their own and they should leave on their own,” he said.
“We are living here with the people respectfully. We do not speak out of turn, everything is about respect.
“This has hurt us because the people are seeing all of us through one lens.
“We were forced to close yesterday because we too are people, we are afraid, but we will open for the week.
“We don’t know what will happen, we can’t say what people are thinking, but we feel that this is unfair,” Peter said.
On Monday, some foreign nationals were reportedly removed from a local clinic by residents, ratcheting up the tension.
Community leader Solomzi Ntenteni said the community’s response to the video was driven by broader frustrations.
Buffalo City Metro spokesperson Bongani Fuzile had not replied to questions by the time of publication.
Daily Dispatch
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