Situation ten Two year old boy: disabled after feet burnt during “Murambatsvina” Victoria Falls Incident on 2 June Interview: July 2010 This child had suffered horrific burns to his feet, in particular his right foot, after wandering into the smouldering ruins of a row of houses that had been torched by police during OM. His foot was still bleeding and he was unable to walk three months after the incident. During the course of 2006, the authors organised access to a surgeon and a health programme for this child. Once his foot was healed, his toes were amputated, to allow normal walking and wearing of a shoe. Update 2010 The child has done well, is attending school and walks well in a shoe. His parents have moved to Bulawayo, although the child attends school in a rural area.
E.
Case Study Four
DE DOORNS: ZIMBABWEANS DISPLACED IN THE WESTERN CAPE – AND ALSO DISPLACED BY OM IN 2005
De Doorns is a rural community in the Breede River Valley in the Western Cape of South Africa . The economy in the Breede Valley is based largely on agriculture, where most labour is linked to export fruit picking. The majority of labourers in the region find employment as seasonal farm workers who live well below the poverty line, with 80% of jobs falling away between May and October. In recent years, the labour force has included a high proportion of undocumented migrants, asylum seekers and refugees, increasingly predominantly Zimbabweans. While farm workers in general are considered a vulnerable population, asylum seekers and refugees are particularly at risk. As a result of xenophobic attacks that peaked in De Doorns on Tuesday, 17 November 2009, approximately 2,500 foreign nationals were forcibly displaced from their homes, and were relocated in an emergency camp on the De Doorns playing field. At the time of this study in April 2010, around 1,100 displaced Zimbabweans, remained in the tented camp.70 Intention of study A previous study by SPT and PASSOP conducted in February 2010 found that 52% of those interviewed in the IDP camp (a 30% sample), had also been displaced in Zimbabwe in 2005. A 70 SPT (2010), Desperate Lives, ibid, gives more background to the xenophobic attacks, which are not the focus of
the current study. The previous study analysed interviews with 456 camp residents in February 2010. The preplanned nature of the xenophobic attacks and the failure of the police to intervene to prevent them or to bring anyone to justice, is discussed in the March report.
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